CGG

You may have first been introduced to Gavin DeGraw’s music via his hit song "I Don't Want to Be,” which was chosen as the theme song to One Tree Hill. But now with the release of his latest album “In Love With A Girl,” Gavin’s making headlines in new terrain, building a fanbase that has never watched the CW show. We fell for the talented singer-songwriter this weekend at Zootopia who spills his soul onstage about love and life.

During his first song, the microphone failed, but he went on singing along to the backup track, and then shrugged his shoulders jokingly until a new mic could be brought on stage before starting his second number.

He’s a man quick on his feet, jack-of-all-trades (piano, guitar & voice) and big at heart. We were thrilled to learn of Gavin’s work with Musicians on Call, when we caught up with him before he went on stage.

CGG

What brings you to Zootopia?
My music brings me here. This is a big radio station. Z100 has been really helpful to me getting my music out there. They got on my song really early, “I’m in Love with a Girl”. Also a lot of other radio stations refer to Z100 to see what they’re playing.

What causes are you involved in?
I’ve get involved with, for me, as far as charities go, I’ll do whatever man, I just want to help, so. I’ll do my small part and if everyone did their small part it would help. I’m doing just a little bit; I’m not doing any more than anybody else is, I’m sure, but I get involved with some cancer charities and charities that have to do with music.

And bringing together what I do, music, to entertain people who are suffering. I’m involved with one organization called Musicians on Call, where musicians, we go to hospitals and play for kids and for other patients who are there for out-patient or many of them are there for long stays and they can’t leave the hospital. So, I think it really helps to break up the monotony for a lot of those patients to go in there and play them music. And if you’re allowed to go into room to room then you go into each person’s room and play them a little bit of music. It’s really great therapy, and music is medicine. I mean I’ve always regarded it as medicine. Before I became a musician for a living, it was my dream to become a doctor, and I decided that music was so helpful to me that I viewed music as a form of medicine.

CGG

Was there one situation that really affected you?
There are a lot of situations where you go into a hospital and someone will react to the music in a way you never thought they might react. There was one kid who was autistic and he was a cancer patient, and he had all these electrodes hanging off of him and stuff, and all this equipment, but he was mobile. But he was kind of low spirits when we showed up in the room. Actually Tom Pullman and I were playing in this kid’s room one time, and we started playing a song, and he was probably 7 years old or so. And the kid was standing there, staring at us, and when we got in the groove he started jumping around and going crazy playing drums and on our guitars and stuff like that. He just went totally nuts in a joyful way and it was a beautiful moment. We were just so taken aback by the experience. And it was just very inspiring.

When you have a moment like that it really is encouraging, and it makes you feel that what you’re doing is helping because you’re seeing someone’s spirits get lifted immediately. Only in the few seconds it took for him to absorb the feeling of the music and see how happy it made him. You know some people are too ill to get up out of bed and celebrate it, but you’ll see peace come over them. They’re so thankful that somebody showed up other than a family member, to show up and entertain them and spend a little bit of time and play them some music.

CGG

How can young people get involved in their communities?
I would say put yourself in someone’s shoes who is helpless, and then wonder what would you want someone to do for you if you were in that situation. And then think about how you could help someone like that. Because when you do something for someone else, it helps you too, just because it feels good and you’ll find that out as soon as you do it.