Richie Sambora Plays ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ with Bon Jovi Guitarist Phil X at L.A. Concert for First Responders

The rocker made a surprise appearance at the Rock for Responders Concert on the USS Iowa in San Pedro, Calif. on Thursday, Feb. 27

Richie Sambora is throwing it back to a Bon Jovi classic — for a good cause!

The rocker, 65, appeared as a surprise guest at the Rock for Responders Concert on the USS Iowa in San Pedro, Calif. on Thursday, Feb. 27, and performed Bon Jovi’s signature hit “Livin’ on a Prayer” alongside Orianthi and Phil X.

The concert was put on to honor Los Angeles’ first responders, military and emergency management partners, who made up a crowd of thousands alongside their families.

Sambora’s encore performance was certainly special for fans of Bon Jovi, as Phil X replaced the star as the band’s lead guitarist in 2016 — three years after Sambora left in order to focus on raising his daughter Ava, now 27.

The concert took place in the Port of LA at a maritime museum that features the USS Iowa, a retired battleship that served during World War II and opened to the public as part of the Battleship IOWA Museum in 2012.

The Kings of Chaos band was on the bill for the night, and is made up of stars like Sammy Hagar, Robin Zander of Cheap Trick, Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple and more.

Actor, comedian and Air Force vet BJ Lange served as emcee, while actor Steve Guttenberg also made an appearance, as well as ABC News chief national correspondent Matt Gutman.

Sambora is no stranger to supporting military families; in 2005, he played the Rockin’ the Corps concert, a free event organized to show support to U.S. marines and sailors returning from the Iraq War. He and former bandmate Jon Bon Jovi also performed “America the Beautiful” in front of a New York City firehouse just days after 9/11.

In January, he also opened up to PEOPLE about doing his part for L.A. fire relief, including matching all revenue generated by streams of his single “I Pray,” and donating the money to causes helping those who have lost everything and to those working on the front lines.

“A couple of my fans were saying ‘I Pray’ would be so perfect for these fires now. I hadn’t listened to it in a couple of months and I went, ‘S—, I hit the nail on the head and I wasn’t even trying’,” he said. “The world is in pretty s— shape at the moment, so sometimes I write as a reporter. I was basically praying for, and not even in a religious way… I got on my social media and went, ‘I will take all the money from the streams, match it, and put it toward the L.A. fires.”

Sambora left Bon Jovi in the midst of their 2013 world tour in order to focus on raising Ava amid his divorce from ex Heather Locklear.

“He needed to be home with his daughter, take care of her and also take care of himself,” a source told PEOPLE last year. “Richie and Ava are very close. She means everything to him and always has.”

In the years since, he’s released a number of singles (and albums as a duo with Orianthi), while Bon Jovi released the album Forever in June.

Phil X has previously opened up about overcoming imposter syndrome in taking Sambora’s place in the band, recalling a 2013 concert in which he felt that “Richie should be here for this,” he said, according to Ultimate Guitar.

In August, Phil reportedly said that he’s tried to make his role in the band his own while still staying true to the songs.

“There’s things you don’t want to mess around with. I believe I went into the Bon Jovi thing with the right mindset. It was like, ‘Okay, you can’t stray from the solo of ‘Livin’ on a Prayer.’ It’s gotta be that solo. There’s no, ‘Hey, let’s jam this out.’ There’s none of that. And there’s a lot of songs like that,” he said. “There are songs where I get to shine. If it’s your thing, you can hit as many bad notes as you want. [But] if you want to get a gig and play somebody else’s thing, you probably want to stray away from the bad notes. But again, have fun with it.”