Thomas (Tom) Campbell of Redondo Beach, CA passed away with his loving wife Smoky by his side, on August 13th, 2024, at the age of eighty-four.

Tom is considered by many to be the "grandfather of the benefit concert," virtually inventing 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. At the time, this was a relatively novel approach, and he made it his life's work, organizing and producing more than 1,200 cultural, educational, environmental, and service events over decades of work. The events raised public awareness of the issues, provided publicity to the organizations working on those issues, and raised millions of dollars for those organizations to assist their work. If you ever attended an Avocado Productions or Guacamole Fund benefit, you were in the extremely capable hands of Tom Campbell. Combining immense vision, a fierce attention to detail, and his huge heart, he created magic.

Tom was born in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 19, 1939. During World War II, Tom's mother moved the family to California while his father was overseas. The family lived in Sunland and when his father returned, Silver Lake; they then settled in Norwalk in 1950.

Tom attended UCLA from 1957 -1961. He worked for Walt Disney during college on weekends, holidays, and summer vacations as a ride operator. Tom became production coordinator in 1962 and then from 1963 - 1964 he worked in the entertainment division and produced shows. After leaving Disney, he went to work at the famous folk club, the Golden Bear, a legendary music venue in Huntington Beach, California, running the lights and sound. There he met fellow musician, Steve Gillette and they began composing music together, including the song "Darcy Farrow." Several musicians have recorded Tom and Steve's music including John Denver, Linda Ronstadt, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ian & Sylvia, and Taj Mahal. Tom and Steve also wrote the music for the Walt Disney album, "The Further Adventures of Jiminy Cricket." Tom and his longtime friend, Mark Turnbull, another songwriting partner, wrote another Walt Disney album, "A Happy Birthday Party with Winnie the Pooh."

Tom left the Golden Bear in 1966 and returned to Disney to become National Promotional Director for their music division, where he remained until 1968. He later moved to Oregon, Colorado, and Florida with his first wife Courtney, where they formed a folk duo. They moved to New Mexico in 1973, where Tom found his calling as an environmental activist and event promoter. He and Courtney wrote the music for, and Tom narrated, "Look What We've Done to This Land," a film about strip mining of Black Mesa and the Four Corners Power Plant in Page, Arizona.

In 1974, Tom staged his first fundraising concert, in support of an Earth First! project to protect New Mexico wilderness, producing a series of concerts in Sante Fe, New Mexico with Linda Ronstadt, Pete Seeger, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Steve Martin, John Denver, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Taj Mahal performing.

Tom then produced his next concert series in California for the Sierra Club supporting the expansion of Redwood Tree National Park. These concerts with artists Jackson Browne, Jesse Colin Young, Maria Muldaur, Danny O'Keefe, Bonnie Raitt, and Linda Ronstadt were the start of decades long relationships working together putting on benefits. Tom fought hard for wildlife, forests, wild lands and in particular California's redwoods, producing scores of concerts and rallies in support of those working to protect them.  In 1994, he staged the "Raitt Family Concert for the Forest" in Northern California, with Bonnie Raitt, her legendary father, Broadway actor and singer John Raitt, and other Raitt family members. 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, affectionately and hilariously known as the "chainsaw massacre."

In 1976, Tom moved to California to join the Pacific Alliance, which started his long-standing fight against nuclear power. Pacific Alliance co-produced with Musicians United For Safe Energy (MUSE) the famous 1979 series of "No Nukes" concerts, which sold out five straight nights in New York's Madison Square Garden and included a protest rally at Battery Park that drew 250,000 people. MUSE was a group of several artists including Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and John Hall, along with Harvey Wasserman, Sam Lovejoy, Becky Hardee, 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.  Tom continued to advocate for safe energy, producing No Nukes concerts, rallies, and receptions throughout the years in nineteen states.

Tom, with his good friend and fellow solar advocate Ty Braswell, along with Styx guitarist, James Young, longtime spokesperson for the Solar Lobby and financial backer, helped to create Solar Genny One, a 6,000-pound solar unit, housed on a 20-four-foot-long trailer, designed, and built by Solarwest Electric of Santa Barbara, California. It was a project they had long dreamed of, and together they coordinated a national tour using Genny to demonstrate that renewable energy was available and practical. Styx was the first band that put Genny to the test by using in the recording studio for their new album. Between 1982 and 1985, Genny visited thirty-one states, including South Carolina where it powered parts of the state capitol; Myrtle Beach for a festival; a Baltimore Orioles baseball game to power the speaker system; bringing power to the Boston Pops for their 4th of July celebration; and to a Diana Ross concert. Solar Genny One also treated fans of Bonnie Raitt and Danny O'Keefe with a demonstration powering their concert at the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara, California in 1985. 

Tom 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.

Peace Sunday, promoting nuclear disarmament, was produced by Tom in 1982, selling out the Rose Bowl in California. About 100,000 people attended for speeches by the Reverand 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" acapella.

Over the span of a decade, Tom helped the Gloria Steinem organization, Voters For Choice, produce 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 even the extraordinary Jessye Norman.  Tom first met with Voters For Choice when Bonnie Raitt was interested in supporting the election of pro-choice candidates to counter the push to take away women's hard-won reproductive rights. Overall, Tom helped Voters For Choice raise nearly $5 million dollars to support the election of pro-reproductive freedom candidates, across the country, up and down the ballot, including the first fully pro-choice president of the United States. 

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 an astounding array of 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. Many fans arranged their vacation around attending the annual show and attest to the new lifetime friendships and relationships begun there.

The shows were memorably started by the playing of the William Tell Overture, as the front gate was opened, and fans scampered down the long hill to secure their spot of lawn in front of the stage. An unwavering part of Tom's production ethic was to do no harm to land on which he staged a show, and in order to protect the concert site and surrounding desert area, the 5,000+ attendees of the Sedona shows were bussed into and then out of the remote area. It was a complicated endeavor personally supervised by Tom, involving dozens of school buses, the thousands of attendees, and carefully planned traffic patterns - an event the crew dubbed the "bus ballet."

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, Tom produced some of the largest rallies in American history, which inspired and mobilized people to support specific causes and effect political and social change. For these events, he masterfully orchestrated a mix of songs by different musical acts, statements by political and cause-related leaders and activists, and other artistic expressions - from comedians to poets - that inspired hundreds of thousands at the events and beyond. 

With the National Organization for Women, Tom produced The March for Women's Lives in Washington, DC, in 1989. The rally helped ensure reproductive rights was a prominent issue in the upcoming presidential election. The event began on the Ellipse adjacent to the White House, with a stage and performers where the marchers gathered; the march then moved past the White House and to another stage on 3rd Street, with the US Capitol as a backdrop. Approximately one 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, commemorating the anniversary of the first Earth Day in 1970. Many of the original organizers joined to help, including Dennis Hayes. The focus of the rally was building support for amendments to the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. Congress passed an official resolution authorizing the rally to be held on the steps of the Capitol. Tom Cruise was the emcee, and over 750,000 citizens attended. 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. John Denver attended the volunteer meeting the day before and played for the hundreds of volunteers gathered.
  
Tom returned to Washington, DC, for the 2000 Earth Day rally, creating yet another amazing event, this one powered by alternative energy, with a generator powered by biodiesel made from used cooking oil.  The rally was emceed by Leonardo DiCaprio, and included speeches by Vice President Al Gore, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Chevy Chase, Edward James Olmos, Marian Wright Edelman, Esai Morales, Melanie Griffith and more. Musical performances included The Indigo Girls, Third Eye Blind, James Taylor, Carole King, Indigenous, Keb'Mo, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Clint Black, Congregation, Urban Nation Choir, Peter Paul & Mary and many more.

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 Musicians United for Safe Energy concert for Fukushima, following the Japan 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. 

A two-night stand honoring the life of singer and songwriter Nicolette Larson at the Santa Monica Civic in 1998, included an amazing line up of talent including Crosby Stills & Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, Dan Fogelberg, Emmylou Harris, Robert Hays, Joe Walsh, Little Feat and The Section. The shows raised over a half million dollars for the UCLA Children's Hospital. 

A benefit to assist Fred Walecki, the beloved owner of Westwood Music in Los Angeles, was also staged by Tom at the Santa Monica Civic, in 2000. Proceeds helped Fred with medical bills from an unforeseen illness, and the stellar line up included his friends, Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, David Crosby and Graham Nash, Don Henley, Jackson Browne, Spinal Tap, Colin Hay, Randy Meisner, Chris Hillman, and the house band featuring Ry Cooder, Bernie Leadon, Jennifer Condos, Andy Fairweather Low, Ethan Johns and Wix. The show also included a surprise, impromptu reunion of the Byrds, all of whom were close friends of Walecki's. 

When Hurricane Iniki hit Hawaii, Graham and Susan Nash asked Tom to come to Hawaii and produce a benefit. He put this together without hesitation, quickly gathering artists Crosby Stills & Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, Pahinul Brothers, and many local bands.

Two concerts to benefit Doctors Without Borders after Hurricane Mitch, held in Santa Cruz and Santa Monica, California, brought in musicians Bonnie Raitt, Sarah McLachlan, Keb' Mo', Jackson Browne, Los Lobos, Bruce Hornsby, and Los Ostros.

Tom 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 his dear friend and fellow activist, Jackson Browne. In 1992, Tom and Avocado Productions were honored with a Congressional Record by the One Hundred and Second Congress for their outstanding work in Washington, DC.

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, in the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas - Austin, preserved for future generations to learn how music inspired activism and social change and how activists, musicians, and thousands of citizens were brought together by a very special person to effect this positive change in the world. 

Tom was an incredibly hard worker, putting in long days and nights in service to the greater good; he also knew how to have a good time. The "after show" parties were often legendary. He and his crew celebrated a successful event, but then quickly moved on to the next necessary benefit for the next necessary cause. 

He was a lover of animals and had many surrounding him throughout his life, from horses, dogs and cats to chickens and ducks. At the end of his long, busy days, he would retire to the back yard for "Duck Time," where he would feed the ducks, chickens and squirrels and enjoy the company of his family and friends who often stopped by.

Tom, "The Great Freckled Thunderbolt" (a nickname acquired at Disney that he loved), will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him. He is survived by his loving wife, Smoky Dagan, his son, Grady Campbell and grandsons Cosmo and Django. He was preceded in death by his former wife, Margaret Holmes. He leaves behind former wives, Courtney Campbell and Janis Monaco Clark, her children, Calvin Turnbull and Alana McClellan, Cousin Carol Alexandra (Sam Riordan) and numerous nieces and nephews. The many dear friends whom he considered his Guacamole Fund Family; the hundreds of musicians and artists who joined in his work throughout the years; and the thousands of activists who inspired Tom to assist them with their efforts to make a better world.

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." 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 Toms life at a later time. To honor his memory, some of Tom's favorite charities are listed above if you would like to donate in Toms name. Thank you everyone.

We will be adding photos and special memories here at this link. Photos and Memories