There have been many moments throughout rock history, when the greatest of the greats got together for a cause and musically did something cool to raise money for those who needed it.

Well in 1989, members of Pink Floyd, Queen, Rush, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Yes, Iron Maiden, and Bad Company joined forces to raise funds for people affected by the Armenian earthquake (which coincidentally affected the future member of System Of A Down).

Brought together by Jon Dee to form Rock Aid Armenia, some of rock’s greatest were brought together to record a cover of Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water”, featuring David Gilmour, Brian May, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Alex Lifeson and Chris Squire on guitars, with Ian Gillan, Bruce Dickinson, Paul Rogers and Bryan Adams on vocals, and Keith Emerson & Geoff Downes on keyboards and Roger Taylor on drums to round the whole thing out.

The song’s release led to funds to rebuild a children's music school in Gyumri, which teaches 220 children a year! Rock Aid Armenia still has its own YouTube channel, where both the video of the song and the documentary of the making of it can be found, or you can watch it in the video above.

There’s never a bad time to enjoy the beauty of great rock music being made by great rock musicians.

Doc Reno