Greg Hipskind Memorial Jam in East Moline to Honor Quad-Cities Music Icon
It’s fitting that a Memorial Jam concert for Greg Hipskind will be held Valentine’s Day, Saturday, Feb. 14 at The Rust Belt in East Moline, at 7 p.m.
That’s because the beloved drummer, teacher, and director of QC Rock Academy – who died unexpectedly on Jan. 3 – had a huge heart, and the love and talent of the QC music community he nurtured will be on full display that night.
“It’s taken a village to organize this,” Sudeshna Epping of Bettendorf, one of the Rock Academy parents putting the free event together, said Thursday. Other organizers include parent Erin McChesney, Rock Academy instructors Billy Gardner and Bryce Swanson, the band Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls (for which Hipskind was drummer), and Kenny Bailey, owner of Rascals and Rust Belt.
Hipskind, 49, died on Jan. 3, 2026 (from a sudden heart attack), leaving behind his wife Jenny, and their two young daughters (Leah and Emma, in 6th and 8th grades). A GoFundMe page to help the family was established Jan. 4 by Epping, and has raised over $40,000 for the Hipskind family.
Greg Hipskind, a Moline High alum who was a longtime drummer, teacher and director of QC Rock Academy, died of a heart attack at age 49 on Jan. 3, 2026.
“On January 3rd, we lost a pillar of the Quad City music community. Greg Hipskind dedicated his life to music and mentoring and inspiring the next generation of musicians as the owner of the Quad City Rock Academy,” the GoFundMe says. “Greg was one in a million – he embodied the heart of rock ‘n’ roll and touched the lives of so many. Greg was a beloved husband, father, son, bandmate, friend, and mentor to countless students.
“The Rock Academy students and their families are so blessed to have been amongst those whose lives were impacted for the better thanks to Greg. He believed in each and every child that walked through the doors of the Rock Academy and did everything in his power to help them reach their true potential.”
Greg Hipskind and his wife Jenny, who is managing editor at WQAD-TV.
His wife Jenny later added to the GoFundMe page:
“I want to thank you all from the bottom of my broken heart.
“Your generosity has allowed me to take two additional weeks unpaid off of work, as I both grieve and get the ball rolling on keeping Greg’s dream alive. My head is swimming with numbers and to-do lists, but we’re not going to let the Rock Academy die with Greg. I know he wouldn’t want that. I still can’t believe he left us as suddenly as he did, but I know he left us with so much love and so many memories.”
The power of music and friendship
Epping and her husband Tim have two sons who are in Rock Academy bands. Their older son Raunak, 14, is a guitarist for 7 Ark, and also plays with his younger brother Kiran, 10 (who’s the vocalist in the band Facecarver). Raunak is now an 8th grader at Pleasant Valley Junior High, and 7 Ark rehearses once a week for an hour.
The Rock Academy holds an annual Battle of the Bands at Rascals in Moline, and 7 Ark won the upper division (based on experience) this past November, and Facecarver won the lower division, which includes votes from the public and judges.
7 Ark wrote a song in December 2024 with Hipskind, “Stand Your Ground,” which they recorded last summer at Skylark in Rock Island (available on streaming services), and will perform on Saturday night.
“That was the last song they ever recorded with Greg,” Sudeshna said, noting Hipskind usually didn’t write with the bands he coached. “Greg was so proud of this one. This was just such a sense of pride.”
Sudeshna Epping of Bettendorf (left) with her sons Kiran (center) and Raunak.
Hipskind, who coached 7 Ark, was so proud of them for winning Battle of the Bands (their fourth time participating, including winning the first two in the younger division).
“Greg was a special type of human,” Epping said Thursday. “I mean he made everyone feel loved and he made everyone feel like they were important and you know, but there was just something, he had a special bond with these boys. I mean any of the other bands at the Academy knew, oh those 7 Ark boys, special treatment. They get all the gigs.
The Rock Academy alumni band BTDT (formerly Been There Done That) will play at the Memorial Jam Saturday night, Feb. 14 at The Rust Belt, East Moline. They first formed in 2016 and are now students at Belmont University in Nashville.
“But really what it was, Greg was a true believer in if you put in the time and you put in the effort, if you work hard for me, I’m gonna work hard for you,” she said. “If you come to practice and you show me that you are on it and you are applying everything that you’ve learned and you are ready to go. I am motivated that much more motivated to work harder for you to get to the gigs and the shows. And so it was really that and he knew he could depend on these boys. Like they were professional little musicians.”
Hipskind had a profound influence on the boys in 7 Ark.
“When somebody loves and believes in your child, it’s a special bond that you forge with them,” Epping said. “This is somebody who just could see something in your child that no one else could see because it was, I mean these kids are 10 and at that time my younger one was 7 going on 8 and he said even then when this kid was 7, you know, mark my words, he’s going to be a front man.”
Members of 7 Ark, at the Rust Belt are (L-R) Landon Taylor, Raunak Epping, Dom Stutenberg, and Landon Sanders.
“I’m like, I don’t know what you’re talking about Greg,” she recalled. “It’s that belief and going above and beyond to do everything in his power to help these children succeed. I mean as a parent that, I don’t know, you never forget that, right?”
“So it was a very special relationship that the parents at the Rock Academy shared with Greg because of how much he would do for all of our kids,” Epping said, noting his death was the first one of any close person in Raunak’s life (all four grandparents are alive and well, but live far away).
“A daily fixture in their lives”
For the boys in 7 Ark, Hipskind “was like a daily fixture in their lives,” Epping said. “He was seeing them three, four times a week between coming in for lessons, coming in for band practice, coming in for gigs, chatting over the phone. I mean, my son now, had got his phone at 14 and he was on a permanent text, you know, texting basis with Greg.
“We really as parents were at that process and stage of pulling ourselves out of the communication piece of it and really allowing these boys to take ownership of everything,” she said. “It was a lot of just Greg and the boys in a group chat, talking. It was that daily fixture, that daily presence, that daily voice in their lives that was suddenly just taken away from them. And that’s what’s hard.”
Greg and Jenny only had daughters, and while he loved them more than anything, it was different with boys, Epping said.
“Especially for Raunak and Kiran, I don’t know, he just, he loved these two. Like he genuinely would joke that they were the two sons that he never had,” she said.
Dom Stutenberg, lead singer for 7 Ark, in concert.
7 Ark wrote to Hipskind Jan. 4 on their Facebook page: “We are going to miss you. You left this world way too soon. We are forever grateful for the time and opportunities you gave us. It can’t be said enough that you made the world a better place.”
It’s been difficult continuing QCRA without him, because Hipskind was in many ways “a one-man band,” who didn’t like to delegate responsibility, Epping said, while Gardner and Swanson have picked up more bands to coach (they currently have nine bands) and brought in more instructors.
The Greg Hipskind Memorial Jam on Saturday, Feb. 14, at The Rust Belt, will feature merchandise, silent auction and raffles to benefit the Hipskind family. Admission to the event is free.
“He liked things done in a certain way because especially when you’re dealing with artists, it’s just a way you work with them,” she said. “He just had that special way, you know, it was like a gift. It was a superpower where he could connect with the best of them.”
“Greg was the big picture guy. Greg was the one out there making the connections, bringing in all the musicians, creating these experiences, getting these kids on the stage,” Epping said. “Billy is really figuring it all out as he goes. So Billy’s kind of stepped into that role, Greg’s role, but he has been, I think just given how all of this went down, I think he’s being extremely cautious and he’s doing everything he can to really bring in the team and to delegate more and to have more individuals involved. And everyone is really stepping up.”
Moving on
7 Ark has played at Rock Academy festivals at Schwiebert Park, as well as Tug Fest, Rust Belt, Redstone Room and Rascals. Their first gig after Hipskind’s death was Jan. 31 at Rust Belt, opening for a QC Santana tribute band.
That was a very healing experience, Epping said.
“They took these boys under their wing,” she said of the Santana tribute band. “They were so good to them. I think the boys just felt very connected to Greg.”
“Leading up to it, it was very emotional. But I don’t know what it is,” Epping said. “These kids get on a stage, it’s like their personas change. They are all business. They go up there and their mindset is — we are going to give the best show of our lives. And we’re doing that for Greg because that’s what he would have wanted.
“And our singer (Dom Stutenberg) was actually very sick going into that show and nobody knew,” she recalled. “But he pushed through that show and that was the kind of dedication.”
QC Rock Academy director Greg Hipskind celebrates with the band 7 Ark, after learning they won the upper division for Battle of the Bands at Rascals, Moline, in November 2025.
7 Ark does a mix of covers (like AC/DC, Metallica and Bon Jovi) and originals. For the Memorial Jam, Facecarver will open the show, and 7 Ark will close, and topped with multiple bands at once, for the end. Wicked Liz will perform (with community musicians filling in on drums), as will other QCRA bands, and alumni bands BTDT and Made Ya Look. The members of BTDT (which first formed in 2016) are now in Nashville, Tenn., attending the great music school at Belmont University.
“Greg is the reason we all met, the beat to the music we’ve made for the last ten years,” BTDT (formerly Been There Done That) posted Feb. 2 on Facebook. “It is an honor to memorialize him with the other students whose dreams he made a reality.”
While concert admission is free, they have a big silent auction with proceeds going to the Hipskind family. That will include lots of instruments and gear, handmade items like gift baskets, and lots of gift cards and gift certificates to local businesses, like restaurants and high-end experiences, Epping said. QC Custom Tees also made Memorial Jam T-shirts and hoodies for the event.
The QC Rock Academy band 7 Ark at The Rust Belt, East Moline.
Epping said she used to feel bad that QCRA was taking Greg away from his family, but he was able to juggle it all.
“He always made time for his family. They were number one to him, of course, his wife and girls,” she said. “I don’t know how he did it. He just did it. I think that’s the hard part. It’s amazing how the entire community has come together. I mean, it’s no surprise, right?”
“I think that’s what it’s really about. And he really made his life about others,” Epping said. “And that’s why people are for sure wanting to be generous and wanting to do as much as they possibly can.”
“The Quad-City music community again, everybody is such a tight-knit community and we need to be there for each other,” she added. “These kids are the future of this music scene here. And that’s essentially what he was doing. He was building the next generation of musicians.
“And so to be a part of this and to see what it is like to be part of such a tight-knit community is really, really important for these boys to see and be part of,” Epping said. “I feel like this is going to fully, truly shape things for years and years, decades to come.”
The Rock Academy band Facecarver (mainly made up of 10-year-olds), playing at Rascals in Moline.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.