Randy Ballinger's punk band Jersey Calling to open for Adjacent Music Festival
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS) -- An injured Philadelphia firefighter and aspiring musician is getting his big break. Randy Ballinger was severely injured when he fell 25 feet from a roof, fighting a fire back in February.
Ballinger is an aspiring musician and plays guitar in his punk band Jersey Calling.
After hearing about Ballinger's story, Geoff Gordon, the president of Live Nation Northeast, invited his band to open for the upcoming Adjacent Music Festival.
"This unreal opportunity to open the Adjacent Music Festival is giving me plenty of motivation to accelerate my recovery," Ballinger said in a news release. "This is the inspiration I need to keep going. I am going to deliver my best performance."
The festival is this Saturday and Sunday on the beach in Atlantic City.
"Randy is a real hero who is inspiring with his courage," Gordon said. "We are grateful for the work that he and first responders do every day. Music has a unique power to bring us together and it also has an ability to heal. We are psyched to give Randy and his band some hope and an opportunity to perform in front of a large audience on the beach in Atlantic City and in front of some of their favorite bands they adore."
Ballinger is still recovering in a wheelchair and practices with his band.
The Adjacent Music Festival will have several local bands, including Philadelphia's Japanese Breakfast, The Starting Line and Mannequin Pussy and New Jersey's Bleachers, among others.
Paramore and Blink 182 are headlining the festival.
