January 14, 2024 • 15 mins
Original Air Date: January 14, 2024
Tony Pallagrosi is the executive director of The Light Of Day Foundation, raising money and awareness for Parkinsons Disease and ALS for the last 2 decades, through a series of local concerts. It’s that time of year! The Light Of Day Concerts are here and you don’t want to miss out!
Tony Pallagrosi is the executive director of The Light Of Day Foundation, raising money and awareness for Parkinsons Disease and ALS for the last 2 decades, through a series of local concerts. It’s that time of year! The Light Of Day Concerts are here and you don’t want to miss out!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio,Conversations about issues that matter. Here's your
host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein. I want to welcome
back. There's a big event inNew Jersey every single year that basically kicks
off the new year on the rightpath. And this is the Light of
(00:24):
Day winter Fest. And yeah,it's already underway in New Jersey. And
joining me this morning Tony Palli Grossi, who's the executive director of the Light
of Day Foundation. And like Isaid, like, especially if you're from
Jersey, you've heard of Light ofDay for so many years, but I
(00:46):
don't think most people understand that it'sactually associated with the cause and a fundraiser
and that there is a really heartfeltstory behind this amazing event which is really
really ballooned because it Okay, well, Tony, you tell the history.
How long has it been going on? And welcome and happy New Year,
(01:07):
Happy new Year, good to behere, and great to see you.
Thank you on my little screen.Yes, I know, remember the old
days, both days a big person. Yeah, yeah, it's great,
yeah yeah, yeah. But wellit started actually in nineteen ninety eight when
(01:30):
the founder and really the heart andsoul of the organization and the reason we're
all here talking about this. BobBenjamin, who is a band manager.
He manages Joe Berschecky and the HouseRockers. He was diagnosed with early onset
Parkinson's and to kind of pick uphis spirits after his diagnosis, his birthday
(01:52):
was coming up, so we decidedto throw a birthday party for him.
We threw it and then Bob hadan eye was just you know, it
was in bank. About one hundredpeople showed up. Bob had an idea
that night to just pass the hatand collect some money and donate it to
the Parkinson's Foundation in New York becausethey've been very helpful to him and finding
(02:12):
and guiding him through the early stagesof the disease, you know, doctors
and therapy whatever therapies are available then. And that blossomed two years later into
Light of Day, and Light ofDay started in two thousand and here we
are twenty four years later, andlike I say all the time, every
(02:36):
year, we hope we don't haveto do this again next year, but
here we are because these diseases,they haven't found cures for them, and
they're still developing therapies that can bemore and more helpful. But there's a
long way to go, it seems, and we're in it for the long
walt And actually you're doing more tomore in helping Parkinson's disease because this is
(03:02):
a fundraiser to also support research intoPSP, which I think people are really
not familiar with, progressive super nuclearpalsy, and also ALS, which people
are more familiar with. And arethey equally devastating diagnoses those two well,
(03:28):
Unfortunately ALS and PSP or death sentences. Parkinson's is not necessarily there are different
levels of Parkinson's. Obviously, therapieshave gotten better, so at one point,
if you are diagnosed with ALS,maybe you had three or four years
(03:49):
left. PSP in a way ismore brutal because you're dealing with it for
a longer period of time, butthere's no way out. And you know,
I think most people know ALS aslou Garrigg's disease, certainly of our
generation and PSP. Probably the bestknown person who passed from the effects of
(04:15):
PSP was Dudley Moore. Actually mostpeople don't know that, and actually he
passed right here in New Jersey atone of the rehab institutes where he spent
the last year or so of hislife in West Orange. So about a
million people deal with Parkinson's in theUnited States, about thirty thousand deal with
(04:44):
ALS, and about twenty thousand dealwith PSP, and of course all of
the families that are involved in thecaretaking for the folks who are dealing with
the disease personally. Tony, howdid you become the executive director of all
this? Well, Bob and II was there from the beginning with Bob,
(05:08):
he's the founder. I'm the cofounder, and you know I'm the
concert promoter. And as our missionstatement says, we utilize the awesome power
of music. And it is anawesome power, as we know, and
because most of us, certainly allof us have a great affinity for music,
(05:30):
and many of us are actually professionalpeople in the music business and or
musicians. I was a trumpet playerwith Sasai, Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.
I toured with Bruce, played witha number of other people, you
know, Joe Grisheky's on our board. But as I said, we all
have an affinity, a great affinityfor music and a relationship to Bruce Springsteen
(05:55):
on different levels, and of coursehe's been a tremendous angel in certainly carrying
our banner around the world and puttinghis footprint on it, which has of
course been wonderful for us as afundraising organization. How's he doing, by
the way, I mean, thatwas kind of a shock to everyone that
he had been touring with peptic ulcerdisease and apparently had been touring in tremendous
(06:21):
pain and then had to put thetour on hold until next year. Do
you what are you what are youhearing about Bruce? Well, what I'm
seeing and that's he's around even better, he's out and about. And is
there a possibility Yeah, oh thisis true. Is there a possibility he's
(06:43):
going to show at Joe Bruschki's appearanceat Light of Day, which is the
tradition, the Jersey tradition over thetwo decades. Yeah, it's happened about
half of the time, right,A good you know, five hundred batting
average if you're a baseball player,that's unheard of. No one hits five
hundred. But yeah, it's uh, yeah, you never know, you
(07:06):
never know. I love that.I'll take that you never know. Okay.
So I'm speaking with Tony Palagrossi.He is the executive director of the
Light of Day Foundation. The Lightof Day Winterfest has just kicked off,
but I want Tony to detail whatshows are coming up because there are tickets
(07:27):
still available and this is just atremendous event on two levels. Number one
just musically, and it's so totallyNew Jersey, although not everything is happening
because it has bloomed. It hasreally just yeah, it just blew up
so much that it's also in NewYork this year. But take it away,
(07:49):
Tony, Well, just to kindof out to frame it this year.
This this year, we have sorryabout that. This here we have
thirty three events wow, from Januarytwelfth to January twenty eighth, over approximately
(08:13):
sixteen days. We're estimating about eightthousand people will be participating as supporters and
fans. And I calculated this theother day. We have approximately six hundred
musicians who are participating in those thirtythree events, sixteen venues, six cities.
(08:37):
It's really an undertaking logistical nightmare forupon for you, for you,
I wear that burden happily. Andyou know, the musical community here in
New Jersey, specifically in Asbury Park, are just so supportive, and not
just the musicians, but these andthe tech people, the sound people,
(09:01):
the lighting people, the security people, even the bartenders and the owners.
Of course, without that infrastructure thatwe're so fortunate to have here in Asbury
we probably wouldn't be able to dothis the way we do it, but
they make it much much easier.So yeah, I mean it's uh,
(09:24):
you know, it's a cavalcade ofevents, a cavalcade of stars. We
kick it off actually at the countBasie Theater on January twelfth with a great
tribute band, Fleetwood Mac tribute bandcalled Tusk, a tour all over the
country and they are being supported bya great a tribute band that is called
(09:48):
Taylor, Simon and King. Obviouslyyou know the music that they play James
Taylor, Carly Simon and Carol King. And that band has been put together
by Frankie Prevett and his his wifeLisa Sherman, who's one of the singers
in the band. And Frankie ofcourse wrote probably one of the most covered
(10:09):
and popular songs in American music,Time of Your Life. Yeah, what
a wonderful way to make a livingwriting a song like that, the Gift
that keeps on giving. But andhe also wrote Hungry Eyes for the movie.
There's going to be a new moviecoming out, and I think he's
(10:31):
going to have some songs in thatas well. But anyway, so that's
where it starts. Then on theseventeenth, we're in New York City at
City Winery Loft with and that's anall acoustic show ten performers including Johnnysdale and
Pete Wood from Drama Rama, AnthonyDiamatto from Fantastic Cat, James Maddock,
(10:56):
Willie Nile, and the Liska.On the eighteenth, we're back in Asbury
and many of the nights and daysthere are numerous events going on at the
same time. But on the eighteenththat's kind of our official kickoff at Asbury
Park at Asbury Lanes and Fantastic Catis headlining that show. A great new
(11:18):
band that came out of Actually it'skind of the super group without any superstars
in it, but they were allyou know, traveling singer songwriters performing either
alone or with various bands, andthey came together and they started writing some
amazing songs and they're really kind ofexploding right now on the nineteenth, and
(11:43):
I'm not going to name all ofthe shows, but there are multiple shows
on the nineteenth. You should goto light Offday dot org to find out
the entire gamut and spectrum of theshows that were producing. On the nineteenth,
A great band called The Weeklings withGlenn Burtnick are releasing their fourth album
called Raspberry Park at the Stone Ponythat night. Also, Drama Rama will
(12:07):
be playing there. A great youngnew artist called Joe p who was signed
by Atlantic during COVID. He hasa song that's actually a title song for
a film that has over thirty fivemillion streams at this point. Drama.
And by the way, the StonePony is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year,
(12:28):
and the anniversary is actually next month, and your good friends outside Johnny
is headlining the big anniversary show.I mean, I know this has nothing
to do with Light of Day.Well, it's all connected. It's all
connected. I think we're kind ofkicking you know, this is this is
the pre party to the fiftieth anniversary. Well then we need an after party
(12:50):
too, we will, yeah,but you know, so the Pony is
the big night there on Friday,then Saturday on the twentieth. Of course,
it's the main event at the countBasie Theater and Max Weinberg and the
juke Box are headlining that. Joep will be there, Drama Rama will
(13:13):
be there, Joe Bersheky and theHouse Rockers will be there. Fantastic Cat
will be there, Adam Ezra willbe there. Remember Jones and his band
will be there, and Low CutConnie will also be there. There'll be
nine bands performing that night, eightacoustic artists. It will you know,
(13:35):
it'll be, like I said,a cavalcade of stars at the Basi,
an amazing show. On Sunday,the kind of the premiere show is a
show at the mcclun's Supper Club,which, unfortunately, unless you have fest
Pass tickets, has already sold out, but those with fest Pass tickets can
(13:56):
still make reservations. You only haveabout a minute left. Yeah, So
go to Lightofday dot org. That'swhere you can find out all of our
information, or go to our Facebookpage Light of Day Foundation. Again.
Over a million people are suffering fromParkinson's thirty thousand people from ALS, twenty
(14:18):
thousand people from PSP, and overone hundred thousand people are diagnosed with one
of those three diseases every year.It not only affects them, it affects
family. Care is a very intensesituation for the families. And what we
do with our money so you knowout there is we do support organizations that
(14:43):
fund research programs, but we're alsovery interested in creating programs that educate the
newly diagnosed. That's very important tous. And we also have our own
program down in Forgod River could Boxingfor Bob, which is an contact boxing
therapy program for people with Parkinson's.I thank you so much, Tony Pallagrossi
(15:05):
and wishing you just a tremendous success. With the Light of Day Winterfest,
you've been listening to Sunstein Sessions oniHeartRadio, a production of New York's classic
rock Q one O four point three
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio,Conversations about issues that matter. Here's your
host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein. I want to welcome
back. There's a big event inNew Jersey every single year that basically kicks
off the new year on the rightpath. And this is the Light of
(00:24):
Day winter Fest. And yeah,it's already underway in New Jersey. And
joining me this morning Tony Palli Grossi, who's the executive director of the Light
of Day Foundation. And like Isaid, like, especially if you're from
Jersey, you've heard of Light ofDay for so many years, but I
(00:46):
don't think most people understand that it'sactually associated with the cause and a fundraiser
and that there is a really heartfeltstory behind this amazing event which is really
really ballooned because it Okay, well, Tony, you tell the history.
How long has it been going on? And welcome and happy New Year,
(01:07):
Happy new Year, good to behere, and great to see you.
Thank you on my little screen.Yes, I know, remember the old
days, both days a big person. Yeah, yeah, it's great,
yeah yeah, yeah. But wellit started actually in nineteen ninety eight when
(01:30):
the founder and really the heart andsoul of the organization and the reason we're
all here talking about this. BobBenjamin, who is a band manager.
He manages Joe Berschecky and the HouseRockers. He was diagnosed with early onset
Parkinson's and to kind of pick uphis spirits after his diagnosis, his birthday
(01:52):
was coming up, so we decidedto throw a birthday party for him.
We threw it and then Bob hadan eye was just you know, it
was in bank. About one hundredpeople showed up. Bob had an idea
that night to just pass the hatand collect some money and donate it to
the Parkinson's Foundation in New York becausethey've been very helpful to him and finding
(02:12):
and guiding him through the early stagesof the disease, you know, doctors
and therapy whatever therapies are available then. And that blossomed two years later into
Light of Day, and Light ofDay started in two thousand and here we
are twenty four years later, andlike I say all the time, every
(02:36):
year, we hope we don't haveto do this again next year, but
here we are because these diseases,they haven't found cures for them, and
they're still developing therapies that can bemore and more helpful. But there's a
long way to go, it seems, and we're in it for the long
walt And actually you're doing more tomore in helping Parkinson's disease because this is
(03:02):
a fundraiser to also support research intoPSP, which I think people are really
not familiar with, progressive super nuclearpalsy, and also ALS, which people
are more familiar with. And arethey equally devastating diagnoses those two well,
(03:28):
Unfortunately ALS and PSP or death sentences. Parkinson's is not necessarily there are different
levels of Parkinson's. Obviously, therapieshave gotten better, so at one point,
if you are diagnosed with ALS,maybe you had three or four years
(03:49):
left. PSP in a way ismore brutal because you're dealing with it for
a longer period of time, butthere's no way out. And you know,
I think most people know ALS aslou Garrigg's disease, certainly of our
generation and PSP. Probably the bestknown person who passed from the effects of
(04:15):
PSP was Dudley Moore. Actually mostpeople don't know that, and actually he
passed right here in New Jersey atone of the rehab institutes where he spent
the last year or so of hislife in West Orange. So about a
million people deal with Parkinson's in theUnited States, about thirty thousand deal with
(04:44):
ALS, and about twenty thousand dealwith PSP, and of course all of
the families that are involved in thecaretaking for the folks who are dealing with
the disease personally. Tony, howdid you become the executive director of all
this? Well, Bob and II was there from the beginning with Bob,
(05:08):
he's the founder. I'm the cofounder, and you know I'm the
concert promoter. And as our missionstatement says, we utilize the awesome power
of music. And it is anawesome power, as we know, and
because most of us, certainly allof us have a great affinity for music,
(05:30):
and many of us are actually professionalpeople in the music business and or
musicians. I was a trumpet playerwith Sasai, Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.
I toured with Bruce, played witha number of other people, you
know, Joe Grisheky's on our board. But as I said, we all
have an affinity, a great affinityfor music and a relationship to Bruce Springsteen
(05:55):
on different levels, and of coursehe's been a tremendous angel in certainly carrying
our banner around the world and puttinghis footprint on it, which has of
course been wonderful for us as afundraising organization. How's he doing, by
the way, I mean, thatwas kind of a shock to everyone that
he had been touring with peptic ulcerdisease and apparently had been touring in tremendous
(06:21):
pain and then had to put thetour on hold until next year. Do
you what are you what are youhearing about Bruce? Well, what I'm
seeing and that's he's around even better, he's out and about. And is
there a possibility Yeah, oh thisis true. Is there a possibility he's
(06:43):
going to show at Joe Bruschki's appearanceat Light of Day, which is the
tradition, the Jersey tradition over thetwo decades. Yeah, it's happened about
half of the time, right,A good you know, five hundred batting
average if you're a baseball player,that's unheard of. No one hits five
hundred. But yeah, it's uh, yeah, you never know, you
(07:06):
never know. I love that.I'll take that you never know. Okay.
So I'm speaking with Tony Palagrossi.He is the executive director of the
Light of Day Foundation. The Lightof Day Winterfest has just kicked off,
but I want Tony to detail whatshows are coming up because there are tickets
(07:27):
still available and this is just atremendous event on two levels. Number one
just musically, and it's so totallyNew Jersey, although not everything is happening
because it has bloomed. It hasreally just yeah, it just blew up
so much that it's also in NewYork this year. But take it away,
(07:49):
Tony, Well, just to kindof out to frame it this year.
This this year, we have sorryabout that. This here we have
thirty three events wow, from Januarytwelfth to January twenty eighth, over approximately
(08:13):
sixteen days. We're estimating about eightthousand people will be participating as supporters and
fans. And I calculated this theother day. We have approximately six hundred
musicians who are participating in those thirtythree events, sixteen venues, six cities.
(08:37):
It's really an undertaking logistical nightmare forupon for you, for you,
I wear that burden happily. Andyou know, the musical community here in
New Jersey, specifically in Asbury Park, are just so supportive, and not
just the musicians, but these andthe tech people, the sound people,
(09:01):
the lighting people, the security people, even the bartenders and the owners.
Of course, without that infrastructure thatwe're so fortunate to have here in Asbury
we probably wouldn't be able to dothis the way we do it, but
they make it much much easier.So yeah, I mean it's uh,
(09:24):
you know, it's a cavalcade ofevents, a cavalcade of stars. We
kick it off actually at the countBasie Theater on January twelfth with a great
tribute band, Fleetwood Mac tribute bandcalled Tusk, a tour all over the
country and they are being supported bya great a tribute band that is called
(09:48):
Taylor, Simon and King. Obviouslyyou know the music that they play James
Taylor, Carly Simon and Carol King. And that band has been put together
by Frankie Prevett and his his wifeLisa Sherman, who's one of the singers
in the band. And Frankie ofcourse wrote probably one of the most covered
(10:09):
and popular songs in American music,Time of Your Life. Yeah, what
a wonderful way to make a livingwriting a song like that, the Gift
that keeps on giving. But andhe also wrote Hungry Eyes for the movie.
There's going to be a new moviecoming out, and I think he's
(10:31):
going to have some songs in thatas well. But anyway, so that's
where it starts. Then on theseventeenth, we're in New York City at
City Winery Loft with and that's anall acoustic show ten performers including Johnnysdale and
Pete Wood from Drama Rama, AnthonyDiamatto from Fantastic Cat, James Maddock,
(10:56):
Willie Nile, and the Liska.On the eighteenth, we're back in Asbury
and many of the nights and daysthere are numerous events going on at the
same time. But on the eighteenththat's kind of our official kickoff at Asbury
Park at Asbury Lanes and Fantastic Catis headlining that show. A great new
(11:18):
band that came out of Actually it'skind of the super group without any superstars
in it, but they were allyou know, traveling singer songwriters performing either
alone or with various bands, andthey came together and they started writing some
amazing songs and they're really kind ofexploding right now on the nineteenth, and
(11:43):
I'm not going to name all ofthe shows, but there are multiple shows
on the nineteenth. You should goto light Offday dot org to find out
the entire gamut and spectrum of theshows that were producing. On the nineteenth,
A great band called The Weeklings withGlenn Burtnick are releasing their fourth album
called Raspberry Park at the Stone Ponythat night. Also, Drama Rama will
(12:07):
be playing there. A great youngnew artist called Joe p who was signed
by Atlantic during COVID. He hasa song that's actually a title song for
a film that has over thirty fivemillion streams at this point. Drama.
And by the way, the StonePony is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year,
(12:28):
and the anniversary is actually next month, and your good friends outside Johnny
is headlining the big anniversary show.I mean, I know this has nothing
to do with Light of Day.Well, it's all connected. It's all
connected. I think we're kind ofkicking you know, this is this is
the pre party to the fiftieth anniversary. Well then we need an after party
(12:50):
too, we will, yeah,but you know, so the Pony is
the big night there on Friday,then Saturday on the twentieth. Of course,
it's the main event at the countBasie Theater and Max Weinberg and the
juke Box are headlining that. Joep will be there, Drama Rama will
(13:13):
be there, Joe Bersheky and theHouse Rockers will be there. Fantastic Cat
will be there, Adam Ezra willbe there. Remember Jones and his band
will be there, and Low CutConnie will also be there. There'll be
nine bands performing that night, eightacoustic artists. It will you know,
(13:35):
it'll be, like I said,a cavalcade of stars at the Basi,
an amazing show. On Sunday,the kind of the premiere show is a
show at the mcclun's Supper Club,which, unfortunately, unless you have fest
Pass tickets, has already sold out, but those with fest Pass tickets can
(13:56):
still make reservations. You only haveabout a minute left. Yeah, So
go to Lightofday dot org. That'swhere you can find out all of our
information, or go to our Facebookpage Light of Day Foundation. Again.
Over a million people are suffering fromParkinson's thirty thousand people from ALS, twenty
(14:18):
thousand people from PSP, and overone hundred thousand people are diagnosed with one
of those three diseases every year.It not only affects them, it affects
family. Care is a very intensesituation for the families. And what we
do with our money so you knowout there is we do support organizations that
(14:43):
fund research programs, but we're alsovery interested in creating programs that educate the
newly diagnosed. That's very important tous. And we also have our own
program down in Forgod River could Boxingfor Bob, which is an contact boxing
therapy program for people with Parkinson's.I thank you so much, Tony Pallagrossi
(15:05):
and wishing you just a tremendous success. With the Light of Day Winterfest,
you've been listening to Sunstein Sessions oniHeartRadio, a production of New York's classic
rock Q one O four point three
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