Colts owner Jim Irsay and his band had Lucas Oil Stadium rocking

Indianapolis Colts’ owner Jim Irsay threw a party last night downtown at Lucas Oil Stadium that only he could throw. Tickets were free for the Colts Kickoff concert, and it was no surprise they went fast after last year’s success. When “purchasing” tickets, one did have the ability to donate to Kicking The Stigma which is a great initiative of the Colts that continues to pick up steam.

In 2020, the Indianapolis Colts and the Jim Irsay family launched Kicking The Stigma, an initiative to raise awareness about mental health and remove the stigma often associated with mental health disorders.

Kicking The Stigma’s focus is two-fold: Raising awareness about the prevalence of mental health disorders in our communities and raising and distributing funds to nonprofits and other organizations to expand treatment and research in Indiana and beyond.

Football fans, starving for a return to Colts action, flooded the stadium and were immediately greeted with $10 vouchers for food and drink which was a great way to kick off the evening,

From there, it only got better as you could peruse the halls of LOS and be taken back in time through a series of game worn jerseys and Colts memorabilia. The Jim Irsay Collection is so much more than Colts history, however. There are so many instruments played by the greatest musicians of all time, bits of history like JFK’s rocking chair, Lincoln’s pocketknife, and even Wilson from the movie Castaway.

As much fun as the stroll through history was, the main draw for many was the music. Before that started, the likes of Quenton Nelson, Shaquille Leonard, and Anthony Richardson came out on stage to fire up the crowd and present checks for $250,000 to local hospitals. Richardson even stuck around to watch Criss Angel break Houdini’s record of escaping a straitjacket.

After that, the music started, and fans were treated to Jim Irsay and an insanely talented ensemble. The list and accomplishments are so long, I dare not spend too much time talking about them. From there, it was a parade of some of the biggest names in rock and roll such as Stephen Stills who paid tribute to the late Jimmy Buffet by playing Southern Cross which was the encore song Buffet played at his last concert.

Ann Wilson rocked the stage with her take on a Led Zeppelin classic and of course “Barracuda”. Peter Wolf ran all over the stage and performed hits such as “Centerfold” and “Love Stinks”. To round it all out, John Mellencamp came out in a black jumpsuit and treated fans to “Small Town”, “Pink Houses”, and an unplugged version of “Jack and Diane”.

As the band closed with a fantastic rendition of “Gimme Shelter”, it was impossible to not reflect on how amazing a total package that night was. To have all of that history and all those living legends under one roof was remarkable. To have that experience for free and watch it from the floor of LOS, was priceless.