He updated that story for a two-part Coachella Valley Weekly series in January 2023 titled “The Flip Side of Utopia,”[7][8] including new perspectives on the forced removal of minority occupants from Palm Springs’ Section 14 and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians conservatorship program.
He also was interviewed by director Tom Donahue that month about Chicago mobsters Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana for a projected Paramount Plus docuseries, “Mafia Spies,” based on the 2019 book by Thomas Maier.
He was roasted by a panel including Bono and jazz artist Georgie Auld in 1987[9] to raise funds for the Desert Theatre League, which he co-founded with actor Steve Meek.
He served on Bono’s founding Palm Springs International Film Festival committee in 1987 and co-founded the Jazz Celebrity Golf & JAMS Session in 1997 with his wife Jane Fessier and singer Frankie Randall.
Fessier covered Frank Sinatra's home life and the Coachella Valley underground music scene from which Queens of the Stone Age emerged.
In 2022, Fessier produced the benefit “Pet Love and Rock & Roll” September 17 in the Palm Springs Art Museum featuring a concert by former Kyuss lead singer John Garcia and Songwriters Hall of Famer Billy Steinberg to help Amy’s Purpose’s put more veterinary workers in the field in the Coachella Valley.