SAN ANTONIO – George Strait and other country music stars spoke on Tuesday at the Majestic Theater ahead of a benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Harvey.
The concert tonight will feature performances from Strait along with special guests Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton, Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen.
The San Antonio concert is part of a nationwide telethon called, “Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Harvey Relief.”
In the aftermath of Harvey, Strait pledged to help the country music world with a concert serving as part of ongoing relief efforts across the state, with all proceeds from the show benefiting the Rebuild Texas Fund.
Strait has a home in Rockport and said he had not had the opportunity to go to the area, but planned to go soon to see the devastation for himself.
He wanted to show support for people in the Port Aransas area, Texas Gulf Coast and Houston area. He said the Gulf Coast is special place for a lot of people.
“With efforts like this, we’ll be able to get those businesses up and running which really needs to happen because it’s a vacation spot and those people depend on the tourists to come in there and make their living,” Strait said.
“As it moved up to Houston and Beaumont, I saw friends houses underwater and it was just an unbelievable thing to see that” Strait said. “I’ve got friends who are rebuilding houses that were nearly lost, and just many people that stuff happened to. We’re here to help them, hope we can.”
Lambert said she visited the Houston area to help animal rescue and shelters. Lambert wanted to help dogs that had been displaced by the hurricane and make sure they got back to their owners. She said the images were heartbreaking.
“Seeing the look on people’s faces, and just couches and all of their furniture just out in their yards for miles, it was just so heartbreaking and heavy,” Lambert said.“Being able to go and be part of it meant the world to me, to see and give people a hug, that had just lost everything and help animals.”
“Now I get to do what I really do which is sing country music and hopefully that does some good for the people of Texas,” Lambert said.
Strait said he was inspired to help after seeing images of the destruction on TV and the rest of the country music community was ready to lend a helping hand any way possible. Everything for the benefit concert was donated.
Before the press conference ended Strait was asked about the way the state of Texas has rallied to help the areas affected by Harvey.
“It just shows how generous that the Texas people are and how helpful they are. There’s people like that all over the United States and were fixing to see all that with the things that have happened in Florida and the fires in the northwest,” Strait said.
“People need help all over so I think were going to see that everywhere, we just have more of those people here.”
The telethon can be seen live on KSAT. Proceeds will benefit United Way of Greater Houston, Habitat for Humanity, Save the Children, Direct Relief, Feeding Texas, The Mayor's Fund for Hurricane Harvey Relief and RebuildTx.org through the Hand in Hand Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund managed by Comic Relief Inc.