He was joined on stage by Grammy-nominated people like Lukas Nelson \u2014 as in Willie\u2019s son \u2014 guitar prodigy Marcus King and others.<\/p>\n
![\"Dwight](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770470891_496_.jpeg\")
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Dwight Yoakam and Lukas Nelson (center) take the stage at The Roxy. <\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s flattering on a personal level that five artists of that generation would come and collaborate with me to do this. But more importantly it was gratifying to hear their response to the charitable cause of Children\u2019s Hospital,\u201d Yoakam said.<\/p>\n
Yoakam and wife, Emily Joyce, had a very personal inspiration for organizing the benefit concert. In 2020, during the peak of COVID, their own infant son was seen at Children\u2019s Hospital. They were relieved it was nothing, but an experience Emily relayed to Yoakam changed him.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe heard the little boy behind in another recovery bed come to. Five or six. And his eyes opened \u2014 I guess his father was there with him at his bedside. And he said \u2018Was I brave daddy?\u2019 And I said: \u2018Wow, it puts everything in life in quick perspective.\u2019”<\/p>\n
Yoakam said the experience stuck with Joyce so much that she was determined to put a benefit show together. And it was heartening having so many of his friends back him up for the “Rockin\u2019 for the Kids” concert, Yoakam said. The night even had a surprise on-stage FaceTime call from actor Billy Bob Thornton. The actor and director \u2014 who cast Yoakam in his 1996 film Sling Blade \u2014 was originally scheduled to help emcee the event, but was stuck at an iced out movie shoot in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles calling<\/p>\n
Yoakam came out to the warm California sun in the late 70s, and it wasn\u2019t long before he was gigging hard at long gone honky-tonks like The Palomino and The Corral in the San Fernando Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201c[I] spent a year of my life on the off nights [at The Corral] \u2014 let me tell you \u2014 that\u2019s the real world,\u201d Yoakam recalled. \u201cThe time I was out there doing, you know, five sets a night. You\u2019d start at nine and end at two in the morning… And you know I really made my bones there.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long before Yoakam\u2019s California Country music was mixing and merging with a new scene in L.A. One that blended the punk rock ethos with the twang of country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crossroads of time and place happened again in the early 80s with the quote \u2018Cowpunk\u2019 movement. A lot of them were punk rock bands. Like The Dills became Rank and File. The Plugz \u2014 with a Z \u2014 became Los Cruzados,\u201d Yoakam said.<\/p>\n