Matthews: Awareness will influence world leaders
(CNN) -- Twenty years after Live Aid raised $100 million for famine relief, singer/activist Sir Bob Geldof announced plans on Tuesday for concerts to help bring awareness to poverty in Africa.
The concerts -- July 2 in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome and Philadelphia -- were scheduled with the purpose of drawing attention to Africa just before world leaders attend the G8 summit in Scotland, July 6-8.
Performers will include Paul McCartney, Coldplay, Elton John, U2, Snoop, Faith Hill, P. Diddy, Jay-Z, Bon Jovi and Dave Matthews.
Matthews spoke with CNN's Bill Hemmer about the project.
BILL HEMMER: What do you hope to accomplish with your involvement?
DAVE MATTHEWS: Awareness is the biggest thing that sometimes is what's needed to really move the leaders of the world. ... At that first Live Aid concert I was in Johannesburg, growing up there, and one of the things that changed South Africa was not, you know, great world leaders coming together and saying, 'Oh, let's focus on South Africa'. It was really the people of the world saying, 'We can't sit around and watch this happen, and have our countries or our representatives trading indefinitely with the apartheid government'. So, the people of the world rose up and changed that.
And, I think [this] is another instance and opportunity, where we can say, 'Look, Africa shouldn't be indebted to us. It's in a deep, deep state, a spiral of poverty, a spiral of the AIDS crisis.' Downward and really unforgivable is the fact that ...Africa spends all of its resources on repaying a debt that it owes the West, which is absurd.
And, this is just to say, 'Let's forgive that debt and let's become proactive. Let's become active participants in improving the possibility of Africa's future.'
HEMMER: What do you remember from the images of 1985 from that concert?
MATTHEWS: Well, I think the thing that was most powerful about that, again, was this rally, was ...the quality of people coming together, the power of people. And when people are moved to do something, or more so than that, given the opportunity to do something, to be powerful in the face of the world's future, they take that opportunity. And I think this is another chance that we have to bring together power of people to move our leaders.
It's almost absurdly tiny, the act of forgiving, the actual act of forgiving Africa's debt, or much of Africa's debt. But to move politicians to do something as profound as that requires the power of people saying, 'You know, if you truly represent us then you will stop this crime, this crime against humanity', which is the poverty and the hunger in Africa.
HEMMER: You mention you're originally from South Africa. Do you feel some connection to this cause more so than anyone else would, because you come from the southern part of that continent?
MATTHEWS: I don't think more so. Maybe I -- you know, I have memories, I have smells that I think of that remind me of Africa, that more than maybe average people in the U.S., but I think we have a connection to each other. And there's ... a quality in us all where when we see an injustice, if it's within our power to change that, I think people are generally moved to do so.
And, so, I certainly have an investment in Africa's future that's personal. But on a far greater level, I have an investment in the future of the world and the health of the world, and that is dependent on every nation, every country, every continent ...the possibility of a future.
And, so I don't necessarily think I'm more invested in that than anybody else. I think all of us want a healthier, better world, a world where, you know, democratic ideas and free ideas can prosper, and that can only happen if we're free from fear. Or at least attempting to free ourselves from fear of poverty and fear of illness, which is where Africa is, under a blanket of it.
