NEW HARD ROCK CAFE HOLLYWOOD AND FAMED GUITARIST SAMMY HAGAR STAGE WORLD'S LARGEST GUITAR LESSON

New Hard Rock Cafe Grand Opening Highlighted by Huge $350,000 Donation to NARAS(R) Foundation's `Grammy in the Schools' Supporting L.A. City

                    School Music Education Programs

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The largest Hard Rock Cafe in the West opened today at Universal CityWalk with the world's biggest outdoor guitar lessons ever staged and one of the most substantial donations ever made to school music programs in Los Angeles.

To celebrate the grand opening, the Hard Rock Cafe continued its ongoing commitment to help its surrounding community and preserve the importance of education by donating $350,000 to the NARAS (National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences) Foundation's "Grammy in the Schools" which will be used to create music education programs throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The Hard Rock Cafe will donate every dollar spent during the opening weekend to the "Grammy in the Schools" program and will donate money generated from the sales of a new T-shirt featuring the slogan "Humanity Is Instrumental" to the national program. In addition, the Hard Rock will donate the 1,000 Washburn electric-acoustic guitars to the L.A. schools. The guitars were first played by 1,000 music students who joined the Los Angeles All-City Marching Band and Van Halen's Sammy Hagar in the guitar lesson and jam.

"We are extremely excited about the opening of the Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood at Universal CityWalk," Hard Rock Cafe Founder Peter Morton said. "This location will become our flagship Hard Rock Cafe for the '90s and is our first grand opening in our 25th Anniversary year. I'm also proud to be working with NARAS and their `Grammy in the Schools' program. In an era of continuing cuts in educational funding, it is vital that music history and education continue to have a place in our public schools."

"Grammy in the Schools" is a non-profit program which meets the needs of high school students by defining career opportunities in music and recording through a variety of interactive workshops and master classes while providing access to professional performers and drawing attention to music education. The Hard Rock Hollywood grand opening did just that as Hagar and his band Los Tres Gusanos led 1,000 young guitarists in a one-of-a-kind music lesson. It was the first U.S. performance of Hagar's group.

"When I was a kid I looked forward to going to school because of music and the Arts," stated Sammy Hagar. "If those programs had not existed, I would probably have dropped out. For the kids out there, like me, it must be frustrating to have their music programs cut. Mike, Dave and I are happy to do something to help." Michael Greene, President/CEO of NARAS(R) added, "The National Academy of Recording Arts And Sciences would like to thank the Hard Rock Cafe and Van Halen's Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony for helping us to raise much needed funds for our non-profit NARAS Foundation. This significant financial commitment will help our `Grammy in the Schools' program return music education to Los Angeles County schools and ensure L.A. students' access to our rich cultural legacy."

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/CONTACT: Stuart Zanville of Universal CityWalk, 818-622-3002/

CO: Hard Rock America ST: California IN: ENT RST SU:

JP-xx -- LAF030 -- 3416 01/12/96 16:00 EST