LOVELAND, Colo. — The music coming from Tim Elliott’s home some nights can be a little loud. For the past year, Tim has been the drummer in the ZZ Top cover band El Loco Fandango and they use his home to rehearse.
“They look so much like Dusty and Frank, as soon as they mentioned it to me I said, ‘count me in,’” Elliott said said when recalling how he got connected with the group.
Elliott's love of music and drumming is as legendary as his community involvement. He founded the nonprofit Drumming Up Hope after being inspired by a benefit for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital he was playing in with another band.
“I got this idea that we were going to have a drum-a-thon,” he said. “We went for 24 hours the first time, and I got about 50 drummers to come and play.”
The first three drum-a-thons Elliott organized raised about $25,000 for St. Jude’s. Since then he has drummed up hope for countless others in need, sometimes by organizing events on his own, and sometimes he involves bandmates Mike Learn and Don DiMasi.
“It's really nice to be able, you know, to give back,” DiMasi said.
“I feel as though I've been really blessed in life with my opportunities as an artist and a musician, and so I'm just kind of paying it back,” Learn added.
DiMasi and Learn have even lent their voices to Elliott's latest venture: a series of concerts dubbed "Marshall Stock."
“We're gonna raise money for families of first responders who are out helping people while their houses burned down,” Elliott said.
There have been five Marshall Stock concerts so far, each featuring a handful of local bands personally recruited by Elliott. El Loco Fandango played in the fourth concert, and like Elliott, his bandmates enjoy being part of something that helps so people.
“It's been a good opportunity. It's been fun,” DiMasi said. “It's something that we can really sink our teeth into and just do the very best that we can.”
For Learn, it’s all just about being a responsible member of the community.
“It's great to be able to lend a gift to a great cause,” Learn said.
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