Last night (January 16th), drummer Mike Portnoy (DREAM THEATER), bassist David Ellefson (HAIL!, ex-MEGADETH), singer Tim "Ripper" Owens (Hail!, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN) and guitarist Phil Demmel (MACHINE HEAD) took part in an an all-star jam to benefit Chi Cheng (DEFTONES) at the Slide Bar in Fullerton, CA. Cheng has been in a semi-conscious state since being involved in a horrific accident in November 2008, and his family has accumulated an overwhelming amount of medical bills that insurance does not entirely cover.

Hail! have issued the following post-benefit report:

"The show last night at the Slide Bar went amazing! The place was packed to the rafters and the line extended around the block till long after we played. Thanks to all your wonderful support the event was a tremendous success and over $100,000 was raised to help offset Chi Cheng from the Deftones medical expenses. It was an honor to be able to contribute to this benefit event – we wish you the best Chi and hope for your continued and full recovery.

We originally planned a six song set of 'Ace Of Spades', 'Breaking The Law', 'Grinder', 'Paranoid' and 'Run To The Hills' but as we are prone to do we threw in two more that even we didn’t know we were going to play! We were having such a good time that we spontaneously broke into 'Cold Gin' and ended the night with 'The Trooper'. As Andreas was not with us (he was in Brazil), Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel, and THE LETTER BLACK guitarist, Mark Anthony, filled in and did an amazing job. These guys both killed it and we thank them profusely. Mike Portnoy played drums and was his usual ridiculously great. Due to the nature of the event, we weren’t able to rehearse or even soundcheck so when we stepped on stage it was literally the first notes we ever played together.

Most surreal memory of the evening was that there were no dressing rooms in the club so we changed and hung out in the kitchen of the restaurant as the staff actively cooked all around us. Check out our photo section for some funny pictures.

LIT guitarist, Jeremy Popoff, who owns the venue, along with the event promoter, Danny Hill, took good care of us and we thank them. It was a fun warm up for our shows in New York and Boston next week – we’re looking forward to them and will see you all soon."

(Photo by Javier Arce)