Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath and Lita Ford will bowl for the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund on 12 November, and the event has sold out before anyone has thrown a ball.
Eddie Trunk hosts it at the PINZ Bowling Center in Studio City, as he has for years, and the field this time has a shape to it. Last year's winners, the members of Yachtley Crew, cannot come back to defend what they won, so the trophy is open.
Two teams want it. One is the whole instrumental half of Tool, Adam Jones, Justin Chancellor and Danny Carey, who brought in Jerry Cantrell and Mike Inez of Alice In Chains and filled the last seat with Jeffrey Gordon of Colorado, who bid for it on eBay. The other is Trunk's own, with Butler, Ford, Brent Woods, Chris Jericho of Fozzy and a second eBay winner, Jason Allen of Reno.
Selling a seat on a bowling team to the highest bidder is a straightforward way to raise money, and it puts two strangers in the middle of a lineup that otherwise reads like a festival bill.
The guest list runs long. Rob Nicholson from Ozzy Osbourne's band is going, so are Bjorn Englen of Dio Disciples and David Feinstein of Elf, the band Ronnie James Dio sang in before any of this existed.