Copyright Screen Rant
Though he may best be known for his villainous performances, Robert Patrick is very dedicated to his charitable endeavors, one of which is about to return after a hiatus with Love Ride 34. The acclaimed character actor, who is known for everything from playing the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day to Auggie Smith in James Gunn's Peacemaker, is both an Honorary Grand Marshal and on the Board of Directors for the motorcycle-based organization that launched in 1984. Originally created by Oliver Shokouh and headed up now by Harley-Davidson founders descendants Bill Davidson and Karen Davidson, Love Ride brings motorcyclists from across Southern California, including such celebrities as Jay Leno, also a Grand Marshal, Steven Tyler and many of Patrick's Sons of Anarchy co-stars, for a 55-mile ride to Castaic Lake. Including live music and food, the group is dedicated to raising money for different causes over the past 40 years, having thus far raised over $25 million. In honor of the event's return on Sunday, November 9, ScreenRant interviewed Robert Patrick to discuss Love Ride 34. The actor opened up about the six-year delay between events, the logistical hurdles they faced in an effort to find the A-list talent to headline the musical side of the event, why they chose the causes to donate to for this year's events, and the hopes for bigger events in the coming years. Love Ride 34's Long-Awaited Kickoff Is Just The Start Of What's To Come From The Event's Plans Patrick, who has been a motorcycle enthusiast for decades and is a member of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club, has been with Love Ride as their Honorary Grand Marshal for the past 15 years. After originally occurring on an annual basis, the event went on hiatus for six years, which the star acknowledges began as they were "interrupted by COVID", as was the rest of the country. However, even as the world started to open back up, Patrick and the rest of the Love Ride team still had a number of factors to account for to try and resume their proceedings. For starters, there was "a lot of capital investment you have to make from your businesses to bankroll the whole event", as a multi-location event and having musical acts is a "huge undertaking" and requires plenty of "infrastructure", which he praises his business partner Oliver Shokouh for "gladly doing every year". Recalling how the previous event was headlined by Dave Grohl and his Backbeat BBQ company, as well as his friend's band, Chevy Metal, Patrick reveals that the other major hurdle for Love Ride 34 was that "we needed to secure an act". Denoting that COVID shutdowns have seen many bands take to touring as much as possible and "make money" after the hiatuses, it became "hard to find an A-list act that you can build the whole event around". We were doing, like, a year's worth of work in about a four-month period. Fortunately for Patrick, he became friends with former KISS frontman Gene Simmons while filming the CBS thriller Scorpion and was able to get in touch with him to be part of Love Ride 34. "Gene is such a big supporter of our troops and Wounded Warrior that he jumped right in. He had no hesitation whatsoever," Patrick shared. "So once we got Gene, we were off and flying. I think I met with Gene in May, so we've been working on it since June." In addition to the Gene Simmons Band, Patrick revealed that Love Ride 34 will include musical performances from Chevy Metal, Jackyl's Jesse James Dupree, Guns N' Roses' Gilby Clarke, Poison's Rikki Rockett, Kenny Aronoff, The Doors' Robby Krieger and Scott Ian from Anthrax. The star praised Simmons for being a "great guy" and having loved KISS back when he was "going to high school in the '70s", with his second concert being that of the rock band at Cobo Hall outside of Detroit: And this band, Brent Woods, is pretty much the guy that put the whole thing together for us. He's Gene's guitar player, and he's also in Chevy Metal. The Chevy Metal guys were the last band to play for us in the Love Ride, and that was at my new dealership, Harley-Davidson Santa Clarita. So this time, we're going back to the big Castaic Lake venue north of my dealership in Santa Clarita. We'll leave Glendale Harley, right up the 5 highway, go right past Harley-Davidson Santa Clarita, and then we'll go to Castaic Lake. And then, after the concert ends, we'll come back down to Harley-Davidson Santa Clarita and have an after party there, and there's going to be another band there. With just a few days remaining until it kicks off, Patrick found himself excited about Love Ride's return for a couple of reasons. Looking at the forecast, the star said "it's going to be 75–80 degrees" with "blue skies" come Sunday, November 9, describing it as the "perfect weather" for the 55-mile ride through Southern California up to Castaic Lake. Additionally, this is the first Love Ride to be "powered by Harley-Davidson Motor Company", with the manufacturer officially taking part in the 34th version of the event, which has always started at Harley-Davidson of Glendale, and Patrick thinks is going to be a big boon for future outings: The motor company is committed to helping us get this back up and running, and then, hopefully next year, we'll do it again, and it'll be even bigger, and we'll just keep building it, building it and building it back. This Year's Causes Have Some Meaningful Motives Behind Them As previously noted, Love Ride has raised over $25 million for a wide variety of causes. One of their more recurring is that of the Wounded Warrior Project, the nonprofit that offers numerous programs and services for veterans who incurred injuries in the line of duty, while others have included an organization for muscular dystrophy, the L.A. Times' Reading by 9, the literacy initiative looking to support parents and educators of elementary-school children, and the United Service Organizations, another nonprofit dedicated to providing entertainment and other programs to enlisted military members. For Love Ride 34, the event is dedicating its fundraising efforts to Wounded Warrior and Adopt the Arts, the organization that has seen everyone from Guns N' Roses' Slash to Sammy Hagar, Metallica and Aerosmith come together to support music and the arts in education. In looking at how they chose this year's causes, Patrick explains that Harley-Davidson has been "committed to donating to Wounded Warrior" for much of their history, even recently introducing the Ride for Heroes campaign. "Harley has a direct tie to the United States military," Patrick shared. "The Harley-Davidson motorcycle went to war with our troops in World War I, it went to war with our troops in World War II. And the men and women that rode the Harleys in those foreign countries came back to America, and they bought the surplus Harley-Davidsons that were available through the government, and they chopped them all up. That created the motorcycle culture, the club culture, which rolled into, like, the movie The Wild One, and that whole biker community." That's what's cool about this event, and that's where the cool part of rock and roll comes in, too. Pointing out that the early motorcycle clubs were composed of "veterans that were dealing with post-traumatic stress syndrome", Harley-Davidson took to not only acknowledging this history, but becoming "committed to the men and women of our armed forces". With the manufacturer officially powering the new Love Ride, their donation to Wounded Warrior is part of all of their efforts to "help with the aftercare at home" for veterans. I'm involved with a lot of different veterans organizations; Rolling Thunder, taps.org, USO, Coalition to Salute America's Heroes, the Combat Control Foundation. I'm actually the ambassador for the Combat Control Foundation. My participation in motorcycling and the Harley lifestyle has given me the opportunity to ride with Vietnam vets back to Washington, DC for the POW/MIA issue. Run for the Wall Memorial Day. I've done it 19 times over the last 20–25 years, and been there to advocate for them. I've ridden my Harley at the White House, I was invited there by President Trump in his first administration, with AMVETS, another organization I ride with. Expressing that he's "met so many fantastic people" in his time in the world of motorcycles, Patrick is proud that throughout his tenure with Love Ride and the Boozefighters it's "always been my Harley" and that he and the organization have "been able to do so many charitable works with the passion we have for riding".
