[Music]
[Applause]
Wow
it’s humbling to be here really is I
love music in fact I’m really in awe of
the power of music and its ability to
inspire and get people engaged so but
instead of this thing to me talk about
it let’s go to an expert I’m just an
American whose mom thinks he needs a
haircut this is Stevie Wonder a true
expert and Stevie says music is a world
in and of itself with a language we all
understand a language we all understand
so once that means to demonstrate it
let’s take a hop across the pond and
think about another artist of British
artists David Bowie rest in peace one of
David Bowie’s Greatest Hits
was called Let’s Dance what an amazing
set of words let’s dance
lets you and I dance and let’s look at
how it’s written in some of the most
common languages on the planet here’s
how let’s dance written in Mandarin here
it is in Spanish here it is in Hindi now
in Russian in French in Punjabi now in
Japanese and finally English you might
recognize several of these but you can
see it’s widely varied let’s dance let’s
take a look now and how if we used
musical notes it’s written in these
various languages so using musical notes
this is what it looks like in Mandarin
this is let’s dance in Spanish this is
how it’s written in Hindi again in
Russian in French and foon job’
in Japanese and in English look at that
it’s all the same I’m reflecting on this
I felt like I discovered the true
rosetta stone right
this is music written exactly the same
no matter where you are in the world and
it’s clear that what connects us is much
more powerful than what what separates
us so what’s its not above from your
shoulders above it’s really from your
shoulders below what’s in your heart and
what’s in your soul I think that’s what
Stevie really meant when he talked about
a language we all understand so I
believe in the limitless power of youth
in fact a wonderfully limitless power
abuse and I’m sort of obsessed by
unlocking that power and I think the
secret one of the secrets a very
powerful secret to unlocking that power
are those dots we just saw by using
music to engage now I know a bit about
the power of music when I was 20 I
dropped out of school to go on tour with
the Grateful Dead that was very powerful
it dragged me around the states took me
overseas for the first time I really
knew this was strong strong stuff below
the shoulders in the heart in the soul
so against his backdrop my friends and I
decided after the events of 2001 the
terrorist attacks in the States attacks
that unfortunately are happening far too
often in far too many places around the
world so we wanted to do something about
it our politicians at the time were
saying go back to life is normal go
shopping
that wasn’t very inspiring we thought
then as we do now we can do a lot better
this can’t be the best that humanity can
do there’s got to be more and the way
that we’re going to get there is by
working together inspiring each other to
come together to help make our
neighborhoods our city our countries the
world a better place and we really feel
like music was the place to do it so we
started our company called Rock or so
rock core did his very first concert in
New York City with a little bit of a
twist we didn’t sell any tickets to that
show you couldn’t win a ticket to that
concert you had to do four hours of
volunteer work at
any project we help organize with local
nonprofits didn’t matter what it was
could be a homeless shelter a food bank
a park or hospital you just had to come
out and do some work you gotta take it
to the gig and it really seemed to work
but why did we pick music we picked
music again for its power I’m pretty
sure that here in other countries this
morning not very many 15 17 19 22 25
year-olds woke up thinking about
volunteer work and civic engagement okay
maybe a few did but a lot more woke up
thinking about music the track they
heard yesterday a link someone sent them
on YouTube something they heard on the
radio and we really believe that
engaging in that passion first which for
us is music is really critical so it
might be different for you it might be
sports it might be dance visual art
graphic design anything with passion
because that’s how we are as human
beings culture isn’t something we just
do on nights or weekends it’s what
connects us in Sept of from our
shoulders down in our hearts in our soul
so let’s engage each other and make our
cities a better place but but starting
with a conversation that involves
passions so the amazing thing that
happens in these volunteer projects is
that people come yes at first for the
ticket but very quickly they meet a
couple others they come with their
friends they join with 50 others they
get some work done then they go to a
concert with 5,000 others who see that
everybody’s done the same thing it’s
really powerful and starts to become its
own reward but we didn’t start the
conversation hey come out and volunteer
we started a conversation around passion
that for us is music so it worked pretty
well in New York we took it around the
States it was what brought me to the UK
for the first time was with with rock
core and we’ve now done it in 10
countries from going for 13 years been
able to work with some amazing artists
Rihanna Lady Gaga ISAT rocky Puff Daddy
David Guetta hundreds more David Guetta
hundreds more and it’s really powerful
stuff and continues to go around the
world but something strange happened to
me along this journey in around 2011 I
was called down to 10 Downing Street the
Prime Minister who said David Cameron
wanted to meet with me wanted to talk
about this rock core thing now this is
sort of a strange experience for me I’m
from the west coast of the state’s
growing up I’d never met a Republican
let alone voted for one so I thought
okay this is a bit odd well it’s not
exactly true I did vote for Arnold
Schwarzenegger once for governor of
California what I often say if you could
vote for the Terminator for office you
do it right but I met the prime minister
he’s interesting about rock core a bit
but really he wanted to talk about a new
program at that time it was in its pilot
phase called National Citizen Service I
was for 16 and 17 year olds come
together learn how to work together and
become leaders in community and start to
move our country forward I thought it
was very interesting but first before I
decided to join on and I did become the
founding chairman of the trust that
oversees it his let’s agree on the
principles which we did them when there
were 750 people on the project and those
principles are no matter who you are
what background you come from as a
teenager we are going to respect what’s
in your heart and what’s in your soul
we’re gonna see those common notes among
you doesn’t matter your educational
background your economic background face
your family geography everybody has
these wonderful gifts to contribute we
respect those gifts the program then
gives you some tools and some
opportunity to use those tools respect
tools and opportunity that was a
principle when we had 750 people were
now up over a hundred thousand a year
and National Citizen Service by staying
very true to those principles about
seeing what’s common amongst people
sharing our similarities and what
connects us
so that’s National Citizen Service but
whether it’s Rock Corps National Citizen
Service another thing we’ve learned
that’s very important is you have to
celebrate
okay it’s not just enough to engage and
do the work we have to step back and we
have to say thanks to one another we
have to have music for us you know we do
we do these concerts for you it’ll be
maybe music maybe a different passion
but take a moment to celebrate it’s very
important nobody is ready to engage and
start making improvements in our
community unless they’re feeling some
joy and some inspiration celebration is
critical now just to sum up engage
through passions look at the make sure
that there is respect tools and
opportunity and at the very end
celebrate and let’s dance thanks very
much
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
Wow
it’s humbling to be here really is I
love music in fact I’m really in awe of
the power of music and its ability to
inspire and get people engaged so but
instead of this thing to me talk about
it let’s go to an expert I’m just an
American whose mom thinks he needs a
haircut this is Stevie Wonder a true
expert and Stevie says music is a world
in and of itself with a language we all
understand a language we all understand
so once that means to demonstrate it
let’s take a hop across the pond and
think about another artist of British
artists David Bowie rest in peace one of
David Bowie’s Greatest Hits
was called Let’s Dance what an amazing
set of words let’s dance
lets you and I dance and let’s look at
how it’s written in some of the most
common languages on the planet here’s
how let’s dance written in Mandarin here
it is in Spanish here it is in Hindi now
in Russian in French in Punjabi now in
Japanese and finally English you might
recognize several of these but you can
see it’s widely varied let’s dance let’s
take a look now and how if we used
musical notes it’s written in these
various languages so using musical notes
this is what it looks like in Mandarin
this is let’s dance in Spanish this is
how it’s written in Hindi again in
Russian in French and foon job’
in Japanese and in English look at that
it’s all the same I’m reflecting on this
I felt like I discovered the true
rosetta stone right
this is music written exactly the same
no matter where you are in the world and
it’s clear that what connects us is much
more powerful than what what separates
us so what’s its not above from your
shoulders above it’s really from your
shoulders below what’s in your heart and
what’s in your soul I think that’s what
Stevie really meant when he talked about
a language we all understand so I
believe in the limitless power of youth
in fact a wonderfully limitless power
abuse and I’m sort of obsessed by
unlocking that power and I think the
secret one of the secrets a very
powerful secret to unlocking that power
are those dots we just saw by using
music to engage now I know a bit about
the power of music when I was 20 I
dropped out of school to go on tour with
the Grateful Dead that was very powerful
it dragged me around the states took me
overseas for the first time I really
knew this was strong strong stuff below
the shoulders in the heart in the soul
so against his backdrop my friends and I
decided after the events of 2001 the
terrorist attacks in the States attacks
that unfortunately are happening far too
often in far too many places around the
world so we wanted to do something about
it our politicians at the time were
saying go back to life is normal go
shopping
that wasn’t very inspiring we thought
then as we do now we can do a lot better
this can’t be the best that humanity can
do there’s got to be more and the way
that we’re going to get there is by
working together inspiring each other to
come together to help make our
neighborhoods our city our countries the
world a better place and we really feel
like music was the place to do it so we
started our company called Rock or so
rock core did his very first concert in
New York City with a little bit of a
twist we didn’t sell any tickets to that
show you couldn’t win a ticket to that
concert you had to do four hours of
volunteer work at
any project we help organize with local
nonprofits didn’t matter what it was
could be a homeless shelter a food bank
a park or hospital you just had to come
out and do some work you gotta take it
to the gig and it really seemed to work
but why did we pick music we picked
music again for its power I’m pretty
sure that here in other countries this
morning not very many 15 17 19 22 25
year-olds woke up thinking about
volunteer work and civic engagement okay
maybe a few did but a lot more woke up
thinking about music the track they
heard yesterday a link someone sent them
on YouTube something they heard on the
radio and we really believe that
engaging in that passion first which for
us is music is really critical so it
might be different for you it might be
sports it might be dance visual art
graphic design anything with passion
because that’s how we are as human
beings culture isn’t something we just
do on nights or weekends it’s what
connects us in Sept of from our
shoulders down in our hearts in our soul
so let’s engage each other and make our
cities a better place but but starting
with a conversation that involves
passions so the amazing thing that
happens in these volunteer projects is
that people come yes at first for the
ticket but very quickly they meet a
couple others they come with their
friends they join with 50 others they
get some work done then they go to a
concert with 5,000 others who see that
everybody’s done the same thing it’s
really powerful and starts to become its
own reward but we didn’t start the
conversation hey come out and volunteer
we started a conversation around passion
that for us is music so it worked pretty
well in New York we took it around the
States it was what brought me to the UK
for the first time was with with rock
core and we’ve now done it in 10
countries from going for 13 years been
able to work with some amazing artists
Rihanna Lady Gaga ISAT rocky Puff Daddy
David Guetta hundreds more David Guetta
hundreds more and it’s really powerful
stuff and continues to go around the
world but something strange happened to
me along this journey in around 2011 I
was called down to 10 Downing Street the
Prime Minister who said David Cameron
wanted to meet with me wanted to talk
about this rock core thing now this is
sort of a strange experience for me I’m
from the west coast of the state’s
growing up I’d never met a Republican
let alone voted for one so I thought
okay this is a bit odd well it’s not
exactly true I did vote for Arnold
Schwarzenegger once for governor of
California what I often say if you could
vote for the Terminator for office you
do it right but I met the prime minister
he’s interesting about rock core a bit
but really he wanted to talk about a new
program at that time it was in its pilot
phase called National Citizen Service I
was for 16 and 17 year olds come
together learn how to work together and
become leaders in community and start to
move our country forward I thought it
was very interesting but first before I
decided to join on and I did become the
founding chairman of the trust that
oversees it his let’s agree on the
principles which we did them when there
were 750 people on the project and those
principles are no matter who you are
what background you come from as a
teenager we are going to respect what’s
in your heart and what’s in your soul
we’re gonna see those common notes among
you doesn’t matter your educational
background your economic background face
your family geography everybody has
these wonderful gifts to contribute we
respect those gifts the program then
gives you some tools and some
opportunity to use those tools respect
tools and opportunity that was a
principle when we had 750 people were
now up over a hundred thousand a year
and National Citizen Service by staying
very true to those principles about
seeing what’s common amongst people
sharing our similarities and what
connects us
so that’s National Citizen Service but
whether it’s Rock Corps National Citizen
Service another thing we’ve learned
that’s very important is you have to
celebrate
okay it’s not just enough to engage and
do the work we have to step back and we
have to say thanks to one another we
have to have music for us you know we do
we do these concerts for you it’ll be
maybe music maybe a different passion
but take a moment to celebrate it’s very
important nobody is ready to engage and
start making improvements in our
community unless they’re feeling some
joy and some inspiration celebration is
critical now just to sum up engage
through passions look at the make sure
that there is respect tools and
opportunity and at the very end
celebrate and let’s dance thanks very
much
[Applause]
[Music]
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