Tom Campbell, Guacamole Fund Founder And Producer of MUSE, No Nukes, Earth Day & March For Women’s Lives Events, Dies At 84

Tom Campbell, considered by many the “grandfather of the benefit concert” and founder of the Guacamole Fund, died Aug. 13 at age 84.

He had the idea of bringing together musicians and activists to create memorable and often historical events that funded non-profit, grassroots organizations working on a wide spectrum of social issues, producing more than 1,200 cultural, education, environment and service events – raising awareness and raising millions of dollars for those organizations.

Campbell got his start with The Walt Disney Company, where he became production coordinator in 1962 before leaving to work at the legendary folk club The Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, California, running lights and sound. He returned to Disney to become National Promotional Director for the company’s music division, where he remained until 1968.

Campbell found his calling in 1973, moving to New Mexico and becoming an environmental activist and event promoter. He staged his first fundraising concert in support of an Earth First! project, producing a series of concerts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with Linda Ronstadt, Pete Seeger, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Steve Martin, John Denver, Jerry Jeff Walker and Taj Mahal performing. That was followed by a concert series in California for the Sierra Club, featuring Jackson Browne, Jesse Colin Young, Maria Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt and Linda Ronstadt. 

Another successful benefit for Oregon forest groups, with Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and Native American activist and poet John Trudell, ended with the concert crew needing to be escorted out of town after the show by local police, pursued by loggers in pickup trucks revving chainsaws. The show went down in Guacamole Fund history as the “chainsaw massacre.”  

Perhaps most notably, Campbell joined the Pacific Alliance in 1976 and began his long stand against nuclear power. Pacific Alliance co-produced, with Musicians United For Safe Energy (MUSE) the 1979 series of “No Nukes” concerts, which sold out five nights in Madison Square Garden in New York City and included a protest in Battery Park that drew 250,000.

MUSE was a group of several artists including Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and John Hall, along with Harvey Wasserman, Sam Lovejoy, Howard Kohn and David Fenton. A feature film and double live album of the events were later released. Artists performing included Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Jesse Colin Young, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Sweet Honey in the Rock, James Taylor, Carly Simon, The Doobie Brothers, Chaka Khan, Raydio, Nicolette Larson, Poco, Ry Cooder, Peter Tosh, Paul Simon, Gil Scott-Heron, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and John Hall. Campbell continued to advocate for safe energy, producing No Nukes concerts, rallies, and receptions throughout the years in 19 states. 

See also: Bonnie Raitt’s Activism – Green Like Guacamole (Fund)

Campbell established Avocado Productions in Hermosa Beach, California, in 1982 and then later created the non-profit Guacamole Fund in 1994, which is still active today. 

Among Campbell’s better-known productions are 1982’s Peace Sunday, promoting nuclear disarmament, selling out the roughly 100,000-seat Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Peace Sunday featured speeches by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Ed Asner; performers included Joan Baez, surprise guest Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Bette Midler, Dan Fogelberg, Tom Petty, Gil Scott-Heron, Gary U.S. Bonds, Jackson Browne, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Bonnie Raitt. Baez and Dylan played several songs together including “Blowing in the Wind,” and Bette Midler sang “The Rose” a capella.

Campbell helped raise nearly $5 million for the Gloria Steinem organization Voters For Choice, producing nearly 20 concerts and 20 artist receptions featuring major artists ranging from Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, Jackson Browne, The Indigo Girls, Melissa Etheridge, Keb’ Mo,’ Tish Hinojosa, and Sonia Sanchez to Pearl Jam, Neil Young, and Jessye Norman.  

For 10 years, from 1990 to 2000, Avocado Productions and Guacamole Fund produced the Verde Valley Music Festival in Sedona, Arizona, supporting the Native American Scholarship Fund of the Verde Valley School. The annual event was hosted by Jackson Browne, and included musician friends whom he invited to appear: Shawn Colvin, John Trudell & Bad Dog, Ben Harper, Nanci Griffith, Patty Griffin, Bruce Cockburn, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Mary Chapin Carpenter, David Lindley & Wally Ingram, Neil Young, Lyle Lovett, Trisha Yearwood, Indigo Girls, Michelle Branch, Joel Rafael Band, Indigenous, Kenny Loggins, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, Melissa Etheridge, Ulali, Blackfire, Burning Sky, and the Jones Benally Family Dancers, all performing in the majestic red rocks setting on the school’s soccer field. 

David and Jan Crosby hosted the Valley Music Festival in Solvang for several years, benefiting music and art instruction in the Santa Ynez Valley. They asked the Guacamole Fund to produce the shows, with artists Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, Melissa Etheridge, Clint Black, and David Crosby & CPR performing. 

In addition to benefit concerts, Campbell produced some of the largest rallies in American history. With the National Organization for Women, Tom produced The March for Women’s Lives in Washington, DC, in 1989. Approximately 1 million people participated in the march and rally, which also brought together and unified the leading organizations working to protect reproductive rights.

In 1990, Tom produced the massive Earth Day rally, again in Washington, DC, drawing more than 750,000, commemorating the anniversary of the first Earth Day in 1970. Musicians performing were John Denver, 10,000 Maniacs, Bruce Hornsby and The Range, The Indigo Girls, KRS-1, Branford Marsalis, Billy Bragg, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, and others.   

Tom returned to Washington, D.C., for the 2000 Earth Day rally, powered by alternative energy. 

In 2011, Tom organized the largest eco village that had ever been assembled of non-nuclear groups at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, educating the crowd at the MUSE concert for Fukushima, following a devastating tsunami. 

Tom also stepped up to help those in need after natural disasters, to honor friends from the music industry, and to provide other kinds of humanitarian assistance. Among the benefits he staged were tributes to the late Nicolette Larson, Westwood Music owner Fred Walecki, survivors of Hurricane Iniki in Hawaii, and Doctors Without Borders.

Campbell received the Best of the West 2018 Lifetime Achievement in Community Service Award for his work with the Guacamole Fund. He also received the Arthur M. Sohcot Award in 2001 at the California Music Awards; both awards were presented by Jackson Browne. In 1992, Tom and Avocado Productions were honored in the Congressional Record by the 102nd Congress for his outstanding work in Washington, D.C.

His records and papers, meticulously saved over the decades, along with hundreds of benefit concert posters, T-shirts, and incredible pieces of memorabilia, have recently been moved to the Guacamole Fund/Tom Campbell Archives to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas – Austin for preservation. 

Campbell is survived by his wife, Smoky Dagan, his son, Grady Campbell and grandsons Cosmo and Django, among others including his Guacamole Fund family, hundreds of musicians and artists who joined his work, and thousands of activists who inspired him.

“Tom’s approach to his work – and his life – can be summed up with a quote from his very early days: ‘We didn’t know we couldn’t do it. We just did it.’,” according to a statement from his official obituary “Friends and fans agree: he was bold and creative, intense, and focused. He was brilliant and driven, passionate and joyful. He loved this world fiercely, and he fought for it with his life. His reach was vast and his impact immeasurable. Whether or not you knew Tom personally, we are all the beneficiaries of his extraordinary life’s work: his legacy is a world that is truly a better place for having had him in it. Rest in paz, Tom.”

There will be a Celebration of Life at a later time. To honor his memory, some of Tom’s favorite charities are listed on The Guacamole Fund website. Donations may also be made directly to the Guacamole Fund at the same location. Contact: [email protected]