Joel Hamilton's Big Ride

Joel Hamilton

A handful of posts ago, we talked about NYC producer/musician Joel Hamilton's cross-country Vespa ride to raise money for his friend and fellow producer Scott Harding, who was critically injured in a hit-and-run accident while leaving a late night studio session. Joel's trek also benefits FMC's Health Insurance Navigation Tool (HINT) — a free service that provides information to musicians about their health insurance options.

We recently had the chance to catch up with Joel to talk about how the ride came together and why health insurance is such a crucial issue to the music community.

On the ride:
"Scotty and I had this big ride planned up the east coast. . . I was literally sending him Craigslist postings every day about these crazy Vespas, then suddenly the chance to do something fun like this as well as lots of other fun things were ripped out from underneath us. So I was still going to do some sort of ride in honor of my friend. Then someone brought to my attention the Scooter Cannonball Run, which is a ride across the entire country on highway 50. . . If I just sorta hopped in with the rest of these characters, I could do it for charity, for Scotty and for Future of Music Coalition — to bring awareness to people doing good things for musicians."

On health insurance and musicians:
"It's not about how healthy you are. I have people tell me all the time, 'Dude, I don't even really get sick because I eat right.' Health insurance isn't about whether you're prone to getting colds. It's about the fact that you might end up signing your life away when someone else takes your health away from you because of some ridiculous thing like drunk driving. . . it's insurance against someone taking your future away from you — financially and otherwise."

Click here to listen to the podcast (right click or Option click to download). For more info on Joel's ride, visit VespaCoast2Coast.com.