Stephan Jenkins: Third Eye Blind puts the power of stardom to good use - Action - benefit concert for breast cancer - Brief Article

Interview, Nov, 2001 by Dimitri Ehrlich

When it comes to alleviating the sufferings of others in a concrete way, entertainers can seem frivolous. Not Stephan Jenkins, lead singer for Bay Area rockers Third Eye Blind, who recently helped organize BREATHE, a concert held at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles last month to benefit breast cancer research and education. "This really started from my mom's disease and my experience with it," says Jenkins, whose mother recently survived a battle with breast cancer. "My thought was that if you changed the perception of who this matters to, you broaden the scope of fundraising." With that in mind, Jenkins enlisted Seal, Run-DMC, Liz Phair and others to raise funds for the UCLA Breast Center and the Breast Examination Center of Harlem.

"With my mom, I was in the role of saying, 'Everything is gonna be OK,"' says Jenkins. "And it made me think about how breast cancer is always seen as a woman's issue. But it's a son's issue, it's a family issue and it's everyone's issue."

Dimitri Ehrlich is interview's Music Editor at Large. Clockwise from top left: Some of the musicians who took part in Stephan Jenkins' BREATHE concert: Nikka Costa, Jurassic 5, Deftones, Third Eye Blind, Julia Fordham, Run-DMC, Crazytown, Seal. Center: Third Eye Blind's Stephan Jenkins. Photos: Julie Fowells, B+, Neil Zlozower, Alison Dyer, Melanie Nissen, Jonathan Mannion, Anthony Cutajar, courtesy of Azoff Music, Alison Dyer.