Judas Priest, Rick Springfield, John Oates and Bob Geldof reflect on 40 years of Live Aid

NEW YORK (AP) — Forty years ago, the legendary Live Aid concerts aimed to do a lot of good — helping to raise over $100 million for famine relief in Ethiopia and inspiring worldwide awareness for a cause it might otherwise have ignored.

Simulcast from Philadelphia and London on July 13, 1985, Live Aid was the most ambitious global television event of its time: 16 hours of live music in two different continents featuring Queen, The Who, a Led Zeppelin reunion and more.

A lot has changed in the years since. “Live Aid, '85 to now, is the same distance as the Second World War from Live Aid,” notes Rick Springfield, laughingly. “That’s how long ago it was.”

Artists who performed at Live Aid — Springfield, organizer Bob Geldof, Hall and Oates' John Oates and Judas Priest's Rob Halford — reflected on the event and its impact in interviews with The Associated Press ahead of the 40th anniversary on Sunday.

Here's what they had to say:

At John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Springfield performed between Run-DMC and REO Speedwagon — just a taste of the diversity of performers featured on the transnational lineup. “Run-DMC, I remember thinking, ‘What is this? Three guys talking over a record player. What is that? Little did I know that it was about to change the whole game,” he says, laughing. He remembers playing an electric set — no “Jessie’s Girl,” because “back then, it was just my first hit. ... It hadn't gone on to become this cultural thing."

Hall and Oates' John Oates had a different experience. His band also played in Philly — their hometown — and in 1985, his band was one of the biggest on the planet. They played near the end of the night, joined by the Temptations' Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin and remained on stage to back the Rolling Stones' dynamic frontman Mick Jagger. The British rockstar had a trick up his sleeve.

“He didn't tell us that he was bringing Tina Turner out,” Oates says. “We had rehearsed a certain amount of songs with him. But then when he brought her out, it just jacked up the level of energy like you can’t believe.”

Judas Priest singer Rob Halford counts “Mike and Tina, of course,” as one of his Philly Live Aid highlights. “Led Zeppelin, too.”

But most exciting of all for the heavy metal frontman? Meeting folk hero Joan Baez. The band had previously covered her classic “Diamonds and Rust."

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, she’s gonna come and kick me in the ass for wrecking her beautiful song,’” he recalls. “She gives me a quick hug and goes, ‘The reason I’m here is because my son said to me, if you see Rob Halford from Judas Priest at the Live Aid Show in Philadelphia, will you tell him from me that I prefer Judas Priest’s version to my mom’s version?' ... It was a display of such kindness."

Twenty years after Live Aid, Geldof organized Live 8 — an even larger undertaking in the new internet era, with 10 concerts happening simultaneously and across the globe.

If the trend were to continue, there should be another event taking place this year. Notably, there isn't.

Geldof says that's because there couldn't be a Live Aid-type event in 2025. He cites social media as a cause. In his view, algorithmic fracturing has made it impossible to create monolithic musical and activistic moments. Instead, he views the current media landscape as bolstering "an echo chamber of your own prejudices.”

For something like Live Aid to work, “You need rock ‘n’ roll as a creature of a social, economic and technological movement," he says. “And I think the rock ‘n’ roll age is over. ... It did determine how young people articulated change and the desire for it. ... That isn't the case anymore.”

Springfield agrees. “I think we are too divided,” he says. He believes the world wouldn't be able to agree on a single cause to support, or even which musicians to back. “You could never do a thing with the size of Live Aid unless it was some kind of universal thing of, ‘Let’s bring everybody together.’”

“Never say never, but I highly doubt it,” says Oates. “The landscape of music and entertainment in general has changed so drastically."

He points to “We Are The World,” the 1985 charity single for African famine relief that included the voices of Michael Jackson, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Paul Simon and many more, as an example. “The idea of that happening with the stars of today all in one place, I can’t even imagine that. And plus, who would they be? ... How many songs are released every day?”

Halford echoes the other's sentiments. There's an undeniable “extremism in the world right now,” he says, that would make a Live Aid event challenging to pull off in 2025. But he doesn't think it's impossible. He uses January's Fire Aid — the LA wildfire benefit concert featuring Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder and a Nirvana reunion — as a recent example.

“There will always be empathy from people,” and in the right hands, maybe another event like Live Aid could take place. “It was a tremendously beautiful, humanitarian example ... that provided us opportunity to do something ourselves to help.”

FILE - Princess Diana, left, and Prince Charles attend the Live Aid concert as they acknowledge the crowd with event organizer Bob Geldof, right, at London's Wembley Stadium, on July 13, 1985. (AP Photo/Joe Schaber, File)

FILE - Led Zeppelin bandmates, singer Robert Plant, left, and guitarist Jimmy Page, perform for the Live Aid famine relief concert at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta, File)

FILE - George Michael, from left, concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith, Bono, Paul McCartney, Bob Geldof, and Freddie Mercury appear during the London Live Aid Famine Relief Concert in London on July 13, 1985. (AP Photo/Joe Schaber, File)

FILE - John Oates, from left, G.E.Smith and Daryl Hall perform at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia for the Live Aid famine relief concert on July 13, 1985. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta, File)

FILE - Rick Springfield performs at Live Aid, a famine relief concert at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia Pa., Jon uly 13, 1985. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sluggish December hiring concluded a year of weak employment gains that have frustrated job seekers even though layoffs and unemployment have remained low.

Employers added just 50,000 jobs last month, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November, a figure also revised lower.

The data suggests that businesses are reluctant to add workers even as economic growth has picked up. Many companies hired aggressively after the pandemic and no longer need to fill more jobs. Others have held back due to widespread uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies, elevated inflation, and the spread of artificial intelligence, which could alter or even replace some jobs.

Still, economists were encouraged by the drop in the unemployment rate, which had risen in the previous four straight reports. It had also alarmed officials at the Federal Reserve, prompting three cuts to the central bank's key interest rate last year. The decline lowered the odds of another rate reduction in January, economists said.

“The labor market looks to have stabilized, but at a slower pace of employment growth,” Blerina Uruci, chief economist at T. Rowe Price, said. There is no urgency for the Fed to cut rates further, for now."

Some Federal Reserve officials are concerned that inflation remains above their target of 2% annual growth, and hasn't improved since 2024. They support keeping rates where they are to combat inflation. Others, however, are more worried that hiring has nearly ground to a halt and have supported lowering borrowing costs to spur spending and growth.

November's job gain was revised slightly lower, from 64,000 to 56,000, while October's now shows a much steeper drop, with a loss of 173,000 positions, down from previous estimates of a 105,000 decline. The government revises the jobs figures as it receives more survey responses from businesses.

The economy has now lost an average of 22,000 jobs a month in the past three months, the government said. A year ago, in December 2024, it had gained 209,000 a month. Most of those losses reflect the purge of government workers by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Nearly all the jobs added in December were in the health care and restaurant and hotel industries. Health care added 38,500 jobs, while restaurants and hotels gained 47,000. Governments — mostly at the state and local level — added 13,000.

Manufacturing, construction and retail companies all shed jobs. Retailers cut 25,000 positions, a sign that holiday hiring has been weaker than previous years. Manufacturers have shed jobs every month since April, when Trump announced sweeping tariffs intended to boost manufacturing.

Wall Street and Washington are looking closely at Friday's report as it's the first clean reading on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.

The hiring slowdown reflects more than just a reluctance by companies to add jobs. With an aging population and a sharp drop in immigration, the economy doesn't need to create as many jobs as it has in the past to keep the unemployment rate steady. As a result, a gain of 50,000 jobs is not as clear a sign of weakness as it would have been in previous years.

And layoffs are still low, a sign firms aren't rapidly cutting jobs, as typically happens in a recession. The “low-hire, low-fire” job market does mean current workers have some job security, though those without jobs can have a tougher time.

Ernesto Castro, 44, has applied for hundreds of jobs since leaving his last in May. Yet the Los Angeles resident has gotten just three initial interviews, and only one follow-up, after which he heard nothing.

With nearly a decade of experience providing customer support for software companies, Castro expected to find a new job pretty quickly as he did in 2024.

“I should be in a good position,” Castro said. “It’s been awful.”

He worries that more companies are turning to artificial intelligence to help clients learn to use new software. He hears ads from tech companies that urge companies to slash workers that provide the kind of services he has in his previous jobs. His contacts in the industry say that employees are increasingly reluctant to switch jobs amid all the uncertainty, which leaves fewer open jobs for others.

He is now looking into starting his own software company, and is also exploring project management roles.

December’s report caps a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after April's “liberation day” tariff announcement by Trump. The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of 2025. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.

Last year, the economy gained just 584,000 jobs, sharply lower than that more than 2 million added in 2024. It's the smallest annual gain since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the job market in 2020.

Subdued hiring underscores a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.

Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid, and Trump's tax cut legislation is expected to produce large tax refunds this spring. Yet economists acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.

Productivity, or output per hour worked, a measure of worker efficiency, has improved in the past three years and jumped nearly 5% in the July-September quarter. That means companies can produce more without adding jobs. Over time, it should also boost worker pay.

Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year's July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.

FILE - A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Northbrook, Ill., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)