‘Back into the light’: Stop The Insanity concert celebrates 10 years of combining music and mental health awareness
Editor’s note: This story includes discussions of mental health struggles. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.
Larry Phillips wants people to know three things about mental health struggles: Remember to forget, it is OK not to be OK, and there is strength in recovery.
He should know. He has faced his own dark times.
In 2008, Phillips was the director of IT for a toy company that closed its doors. He looked for work for nine months without any luck, and said his self worth was challenged, leading to severe depression. He started excluding himself from family events and was becoming angry at friends for doing better than he was doing.
One day, he decided he had had enough. But then a simple text saved his life.
“I helped people with their computer issues, and there was a woman I met at a thrift shop that said she was having trouble keeping track of her medications on her computer. I told her I could help her.”
The text was from that woman: “Larry, I don’t know what you are doing right now, but something told me to get in touch with you. I wanted you to know how much you mean to me and my family and all the help you have given me. My family and I are sitting here talking about you. You are like a brother to them.”
“I realized in that moment that my worth isn’t about making money but helping others,” said Phillips, of Belvidere, and formerly of Carpentersville. “That brought me out of my darkness and back into the light. She saved my life. An angel came to visit me and I didn’t even know.”
In order to help others, Phillips, owner of Rising Star Concert Promotions, created Stop The Insanity, a mental health awareness and suicide prevention event that combines presentations with music in a concert venue. His inspiration for the program was an event he attended in 2015 at Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago called the Conversations Tour, a specialized music and community initiative focused on mental health awareness and suicide prevention. It focused on driving interactive dialogue with fans about struggles that are often stigmatized.
He attended the event with his daughter one year after his own struggles.
“I stood up and told them ‘I love you so much for what you are doing,’” Phillips said. “It was a tough conversation no one else can ever have. I thought, I want to do that one day to break the stigma and to help someone else.”
The 10th edition of Phillips’ Stop The Insanity takes place Saturday, Nov. 14, at RocHaus in West Dundee to support VFW Post 2298. An Army veteran himself, Phillips said he has always wanted to do a fundraiser for the military. Phillips says it is time to bring more awareness to the mental health struggles veterans can face.
“Veterans deserve dignity and our support for serving our country, and they should never feel ridicule or judgment,” he said.
This year’s show will feature In The Flesh — Echoes of Pink Floyd, a Pink Floyd tribute band, and a raffle where the winner will take home an autographed guitar. Proceeds from the raffle will benefit the VFW, which is selling tickets and taking donations to help offset the cost of the show. Raffle tickets, which are $10 each, can be purchased at the VFW, 117 S. 1st St., or during the event.
There is also a Go Fund Me to help offset the costs associated with the event.
Phillips said he chose this type of fundraiser because music brings people together.
“I have been at shows where I didn’t want to go home after. There is such a connection with other people and a memorable experience with all different people coming together,” he said.
He said this is a great way to take the conversation to other people to help break the stigma.
“If I can help just one person in the audience who may be struggling, then I have done my part. That is all I can ask for,” he said.
While Stop The Insanity is Illinois-based, Phillips would like to one day take it national and see it grow. He said people often ask him when he is going to bring a show to their town. For that he would need more bands, venues and some financial help to make it happen. In the meantime, he wants to continue what he is doing to make a difference. And he wants people who are struggling with their mental health to know that a difficult chapter of their life is not their last chapter.
“The things that are behind you will not let you see the things that are in front of you,” Phillips said.
“Find someone you can trust to talk to. It helps to talk things out, to process your thoughts. It provides you with another strength to seek help and take it one day at a time. My hope is that people know that asking for help is not a weakness.”
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Stop The Insanity
When: Saturday, Nov. 14; doors open at 7 p.m., the show starts at 8 p.m.
Where: RocHaus, 96 W. Main St., West Dundee
Tickets: $28.11 (including fees) at eventim.us/event/in-the-flesh-echoes-of-pink-floyd/706210