Marco Collins is a Seattle radio legend. In the 1990’s, while DJing at 107.7 The End, he was the first in the country to play Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Weezer, the Presidents of the United States and several other bands that define the grunge movement. But when he wasn’t spinning their records, Marco was joining them in the late night, alcohol and drug fueled rock and roll world.

“My struggle is well documented at this point,” Marco says with a laugh, eluding to The Glamour & The Squalor, a documentary made about his rise and fall, that debuted earlier this year. “But for those that don’t know, I’ve struggled with addiction for years now. I got to a point where the wheels had really fallen off the wagon. I left a job at VH1, I went to Miami, ran out of money. I was basically being kicked out of a hotel and onto the street. My bags were packed and on the sidewalk. I was homeless.”

That’s when a friend connected him with MusiCares.

“MusiCares is often referred to as the Red Cross of the music industry,” says Erica Krusen, senior director of MusiCares, a non-profit under the umbrella of the Recording Academy in Los Angeles. “We help people with everything from addiction recovery, which includes detox, sober living, sober groups, AA groups across the country. We also help with basic living expenses that includes rent, utilities, car payments, medical assistance, dental payments. And then, unfortunately, even funeral and burial expenses.”

Krusen is married to Dave Krusen, the original Pearl Jam drummer, who once struggled with addiction. She watched as drugs and alcohol took over the lives of many Seattle musicians.

Marco says MusiCares saved his life.

“Got me on a plane to LA, put me up for six months in sober living. They’ve also put me through rehab, therapy on top of that. They’ve really helped me when everything else has fallen out.”

Marco didn’t have to pay a dime, and now he wants to give back. So on Thursday, December 3rd, he’s producing a benefit show at Neumo’s, called Every Little Counts, featuring some of his favorite Seattle bands.

“One hundred percent of the proceeds of the door is going directly to MusiCares,” Collins says. “All the bands are playing for free.”

Beyond raising money, Collins and Krusen want to get the word out to people in the music industry that there is help available.

“Really, if you need help you just call,” Krusen says. “To qualify you just need to have worked at least five years in the music industry or you have credited contribution to six commercially released recordings or videos. If you’ve got stuff out on the Internet that can go through iTunes or SoundCloud, and you can document that you have at least six, or five years, then you will qualify for us. A lot of people assume you have to be an artist, this is not true. You can be an engineer, you can be a DJ, you can be a producer, you can be a music executive at a record label.”

Krusen says MusiCares was founded by a past president of the Recording Academy who watched some of the great American jazz musicians pass away with nothing, because they didn’t have the royalties they should have. He wanted to stop the cycle. And there’s no denying the connection musicians have to alcohol and drugs.

“It sort of comes with the territory of being a creative individual,” says Collins. “There’s always going to be those demons that you battle and I think musicians go through that a lot. Having an organization like MusiCares sort of step in and help and rescue some of these people when they’re in a really bad place, it’s such an important thing. I don’t think that I would have been alive. Honestly, I think that they have saved my life many times,”

Click here for tickets to the benefit.

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