“Check your ego at the door.”
That was the famous credo that producer Quincy Jones posted during the all-star 1985 “We Are the World” recording session that featured some of the biggest names in pop and rock congregating for a good cause as they set their A-list status to the side for one night of good work.
That is also the marching order for this year’s Freezing Man 2026 two-day benefit concert at The Sylvee in Vig’s native Madison, Wis. on Friday (Jan. 9) and Saturday (Jan. 10), whose proceeds all go toward epilepsy research and programs. “It’s so fun and everyone is super cool and they all check their egos at the door,” Garbage drummer and indie rock producer Butch Vig tells Billboard of the “plethora of treasures” at the show that will feature him playing along side Garbage guitarist Duke Erikson, as well as members of the Bangles (Vicki Peterson), Goo Goo Dolls (John Rzeznik), Belly (Gail Greenwood) and Big Star (Jody Stephens, Jon Auer).
That all-star crew will also be joined by some of the members of Soul Asylum, Letters to Cleo, Silversun Pickups, Fountains of Wayne, the Cowsills, Miguel Cervantes (of Hamilton) and a few new faces joining the line-up this year: members of the Go-Gos (Jane Wiedlin, Gina Schock), Eve 6 (Max Collins), Guns N’ Roses (Matt Sorum) and Olivia Rodrigo touring drummer Jordi Radnoti.
The benefits began 15 years ago under the title Joey’s Song, around the time Vig says he first started playing with Erikson and their friend musician Freedy Johnston at small cafes in Madison as a pick-up group called the Know-It-All-Boyfriends. That ad hoc group then transformed into the benefit’s official backing band as the event expanded and re-branded as Freezing Man, now in its second year.
“We called ourselves the world’s greatest and worst cover band because we would never practice,” says Vig of the Boyfriends. In addition to releasing eight albums with Garbage since 1995, Vig is also known for producing a number of landmark rock albums, including Nirvana’s Nevermind and the Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream, but he says the annual benefit has become one of his favorite shows of the year.
“Everyone who came to the shows knew it would be kind of loose and then we started pulling in some bigger artists and moved to some bigger theaters over the last three years,” Vig adds, noting that the show is now a two-night affair at the 2,500-capacity Sylvee. The benefit raises funds for Joey’s Song, a non-profit dedicated to supporting epilepsy research and education.
Joey’s Song was founded 15 years ago in honor of Joey Gomoll, who died before his fifth birthday after a lifelong battle with Dravet Syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy. The series of benefit concerts that also donates funds for family support services has raised more than $1.75 million to date.
This year’s show will add the first-ever free “Electric Jam Livestream,” which will take place at 7 p.m. CT during the Jan. 10 concert. The first night will feature an unplugged show, during which the musicians will tell the stories behind their most beloved hits, followed by Saturday night’s high-energy, electric set.
Vig will once again be the musical director for the show, with the Know-It-All-Boyfriends serving as the house band. The festivities will kick off with a Joey’s Song tradition: a battle of the bands between the Boyfriends and their all-female alter egos, the Know-It-All-Girlfriends, each performing randomly chosen songs. The show will end with a jam session featuring a rotating group of musicians playing everything from the participants’ chart hits to deep cuts and their favorite catalog songs.
The real work for Vig is corralling more than 70 singers and musicians into a “giant puzzle” of a band featuring 12 guitarists, 10 drummers, seven bass players, two keyboardists and countless singers. Last year’s setlist was a prime example of the breadth of the night’s performances, which swung from covers of AC/DC, the Beatles, the Clash, Cranberries and Bikini Kill to songs by the Stooges, Chappell Roan, Stevie Nicks, Toto, Talking Heads and David Bowie.
And while the Boyfriends used to famously never rehearse because Vig joked they didn’t want to get “too good,” this year there will be a full run-through and a “fair amount of rehearsing” on Thursday (Jan. 8) of the acoustic and electric sets, as well as the battle of the bands.
Vig says he got involved in Freezing Man because, as it turns out, he knew Gomoll, who was a stage manager at one of Madison’s most beloved rock clubs, Headliners, where the drummer/producer’s pre-Garbage band, Spooner, used to play a lot. He hadn’t seen Gomoll for a long time, though, before being re-introduced to him by Johnston at a festival show a few years ago.
Johnston mentioned he was working on a Joey’s Song benefit and asked if Vig wanted to join up, and after hearing about Gomoll’s heartbreaking loss of his son, the indie rock veteran felt compelled to sign up for what he says were some very personal reasons.
“I have some people in my life who have epilepsy,” says Vig, noting that one of his best friends and a sister-in-law both have the seizure disorder. “I just said, ‘I’m on board, what can I do?’”
In addition to wanting to support a good cause, Vig said the show is just a ton of fun, comparing the “super loose” backstage vibe to “rock and roll summer camp,” with everyone hanging out singing and playing guitar while trying to find a way to hop in on each other’s sets.
And while he was still working on the setlist at press time, asked which newcomers he’s excited about this year, Vig said he’s psyched that Tears For Fears bassist/singer Curt Smith —who toured with Garbage in 2022 — is joining the lineup for the first time.
