Guitar maker Gibson launches naloxone distribution at Franklin’s Pilgrimage Festival

At the Pilgrimage Festival over the weekend in Franklin, musicians and crew members were offered doses of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone as part of a targeted campaign by the philanthropic arm of Gibson, the Nashville-based guitar maker.

Fatal overdoses have hit the music industry especially hard, with country singer Luke Bell dying just last month in a suspected overdose as well as the suspected drug death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins earlier this year.

The maker of a brand of naloxone, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, has been pushing free doses to nonprofits who work at concerts. Kloxxado is effectively a double dose of typical naloxone nasal spray, since many overdose victims already need multiple doses to be revived.

Hikma gave 10,000 doses to an Ohio-based nonprofit that worked at Bonnaroo and other festivals this summer distributing the lifesaving medication to fans.

But at Pilgrimage, the target audience was those on stage and behind the scenes. Hikma gave 16,000 doses to Gibson Gives and the TEMPO program, which is using other music health nonprofits to push them out. Pilgrimage was the first festival for the nationwide distribution effort with MusiCares offering training in the artist area.