Riding for Love

The Love Ride encapsulates many of the elements of the ultimate Southern California experience: celebrities, music, good intentions, great food, freeways, cars, motorcycles, beautiful landscapes and gorgeous sunshine just slightly tinged with exhaust.

Grand marshal Jay Leno and honorary grand marshal Peter Fonda will lead an estimated 20,000 bikers Sunday on Love Ride 15, starting in Glendale and ending at Castaic Lake, where the participants will have a barbecue dinner and hear a concert featuring the Steve Miller Band and George Thorogood and the Destroyers. Lee Rocker, formerly of the Stray Cats, will perform earlier at the registration area in Glendale.

Love Ride 15 is expected to raise more than $1 million for the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. With this year’s earnings, Love Ride will have raised $10 million for the MDA over 15 years.

The Love Ride was founded in 1984 by Oliver Shokouh, the owner of Harley-Davidson of Glendale, to promote a positive image for bikers. The Love Ride 1, with just 500 motorcyclists, raised $40,000.

Today, Love Ride lays claim to being the largest motorcycle fund-raising event in the world, as well as the largest caravan of bikes.

Besides Leno and Fonda, this 50-mile fund-raising trek always attracts celebrity participants. Past events have included Dennis Hopper, Bruce Springsteen, Lorenzo Lamas, Sally Kirkland, Jackson Browne, Dwight Yoakam, Larry Hagman, Billy Idol, Pamela Lee, Kirstie Alley and many others.

Headliner Steve Miller has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity over the last couple of years. In addition to his hard-core fans from the 1970s when he scored hits with songs such as “Fly Like an Eagle,” “The Joker” and “Livin’ in the USA,” new ears are hearing his music as recorded by other artists. Seal’s recording of “Fly Like an Eagle” sold more than 4 million copies and reached Billboard’s top 10, and k.d. Lang’s version of “The Joker” was on her “Drag” CD.

George Thorogood’s raucous blues-rock style first caught the attention of radio audiences 20 years ago with his rockish version of Hank Williams’ “Move It On Over.” Other Thorogood recordings include “Bad to the Bone,” “I Drink Alone” and “Willie and the Hand-Jive.”

Thorogood has opened for the Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Bonnie Raitt, Howlin’ Wolf and others. His latest CD is his 10th album for EMI, “Rockin’ My Life Away.”

Lee Rocker was an original members of the Stray Cats along with Brian Setzer and Slim Jim Phantom. Stray Cats hits include “Rock This Town” and “Stray Cat Strut.”

Love Ride 15 registration is Sunday, 6-10 a.m. Lee Rocker concert and celebrity news conference, 9 a.m. at Harley-Davidson of Glendale, 3717 San Fernando Road. Caravan of bikes leaves Glendale for Castaic Lake at 10 a.m.; Castaic Lake concert and barbecue 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Love Ride 24-hour hotline (818) 246-5618, Ext. 7. $50 participant’s fee.

Country: The band BR5-49 will make a special appearance this Sunday at the Cowboy Palace Saloon in Chatsworth. The band has opened for Bob Dylan, the Black Crowes, Nick Lowe, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, George Jones, John Fogerty and Marty Stuart. And it has had a No. 1 country hit with its recording of “Cherokee Boogie.”

BR5-49 has appeared on David Letterman and Conan O’Brien’s TV shows, “Good Morning, America” and others. The group, which takes its name from an old Junior Samples used-car salesman comedy skit from the old TV show “Hee-Haw,” released its second CD, “Big Backyard Beat Show,” in July.

The Love Sick Prairie Dogs will open, after the Cowboy Palace’s traditional Sunday complimentary barbecue.

And best of all, there’s no cover charge.

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BR5-49, Love Sick Prairie Dogs perform at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Cowboy Palace Saloon, 21633 Devonshire St., Chatsworth. (818) 341-0166. Free admission.