Don't be surprised if a few years from now you find the Universal Declaration of Human Rights printed in your passport. That's Jack Healey's latest project, and what Healey wants -- at least when it comes to human rights efforts -- he often gets. Or, more accurately, he makes happen.
In 1981, Healey set out to organize a concert tour on behalf of Amnesty International. Five years later, and 20 years ago today, the Conspiracy of Hope tour began; two weeks later, it was a stunning success. With performers such as U2, Sting and the Police, Peter Gabriel, Joan Baez and others on board, the tour visited six cities between June 4 and June 15, 1986. Talk about making things happen: In the immediate aftermath of the tour, four of the six prisoners of conscience the artists had adopted were released, Amnesty's membership nearly tripled within a matter of weeks, and the concerts raised $3 million -- an amount equal to Amnesty's U.S. section's annual budget.
But before the Conspiracy of Hope tour, Amnesty International USA had an identity problem; namely, they didn't have one.
"It was a small organization with a very small representation at colleges, and almost non-existent at high schools or grade schools," Healey told @U2 in a recent phone interview. "It just wasn't known among the young at all. A filmmaker and I stood outside one day -- [on] one of the subways -- and we asked people all day long who was Amnesty and what was it about and what did they do. And nobody really knew about it at all."
Prior to joining Amnesty in 1981, Healey spent four years working for the Peace Corps in Lesotho, Africa. He says the citizens there knew more about Amnesty International than his friends in the U.S. So just months into his Amnesty tenure, Healey paid a visit to legendary concert promoter Bill Graham to float the idea of a concert to raise awareness of Amnesty International and its work.
"We got into kind of a battle because I kept saying he wasn't attached to the issue of human rights enough," Healey says. "But we ended up -- he just said, 'You get the talent, I'll do the show.' And he threw me out. But that was enough."
The idea didn't go anywhere for a few years, in large part because Healey couldn't find the talent that Graham had told him to get. Then everything changed in the winter of 1984, when Healey's secretary walked into his office after going through the day's mail.
"[She said] 'We got a donation from a band called U2.' It was to be kept anonymous, which we did," Healey explained. "It was a nice gift. It wasn't like knockout millions, but it was a very nice gift, and at that time we were pleased to get it. With it came two tickets, and she said her boyfriend or her friend -- [they] wanted to go, and I said 'Yeah, that's great, go. I don't know who they are. Have fun.'"
U2 was playing Radio City Music Hall on December 3rd, and had announced they would donate the show's proceeds to Amnesty. But in the days before the show, the weather turned bad, and Healey's secretary's friend couldn't get to New York. So the secretary insisted that Healey accompany her instead.
"Everybody was standing on the seats," Healey recalls. "And behind the band were slides of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the American Indian. And to my mind, these are two causes that the United States must understand and come to grips with. You know, the taking of the land and the issue of slavery and racism in the United States. And I just said to myself, 'This is my band. This is it.' And of course, the talent on the stage, you know, the fire they had. I thought, 'This band could carry the message of human rights.'"
Fast-forward eight months. August 1985. Amnesty International had a major meeting in Finland, and Healey made sure to find a flight through Dublin so he could talk to U2 about a tour or concert for Amnesty. When he got to the band's offices at Windmill Lane, he found Bono, Larry, and Paul McGuinness there.
"Paul asked me what I wanted, very straight up," Healey says. "And I said, 'I need your band for two weeks. And if you agree, you have to type it up.'"
Healey wanted a commitment in writing so he could convince others that his idea was coming to fruition. But his Amnesty colleagues in Finland were still skeptical. "Nobody believed me! Nobody knew what was up. I tried to tell them, 'We're changing, man. You have no idea what's gonna happen in the United States!' But nobody believed me. They thought I was crazy." And when he called Bill Graham, Graham didn't believe it, either.
"But I knew the human rights movement really changed that day," Healey says. "It really did. No question. I knew what was coming. I knew what was gonna happen. I knew we were gonna grow. I knew we were gonna go into colleges, and high schools, and grade schools. I knew we were gonna be able to get it done."
With U2 on board, Healey set out to get more artists to join the tour.
"I had lunch with Sting at his apartment in New York. It was really neat," Healey remembers. "I said to him, 'Would you reunite the Police?' And he said that would be difficult to do, but he was very like...you know...he was very cool. He told me, 'If you keep it a secret, Jack, I'll try and do that and I think I'll be able to. I'm not positive, but I think I'll be able to.'"
Sting was the second artist on the Conspiracy of Hope tour roster, and others soon followed. Graham's recruits included Lou Reed, Joan Baez, and the Neville Brothers. Bono brought Peter Gabriel on board. They had the artists, they had the tour itinerary, and perhaps most importantly, they convinced MTV to give them 11 hours of programming for the final show at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, as well as the revenue from all the advertising Amnesty could sell.
Putting the tour together was only half the battle. No one involved in the effort had any idea if the Conspiracy of Hope tour would succeed. How would the artists get along? Would everyone -- artists and audience -- understand the message Amnesty was pitching? Healey admits to being nervous before the opening night show, but all his fears soon disappeared.
"I was a bit terrified in San Francisco at the opening, and what happened was -- I had never heard the song 'Biko' before," Healey recalls, referring to the Peter Gabriel song about Stephen Biko, a black leader who died in 1977 from brain injuries suffered while in the custody of South African police. "I was not knowledgeable about Peter Gabriel at all. It wasn't Peter's fault, it was my fault. But when he sang 'Biko' that night, I knew the show was gonna work."
Still, there were problems to overcome -- the kind you'd expect when you get some of the biggest names in music together for a two-week tour. Like, who's going to be the headliner that gets to close each show? Healey answers cautiously when asked if it was a given that U2 would get that honor.
"That's a difficult story. I don't know how to tell that one, Matt. For my purposes, they automatically were the closing band because they were the first to say 'yes.' When the Police closed in Atlanta without my knowledge -- I was upset about that, deeply upset about that."
Healey says he spoke about the situation with U2 and Paul McGuinness, and they agreed to have the Police headline the final two shows in Chicago and New York. Healey also brought it up with Sting.
"He was totally supportive of what I wanted to do," Healey remembers. "He said, 'Jack, you know we don't want to upset anything. We're doing great here. This tour is going wonderful, I'm enjoying it. Jack, I will do -- I will even drop off the tour if you want.' He actually said that to me. He was wonderful."
Healey didn't want Sting or the Police off the tour. And once the air was cleared, the rest of the tour ran smoothly. Except for the flight from Chicago to New York, that is.
The artists and crew were in a great mood. Days earlier in Atlanta they had celebrated with an impromptu jam session at the hotel lounge, everybody getting on stage and playing together into the early morning hours (until they were stopped -- no kidding -- by a bartender who wanted to close up and go home). Healey says everyone felt the tour was working; the audiences were responding to their message.
Spirits were so high that the flight from Chicago to New York was "one big pillow fight," Healey says. And then, a near disaster: When the plane landed in New York, it blew two tires.
"I probably was one of the only ones that knew it," Healey says. "When it hit, it bounced too high, coming back down. It went 'boomp' [makes a sound effect] and up. I thought, 'Holy shit, we're in trouble.' All that talent was almost lost."
Twenty years later, Healey has nothing but fond memories of the Conspiracy of Hope tour. Does he have a favorite show?
"I would guess that the L.A. show was probably the greatest charity show of all time," he says. "I'm not a music guy or a critic or anything, but my guess is L.A. was the best."
And what about U2, specifically?
"I think in Giants Stadium [U2] were probably the best band in the world at that moment, when they came out on that stage that day. They were still raw and rough, but it was a raw roughness that I don't think had ever been seen before. I don't know, but I was awed by their talent that day, and it was truly amazing."
But Healey's favorite memory about that final show at Giants Stadium is what it did for Amnesty International USA.
"It changed everything," Healey says. "Amnesty was branded -- it became a household name that day. There were 45,000 new members, and it just shot up -- just kept going. The 45,000 new members were all under 40. You see, when you change the demography of an organization, Matt, and you make it young -- you have a mailing base forever. [Amnesty's] future was guaranteed."
The Conspiracy of Hope tour isn't the only concert Healey has organized. In 1988, he put together the Human Rights Now! tour. In 2001, as Executive Director of the Human Rights Action Center (HRAC), he organized Groundwork 2001, an anti-hunger concert in Seattle that boasted a lineup of R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews, and others.
Though Healey hasn't seen U2 since 1997, his work with the HRAC has paralleled some of the band's interests. One of the Center's stated goals is to "restore Aung San Suu Kyi to power in Burma." Suu Kyi, of course, is the subject of U2's song, "Walk On," which the band contributed to For the Lady, a 2004 benefit album that Healey coordinated.
And then there's that common interest in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Healey is pleased when told how U2 aired four of the declaration's 50 articles during each Vertigo Tour concert, but he wants it to be truly universal.
"If we got that printed in the passports, I think we all would do better. We'd know our rights, and we'd be able to fight for them better."
If the past is any measure, it's a good bet Healey can make it happen.
Jack Healey is the founder and director of the Human Rights Action Center in Washington, D.C.
(Visit @U2 Events for more information and pictures from the Conspiracy of Hope tour.)
© @U2, 2006.
