Metallica, Dave Matthews headline fire benefit concert for North Bay

Survivors of the recent North Bay fires will be the beneficiaries of a major fundraising concert called Band Together Bay Area on Nov. 9 at San Francisco's AT&T Park, starring the legendary heavy metal band Metallica, rocker Dave Matthews, Oakland rapper G-Eazy and others.

All money raised by the event will go directly into an emergency relief fund established by Tipping Point Community, a nonprofit founded in 2005 to help those in need in the Bay Area. The new fund will go to cover food, housing, health care and rebuilding following the North Bay fires.

Tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Friday at www.bandtogetherbayarea.org and Ticketmaster. Tickets range from $49.50 to $199.50.

According to the Tipping Point Community website, the nonprofit's relief fund will support “low-income, vulnerable communities impacted by the crisis, including vineyard workers, immigrants, displaced young people and students.”

“We in the greater Bay Area are not going to let you down in the North Bay,” Daniel Lurie, founder and CEO of Tipping Point Community, said in an interview.

Lurie, whose nonprofit is supported by Google, Adobe and Apple and other Silicon Valley companies, is the stepson of Peter Haas, former president of Levi Strauss & Co.

“We agreed a concert could be a good first, and highly visible, way of communicating our support and thanks to the first responders, and also providing a night out and a respite for those affected by the devastation,” said Lurie, who is coordinating plans for the event with San Francisco business leaders.

Tipping Point Community has raised more than $150 million since its inception, according to its website.

The best seats at the show will be saved for first responders, fire victims and volunteers, and they'll get in free, Lurie said. The San Francisco Giants are working with service providers such as Catholic Charities to identify the recipients of free tickets.

The headliner, Metallica, relocated to the East Bay from Southern California in 1983 and released its first studio album that summer.

“For 34 years, Metallica has flown the flag for the Bay Area all over the world,” drummer Lars Ulrich said in a video statement released with the announcement of the benefit concert. “The recent tragic events up in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties have left us all saddened. We're here to help as much as we can.”

The band is currently on tour in Europe.

To support fire relief efforts, Band Together Bay Area organizers already have raised an initial $6.5 million from founding supporters Kaiser Permanente, Google, the Giants, Live Nation, Another Planet Entertainment, Twilio and Salesforce. Ticketmaster will donate all processing fees to the relief fund.

The first phase of fund disbursement, according to the Band Together Bay Area website, includes grants to Community Foundation Sonoma, Napa Valley Community Foundation, Catholic Charities and the North Bay Fire Relief Fund established by The Press Democrat, Redwood Credit Union and state Sen. Mike McGuire.

The second phase will support rebuilding and rehousing efforts. All funds will be spent by December 2018.

The fires together have burned an estimated 201,000 acres and nearly 8,000 structures in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Lake and Solano counties, causing 42 deaths and displacing tens of thousands of residents. With damage estimated in the billions of dollars, the cleanup and recovery is expected to be the biggest and costliest in California history.

You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 707-521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @danarts.