When attending a 48 hour charity Radiothon at the radio station KLOS, Jimmy Bain (of Rainbow and Dio) and Vivian Campbell (at that time still in Dio, later to play in Whitesnake and Def Leppard) noticed that the representation of heavy metal stars was scarce. In the light of the success of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and USA for Africa's "We Are the World", they forwarded the idea to Ronnie James Dio, also attending the Radiothon, and they decided to make a similar project exclusively built on artists from the heavy metal scene. Together the three co-wrote the song "Stars."
On May 20 & 21 1985, 40 artists gathered under the name HEAR N' AID at the A&M Records Studio in Hollywood, California to record the Stars album. The project included members of such bands as Dio, Judas Priest, Quiet Riot, Dokken, Iron Maiden, Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister, Queensrÿche, and Blue Öyster Cult.
