Tim McGraw to Perform Benefit Show for Sandy Hook Promise

Tim McGraw to Perform Benefit Show for Sandy Hook Promise:

Father of three Tim McGraw will headline a show this summer to raise money for the protection of children against gun violence. The country superstar's Concert for Sandy Hook Promise will take place July 17th at XFinity Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut, just about 50 miles from where 20 first-grade students and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in a December 2012 mass murder. It was the deadliest grade school shooting in U.S. history.

McGraw, along with opening acts Billy Currington and Chase Bryant, will donate 100 percent of the show's net proceeds to Sandy Hook Promise, a non-profit organization founded by family members of the victims. The money will go toward prevention programs in the areas of mental health, social and emotional development and firearm safety.

"Out of this tragedy a group was formed that made a promise to honor the lives lost and turn it into a moment of transformation," McGraw writes in a statement. "Sandy Hook Promise teaches that we can do something to protect our children from gun violence. I want to be a part of that promise — as a father and as a friend."

McGraw's fiddle player, Dean Brown, is close friends with the Barden family, who lost their 7-year-old son, Daniel in the shootings. "We are humbled that Tim would do this for us,” says Daniel's father, Mark Barden. "Dean and his wife Cindy helped my wife and I through our darkest hour and helped buoy our spirits. It meant more than words could ever say."

Tickets for Tim McGraw: A Concert for Sandy Hook Promise go on sale this Friday, April 17th through LiveNation.com and Ticketmaster. Surprise guests joining the headliner, Currington and Bryant will be announced soon.

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