By Alex Biese
RED BANK – Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Steven Van Zandt brought together music legends, comedy icons, and national educational leaders at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in downtown Red Bank Oct. 17 for a landmark celebration honoring both his career and the nation’s educators.
The day featured an afternoon ceremony inducting Van Zandt onto the Count Basie Center Walk of Fame, followed by the inaugural TeachRock Teachers Hall of Fame Gala before an audience of nearly 1,500 guests, according to a news release.
The event began along Monmouth Street, where longtime friend and fellow New Jersey rock icon Jon Bon Jovi joined Van Zandt to induct him onto the Walk of Fame. Bon Jovi, who received his own star on the Walk of Fame last fall, helped welcome his friend into the distinguished roster of artists permanently commemorated on a sidewalk plaque outside the theater.
Count Basie Center president and CEO Adam Philipson noted that Van Zandt, a former board member who helped expand the campus, “takes his place among an extraordinary group of artists and visionaries whose names will forever be part of the Basie Center’s history.”
While the Walk of Fame honor recognized Van Zandt’s personal artistic legacy, the Middletown-raised guitarist emphasized in an interview prior to the event that the day’s primary focus belonged to classroom teachers. “More importantly, we’re starting the Teachers Hall of Fame, and that’s very, very exciting,” Van Zandt told The Two River Times. “Teachers change lives every day, usually without anybody applauding them for it. This night is about changing that.”
That evening, comedian and actor Pete Davidson took the stage to host the inaugural gala. The program opened with a performance by 40 student singers from the Sing for Hope Chorus at Amani Public Charter School in Mount Vernon, New York, who performed Van Zandt’s song “Out of the Darkness.”
The benefit included comedy sets by Jeff Ross and Ricky “Rickonia” Smith as well as performances by the E Street Choir, featuring keyboardist Charlie Giordano and percussionist Anthony Almonte.
Teachers Honored
One of the evening’s biggest moments arrived when Bruce Springsteen made a surprise appearance on stage to present the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award to Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello in memory of his late mother, activist and lifelong educator Mary Morello.
Reflecting on Mary Morello’s impact, Van Zandt praised her pioneering spirit in education. “His mom was an extremely special person and a wonderful example of a great teacher at a time when it was not so easy to do that,” Van Zandt said. “Everybody was concentrating on staying within the rule book, and it was the more enlightened teachers like her that went outside the box a little bit and went that extra mile to make sure that the kids are being educated.”
The gala put teachers front and center, honoring an inaugural class of educators recognized for their creative approach to student engagement. Along with Mary Morello, the inductees included Kathy Durham of West Wendover High School in Nevada, recipient of the Trailblazer Award, and Patrick “Mac” McGuire of Mountain Vista High School in Colorado, recipient of the Impact Award. Asbury Park’s Tanya Peterson of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School received the Joy in Learning Award. Peterson’s school was among the earliest adopters of TeachRock’s curriculum.
TeachRock was founded by Van Zandt with support from Springsteen, Bono, Jackson Browne and Martin Scorsese to address high school dropout rates by embedding music into learning. Today, the nonprofit’s free curriculum is used by more than 80,000 educators across all 50 states, reaching over one million students.
In his interview, Van Zandt explained that TeachRock transforms traditional STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math) into STEAM by inserting the arts directly into core coursework. Rather than competing with digital distractions, the curriculum meets students on their own terms.
“We call it teaching in the present tense,” Van Zandt explained. “Every single kid is into music, so that’s the common ground between the teacher and the student.”
The evening concluded with a crowd-pleasing performance by North Jersey hit-makers Kool & the Gang that turned the theater into a celebratory dance party. A fundraising auction featuring autographed prints from John Mellencamp and Ringo Starr, along with original artwork by music producer Ron Aniello, raised vital funds to ensure TeachRock remains 100% free for teachers nationwide.
“Tonight was about putting teachers center stage and giving them the kind of recognition we usually reserve for rock stars,” said Bill Carbone, executive director of TeachRock, in the news release. “This celebration was for all of them.”
This article originally appeared in the November 5-11, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
