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CNN Live At Daybreak

Rock Bottom Remainders Raise Money for Children of 9-11 Attacks

Aired November 01, 2001 - 06:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A band called the Rock Bottom Remainders is raising money for children affected by the September 11 attacks in New York. Now I know you probably haven't heard of this band, well, you may have heard of the members: Stephen King, Dave Barry and Ridley Scott. That's right.

CNN's Bill Tush checked them out with a backstage pass.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SINGING)

BILL TUSH, CNN ENTERTAINMENT NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And you thought Stephen King spent his nights in a little room cranking out horror novels. Sometimes he gets out, especially for a good cause. King, on rhythm guitar, joined other well-known authors for a fund raiser.

(SINGING)

DAVE BARRY, HUMORIST: We're raising money for America Scores which is...

TUSH: What is that?

BARRY: It's a fine organization that puts kids in tough neighborhoods into an after school program where they play soccer and they learn to read and write or they practice reading and writing. And we like it because it's literacy, and we also like it because we met a lot of the kids and they're great kids and they seem to really benefit from it. But we really like it because...

STEPHEN KING, AUTHOR: Because we get to play this music.

(SINGING)

TUSH: Now how would humorist Dave Barry and other well-known writers ever get together to form a band, which, by the way, they call Rock Bottom Remainders?

BARRY: Together in the sense of like you know we're really together -- never, never.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Together as in on key? On key in the note together, no.

BARRY: No, we've never done that.

KING: We've been together since 1992.

TUSH: Right.

KING: We played the Anaheim Book Fair in 1992. It was supposed to be a one-shot gig and we're still playing.

(SINGING)

TUSH: The boys in the band also know to not quit the day job.

MITCH ALBOM: All athletes would say wish they were rock stars, all rock stars wish they were athletes and all writers would take either one.

(LAUGHTER)

ALBOM: We can't do either but no one's going to pay us to play basketball.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in this for the kicks and they have yet to show up.

ALBOM: Yes.

TUSH: And as much as their fans wanted to see them play some good old rock and roll, the Rock Bottom Remainders knew enough that they could raise more money selling their books at this concert than CDs of their performance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And there are no groupies for writers so we figured we'd better try something else.

BARRY: Every now and then somebody throws, you know, underwear on stage, but it's like support hose because we have a -- we have a -- we have an older groupie base.

(SINGING)

TUSH: So it was a night to have fun and raise some money, but to keep it all in perspective, as Dave Barry himself put it, the Rock Bottom Remainders are to music what Metallica is to writing.

Bill Tush, CNN Entertainment News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they were playing the instruments, though.

HARRIS: Yes, they were.

CALLAWAY: That was amazing. HARRIS: Boy, I'm glad -- you know Mitch Albom had better be glad that I saw this piece today and not before I interviewed him a couple of weeks ago.

CALLAWAY: That hat was something else, wasn't it?

HARRIS: That's great.

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