Jason Sudeikis’ 7th annual fundraising event THUNDERGONG! returns to Kansas City

On Nov. 11, the annual THUNDERGONG! is set to make its arrival back to Uptown Theater. Benefitting the Steps of Faith Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports amputees through prosthetic funding, care, and hope, tickets go on sale Friday morning at 10 a.m.

With Sudeikis hosting the rock and roll variety show, attendees are in store for an evening full of pleasant surprises. Some of the celebrity guests that will be joining him are his fellow co-star, Brendan Hunt who played ‘Coach Willis Beard’ in the award winning Ted Lasso, as well as Will Forte and Sam Richardson who accompanied Sudeikis last year.

“The show is different every year and I think people that have been know to expect it’s just a crazy, fun time you can’t get anywhere else,” Billy Brimblecom Jr., CEO of Steps of Faith, says.

Also returning, Summer Breeze will be participating in the event, as Brimblecom beats on the drums for the house band.

More acts will be announced as the event continues to draw closer. There will also be surprise guests.

Working on the event each year, Brimblecom and his team put a great deal of effort into making the event special and unique, as well as beneficial to those in need. “It’s kind of like my Super Bowl every year,” he says.

With another opportunity to pair with his life-long friend Sudeikis, Brimblecom is very excited for what is to come.

“We just get to laugh and joke around, get together with mutual friends and just throw a big party,” he says. “It’s very special. It’s like a wonderful phase of life in my relationship with Jason that we get to make this fun thing together.”

Being able to organize the event for the seventh year is extremely important to Brimblecom after losing a leg to Ewing sarcoma, a rare type of cancer.

As a full-time musician at the time, this daunting setback had him out of work for a year. “It was basically like a year of my life being in chemo, and losing my leg in the middle, then more chemo, and learning how to walk again, and then back on the road playing drums,” Brimblecom says.

He was presented with the idea of Steps of Faith by the owner of the prosthetic care clinic that he was a patient at during the time. Soon after, they began their charitable service.

“To pick up this idea and turn it into a real business and a real organization that helps amputees all over the country is a pretty cool part of the story,” Brimblecom says. “I can say that because I didn’t write it. It happened to me.”

Last year’s event raised over $600,000 for Steps of Faith.

Tickets will be available online on Friday at 10 a.m.

THUNDERGONG! 2023 lineup. (Photo courtesy of Will Gregory)