Tommy Thayer at Lopez golf tournament

Mother Nature Network

Links-loving stars turned out for the 5th Annual George Lopez Celebrity Golf Classic benefiting the George Lopez Foundation to raise funds and awareness for kidney disease and organ donation. Held at the Lakeside Country Club, the event raised $500,000 for the cause. “It goes to send kids to camp and help people who are sick and may need a kidney and also may need information. It’s nice to see it get bigger every year,” said Lopez, himself a kidney recipient, who regularly donates a portion of his concert proceeds to the cause. He’s currently doing warm-up dates in preparation for a new HBO special, “It’s Not Me, It’s You,” that he’ll perform July 14 from L.A.’s Nokia Theater.

KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer said his band hasn’t quite figured out how to reduce energy consumption on tours like the big one they’re launching this summer, but he does what he can to do so at home. “We try to cut back and conserve as much as we can on our utilities. You get perks from the electric company and the water company if you do that. We recycle regularly and are really diligent about that. I probably could do better, to be honest with you — I think we all could — but it’s something I think about.”

A self-described “middle of the road golfer” who plays every week or so and tries to squeeze in an occasional game on the road, Thayer came down to support Lopez, who did the same for him at a fundraiser a couple of years ago. “I’m on the board of trustees of Pacific University in Oregon, and I host a fundraiser for the school’s endowment every summer,” he explained. Band mates Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons don’t share his love of golf, but Simmons “did make a valiant attempt” for the Oregon benefit. “He came up with a crew from ‘Gene Simmons Family Jewels’ to film, and they did a whole episode around him trying to play golf.”

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