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On Sept. 13, 1988, the media assembled at the United Nations for a press conference. Representatives for the nonprofits Greenpeace, Cultural Survival and Rainforest Action Network sat before them, alongside the U.N. Environment Programme’s director and three, less expected emissaries: the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, Bobby Weir and Mickey Hart.
The band was about to begin a multinight fall run at Madison Square Garden and had decided to make the ninth and final concert of the stint a rainforest benefit. Garcia, Weir and Hart weren’t at the U.N. as rock stars; they were there as activists.
“Somebody has to do something,” Garcia told the assembled crowd, before adding wryly, “In fact, it seems pathetic that it has to be us.” As the audience applauded and Hart and Weir voiced their agreement, Garcia cut through the din: “This is not our regular work!” Eleven days later, in a more familiar setting, the band invited Bruce Hornsby, Hall & Oates and Suzanne Vega, among other artists, onstage at the sold-out benefit show, which grossed $871,875, according to an October 1988 issue of Billboard.
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At the press conference, Garcia had said, “We hope that we can empower our own audience with a sense of being able to do something directly and actually having an effect that’s visible in some way.” But he’d also expressed the Dead’s trepidation concerning activism.
“We don’t want to be the leaders, and we don’t want to serve unconscious fascism,” he said. “Power is a scary thing. When you feel that you’re close to it, you feel like you want to make sure that it isn’t used for misleading. So all this time, we’ve avoided making any statements about politics, about alignments of any sort.” While Garcia’s comment wasn’t entirely accurate — the ’88 benefit was far from the first time the Dead had aligned itself with a cause — its sentiment was honest: He understood the influence his beloved band wielded.
“As a young fan, I really learned about the issue in the rainforest from the Grateful Dead when they did that press conference,” recalls Mark Pinkus, who started seeing the band in 1984 and was a college student in 1988. “If a band like the Grateful Dead took the time to care about a cause, it definitely got our attention as young fans.”
From left: Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart outside San Francisco’s New Potrero Theatre in 1968.
Malcolm Lubliner/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
For a then-17-year-old David Lemieux, who had started seeing the Dead the year before and whose father worked at the U.N. from 1953 to 1973, “it added this huge level of legitimacy to this band I was following around” for his parents. “It certainly had me go out and learn more about [the issue],” he reflects. “To this day, the way I view the world is very much what I learned from my days on tour — and seeing the Dead take a stance that was so big … meant a lot to me.”
At the time, Pinkus and Lemieux were impressionable young Deadheads. Today, they’re central to the Dead’s present and future business. Pinkus is president of Rhino Entertainment, the Warner Music Group branch that publishes the Dead’s archival releases, and Lemieux, the band’s legacy manager and archivist, is intimately involved in the curation of those releases.
It’s telling not just that the Dead’s business is shepherded by members of the very community it fostered, but that the band’s philanthropic work in particular resonated with Pinkus and Lemieux from the jump. The Dead’s members haven’t merely been philanthropically active since the band’s 1965 formation in the Bay Area — they have been forward-thinking, reimagining the potential of the good works musicians can do and inspiring other artists to follow in their footsteps. All the while, their activism has fed on — and been fed by — their passionate fans.
“We’re part of a community, and so the better the community is doing, the better we’re doing,” Weir says today. “Jerry always used to say, ‘You get some, you give some back.’ It just makes sense.” And since the beginning, “that’s been our mode of operation,” the Grateful Dead’s Bill Kreutzmann says. “We help people and give them stuff. It’s just a good way to live life. I wish that more people in the world lived life that way, instead of wars and bombings.”
From left: Randy Hayes of Rainforest Action Network (seated), Dr. Jason Clay of Cultural Survival, Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Peter Bahouth of Greenpeace and Bob Weir at a New York press conference in 1988.
Marty Lederhandler/AP
Since Garcia’s death in 1995, the Dead’s surviving members have continued to tour — and continued to advocate for the causes that matter to them. That’s why MusiCares, the charitable organization that the Recording Academy founded in 1989 to support the music community’s health and welfare, is recognizing the Grateful Dead as its 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year.
“It all follows in that tradition of teaching the industry what it should know about,” Hart says. “That’s that Grateful Dead kind of style, where we just did it because we knew it was the right thing to do. If we wanted to do this the rest of our lives was the idea, we have to do these things, because people support us — and we reciprocate.”
“Everybody had everybody’s back in the Haight-Ashbury, and we were a big functioning organism,” Weir recalls. “And we had roles within the community.”
It’s a crisp, mid-November evening in Chicago, where Weir, 77, has just spent the afternoon doing what he does best: playing Grateful Dead music. He’s in town for two shows at the Auditorium Theatre with the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, which will accompany him and Wolf Bros, his current solo project, and after rehearsing “Weather Report Suite” and “Terrapin Station” — two of the Dead’s densest, most ambitious compositions — he’s back on his tour bus, reminiscing about the band’s early days.
Even then, philanthropy was core to the group. It began performing as The Warlocks in mid-1965, and while accounts differ about when, exactly, it changed its name later that year, many believe it debuted its famed moniker on Dec. 10 — at Mime Troupe Appeal II, the second in a series of benefits for a satirical San Francisco theater troupe that often clashed with local law enforcement over free speech.
From left: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart onstage at the Oakland (Calif.) Auditorium in 1979.
Ed Perlstein/Redferns/Getty Images
The first decade or so of the Dead’s philanthropy “is an incredibly eclectic mix,” Lemieux says. In San Francisco, the band gigged for radical activists, arts spaces, spiritual centers (a Hare Krishna temple, a Zen monastery) and music education. As the band grew, it played for hippie communes and music venues, for striking radio workers and bail funds, for the Black Panthers and the Hells Angels. It performed with the Buffalo (N.Y.) Philharmonic Orchestra in 1970 to support the ensemble; in a concert that became one of its most revered live recordings, the Dead played in Veneta, Ore., on Aug. 27, 1972, to save the local Springfield Creamery.
“We saw something in need, and we would just write a check,” Hart, 81, remembers today. “The Grateful Dead, we never thought of business. We just wanted to play, play, play.”
“That was really delicious for us, to make everybody happy,” says Kreutzmann, 78. “Because that’s the goal: Make everyone happy, not just the band.”
But as the band’s following grew throughout the ’70s, that charitable approach — guided by the band’s generous attitude, which meant lots of “yeses” and not many “nos” — became untenable. It needed to streamline its operation. “We had always been given to community service, but we just wanted to get organized about it,” Weir says, alluding to the tax burden of the band’s initial model.
So the Dead did something that was then novel for a musical act: It started a foundation. In 1983, the band’s early co-manager Danny Rifkin (who held a number of roles in the group’s orbit over the years) helped it launch The Rex Foundation, named for Rex Jackson, a roadie and tour manager for the band who had died in 1976. The foundation eliminated the need for the Dead to do the types of one-off, cause-based benefits it had done previously, instead directing earnings from its charitable initiatives into the foundation, which then disbursed that money — after approval by its board, which included the band’s members and others in its inner circle — to various grant recipients. By refusing to accept unsolicited grant proposals (applications were, and still are, submitted by the Rex board and those in the Dead’s extended community) and focusing its grants on organizations with small, sometimes minuscule, budgets, the Dead retained the homespun feel of its earlier charitable efforts.
The Rex Foundation quickly became the primary beneficiary of the Dead’s philanthropy. The band played its first Rex benefits in San Rafael, Calif., in spring 1984 and made a point of staging multishow Rex benefit runs — generally in the Bay Area or nearby Sacramento — annually for the rest of its career. “They were just regular gigs, there was no other fanfare, but the money would go to The Rex Foundation,” Lemieux says. “We all thought that was pretty darn cool. It wasn’t like the Dead played any less hard because it was a benefit gig. The Rex Foundation mattered to them.”
From left: Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre in 1985.
Richard McCaffrey/ Michael Ochs Archive/ Getty Images
Over the next decade, the Dead played upwards of 40 Rex benefits. Without the requirement that a given show benefit a specific charity — and with the larger grosses Dead shows now earned — “it allowed the money to be spread a lot more,” Lemieux explains. A beneficiary “wouldn’t be like a multi-multimillion-dollar organization that needed $5,000. It was a $10,000 organization that needed $5,000. That makes a huge difference.” (Weir, Hart and Garcia’s widow, Carolyn, and daughter, Trixie, are among the present-day board members of Rex, which still holds benefits and disburses grants; in July, Dark Star Orchestra, which re-creates classic Dead shows, played a benefit at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, Calif., to celebrate the foundation’s 40th anniversary.)
During this period, the Dead also continued to play non-Rex benefits for specific causes, including AIDS research and eye-care organization Seva. The 1988 rainforest benefit was a hybrid — the rare Rex benefit with pre-announced beneficiaries in Greenpeace, Cultural Survival and Rainforest Action Network. “Those were all people that we had already funded to in their infancy,” says Cameron Sears, who managed the band in the late ’80s and ’90s and is today Rex’s executive director. (As it happens, Sears’ entrée into the Dead’s world as a recent college grad in the early ’80s was through philanthropy: He’d pitched the band on getting involved in California water politics.) As Garcia put it at the U.N., “We’ve chosen these groups because we like that direct thing … We don’t like a lot of stuff between us and the work.”
The model continues to reverberate through a music industry where it’s now common for major artists to have charitable foundations. “The fact that all these bands now have looked to that model and replicated it, [the Dead] don’t need to take credit for it, even though it may rightly belong to them,” Sears says. “They’re just happy that people are doing it. Their vision has had a multiplier effect now around the world. What Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam are into might be different than what Phish is into and is maybe different than what Metallica is into. But together, the amount of philanthropy that’s being generated through all these different people makes an incredible difference.”
Pull up just about any bootleg of a Phil Lesh show from 1999 through his death in October, and you’ll see a track between the end of the second set and the start of the encore, usually called “Donor Rap.” Lesh received a life-saving liver transplant in 1998; henceforth, he used his platform to encourage Deadheads to turn to their loved ones and say that, if anything happened to them, they wanted to be an organ donor.
After Garcia’s death, the Dead’s surviving members remained active musically — and philanthropically. When The Other Ones — the first significant post-Garcia iteration of the Dead comprising Weir, Lesh, Hart and a cast of supporting musicians — debuted in 1998, it did so with a benefit, raising more than $200,000 for the Rainforest Action Network. They all championed causes important to them: Weir with the environment and combating poverty, Hart with music therapy and brain health, Kreutzmann with ocean conservation, Lesh with his Unbroken Chain Foundation, which benefited a litany of things including music education. The Rex Foundation has also remained active, supporting a range of organizations across the arts, education, social justice, Indigenous peoples’ groups and the environment.
And, over the years, the band members began to work more closely with MusiCares. Early in the pandemic, Dead & Company — the touring group formed in 2015 by Weir, Hart and Kreutzmann and rounded out by John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti — and the Grateful Dead launched weekly archival livestreams that raised $276,000 for the organization’s COVID-19 Relief Fund. Dead & Company expanded the affiliation to epic proportions on May 8, 2023, when the band kicked off its final tour at Cornell University’s Barton Hall in Ithaca, N.Y., where it played one of its most revered gigs 46 years earlier to the day; the 2023 show raised $3.1 million, with half going to MusiCares and half to the Cornell 2030 Project, a campus organization dedicated to sustainability.
“If you want to talk about making a statement in modern times,” Pinkus says, “here they return to the venue of arguably the most famous Grateful Dead show ever, play the tiniest show that they play on a farewell tour, which is all stadiums, and then they turn around and do it as a fundraiser. It really spoke to everything about the Grateful Dead and Dead & Company’s commitment to giving back.”
“The industry is a very dangerous place at times,” Hart says. “When you get engulfed with the harder side of the business and fall through the cracks or stumble and you need some help getting your mojo back, that’s really what MusiCares does.”
From left: Bruce Hornsby, Jeff Chimenti, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Phish’s Trey Anastasio, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann at one of the band’s Fare Thee Well shows at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.,
on June 28, 2015.
Jay Blakesberg/Invision for the Grateful Dead/AP
Over the last decade, Activist Artists Management has helped guide the band members’ philanthropic efforts. The company is both the manager of record for the Grateful Dead — a status conferred by Grateful Dead Productions, an entity comprising the band’s living members and representatives of Garcia’s and Lesh’s estates — and co-manages Dead & Company alongside Irving Azoff and Steve Moir of Full Stop Management. (Kreutzmann toured with Dead & Company from 2015 to 2022 but did not appear with the group on its final tour in 2023 or during its 2024 Las Vegas Sphere residency. On Dec. 4, Dead & Company announced it will play 18 shows at Sphere in spring 2025; a representative for the band confirmed the lineup will not include Kreutzmann.)
“There was this mosaic of incredible good works that this band was doing, and there was a feeling that we could help amplify those good works and those dollars by putting a little more structure and support around it and a little bit more intentionality around it, which is what Activist came in and did,” Activist founding partner Bernie Cahill says.
When discussing the Dead’s activism with the band and its affiliates, words like “apolitical” and “nonpartisan” come up often. As Kreutzmann puts it, “It’s much more fun to see all the people smiling, not half the people bickering at the other half.”
“These are objective things that I think everyone will agree with,” Lemieux says of causes ranging from rainforest preservation to AIDS research. “And that’s what the Dead were kind of getting on board with and raising awareness.”
Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir, Tom Constanten (with a cut-out standee of Jerry Garcia) and Vince Welnick of the Grateful Dead at the 1994 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction.
Steve Eichner/WireImage
But while it’s true that, both before and after Garcia’s death, the Dead’s members have avoided the strident political rhetoric some other artists favor, the band has still advanced progressive causes. In the ’60s, it rubbed shoulders with radical groups in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury. In the ’80s, when AIDS was a stigmatized topic, it headlined a relief show for Northern California AIDS agencies.
That has continued in recent years. Dead & Company’s Participation Row — an area it allots at its shows for nonprofit and charitable partners — has featured entities like the voter registration organization HeadCount and the sustainable-touring group Reverb, among other social justice, environmental and public health organizations, helping the band to raise more than $15 million since its 2015 debut. But Dead & Company have not shied from using their touring to platform more contentious causes. The summer following the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting, Dead & Company included the gun control group March for Our Lives on Participation Row. And after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the band displayed pro-choice messages at its shows and even sold a “Save Our Rights” shirt benefiting women’s health organizations.
“We support artists being authentic,” Cahill says. “If an artist feels called to speak out … our job is to make sure they have all the information so that they can speak intelligently on the matter. I think we’ve done a really good job with that over the years. We have both protected our clients and amplified their positions.”
And the Dead’s members have, judiciously, supported political candidates. Weir, Lesh and Hart played a February 2008 benefit dubbed “Deadheads for Obama,” and that fall, Kreutzmann joined them for another pro-Barack Obama gig. This fall, both Weir and Hart publicly endorsed Kamala Harris. While “you don’t want to tell people what to do,” Hart explains, “there are some issues you must speak out [about] if you feel right about it and if you’re really behind it.”
Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart backstage at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco at a rally for Barack Obama in 2008.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images
As the Dead nears its 60th anniversary in 2025 and adds its MusiCares honor to a lengthy list of accomplishments — induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, recipients of Kennedy Center Honors, a recording included in the Library of Congress, among numerous others — its surviving members are emphatic that this is far from a denouement.
“Obviously, they’re quite humbled and honored by it all,” Cahill says. But “they always see these things as something that you get at the end of your career, when you’re done. And of course, these guys don’t feel like that’s where they are in their career. They feel like they have a lot more ahead of them, and I believe they do.”
Rhino continues to mine the Dead’s vault for new releases — its ongoing quarterly archival Dave’s Picks series helped the band break a record earlier this year previously held by Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley for most top 40 albums on the Billboard 200 — and orchestrate merchandising partnerships from Igloo coolers to Nike shoes that ensure the ongoing omnipresence of the band’s iconography. (“We’re always open for business — if it feels right,” Pinkus says.)
Most importantly to Deadheads, Weir, Hart and Kreutzmann are all resolute that they’ll remain on the road as long as they can; in 2024, Weir toured with Wolf Bros and, along with Hart, staged Dead & Company’s 30-show Sphere residency, while Kreutzmann kept his livewire Billy & The Kids act alive with Mahalo Dead, a three-day November event near his home in Kauai, Hawaii. Last year, Weir toured supporting Willie Nelson, whom he’s shared bills with for decades — and who at 91 is 14 years his senior. “His hands don’t work as well as they used to,” Weir says. “Nor do mine. But as the years go by, you learn to help the music happen through force of will. And Willie is as good as he’s ever been.”
Willpower is something the Dead’s surviving members have in spades. “These guys have always been the outsider,” Cahill says. “They’ve flourished by being the outsider and by being a maverick and doing things their own way. Because they’ve written their own rules, they’re not beholden to anybody. They’re not looking for anyone’s approval, and they continue to write their own rules and to do things that inspire them.”
That core ethos is what has driven, and continues to drive, the Dead’s approach to both its business and its philanthropy — two things that, as the band is still proving to the industry at large, need not be mutually exclusive.
“I would like to be able to have people who disagree with me still be fans of the music or the art that I make,” Weir says. “But at the same time, I’ve got to be true to myself, and I expect that they have to be true to themselves as well.”
This story appears in the Dec. 7, 2024, issue of Billboard.
What a long strange trip it’s been, indeed.
Grateful Dead, a band that was never even nominated for a Grammy, and which became one of the most legendary live acts in history despite having a grand total of one top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, will honored as the 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year. The 34th annual Persons of the Year benefit gala will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, two nights before the 67th annual Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Arena.
Grateful Dead is the third band to receive the honor, following Fleetwood Mac in 2018 and Aerosmith in 2020. Marking the band’s 60th anniversary in 2025, original members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bobby Weir will be recognized for their contributions to music, their philanthropic efforts and their pioneering role in fostering communities through their concerts and activism. The event will also include posthumous tributes to Jerry Garcia, one of the band’s founders, who died in 1995 at age 53.
Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh and Weir released an extended joint statement about the honor. Here it is, in full:
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“It’s simple: we all need music. It speaks to each of us, offering what we need to face what life presents—enhancing our joys, helping us spread them, and making our sorrows easier to bear. We can’t imagine a world without it. As our ol’ pal, Jerry, used to say, ‘You get some, you give some back,’ a tremendously effective way to share those benefits.
“While we can’t prove that the Muse—the force behind what we do—is working to build a support system for the show, over sixty years in music has taught us that it takes a lot of dedicated people to bring everything to life. Each person behind the scenes has honed their skills to meet the many needs of the show. Without them, it wouldn’t be what the Muse intends, and each of them is essential, pouring their hearts and spirits into it.
“We also want to recognize the community of Dead Heads for their unwavering support over the years—we wouldn’t be here without you.
“We are deeply honored to be recognized as MusiCares Persons of the Year. This honor is truly a testament to the legacy of the music, which has always been bigger than us—it’s about the connection between us, the crew, and all those who’ve been on this long strange trip. It’s not just about what we create, but about making sure the people behind it, behind us every night, the ones who quietly make it all happen, get the support they need to keep going, no matter what life throws at them. We’re grateful to stand with MusiCares and hope everyone continues to support this vital mission to ensure music thrives in perpetuity.”
Formed in 1965, Grateful Dead is one of the most influential bands in American history, renowned for their distinctive blend of rock, folk, jazz and avant-garde music. In December, the month before the MusiCares honor, Grateful Dead will be included in the 47th class of the Kennedy Center Honorees, alongside Bonnie Raitt, Arturo Sandoval, Francis Ford Coppola and the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
The Dead’s final tally of 2,318 concerts remains a world record. An album recorded at their Barton Hall Concert at Cornell University in 1977 was inducted into the National Recording Registry in 2011.
As noted, the band never received a Grammy nomination, but it has two recordings in the Grammy Hall of Fame: their back-to-back 1970 studio albums Workingman’s Dead (1970) and American Beauty. The band also received the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
The Dead was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, the year before Garcia died.
The band has made the Billboard 200 with a staggering 124 titles. The highest-charting was its 1987 Arista album In the Dark, which reached No. 6. That album also spawned the band’s only top 10 hit on the Hot 100, “Touch of Grey.” (The band’s signature song, “Truckin’,” was its second-highest single, reaching No. 64 in 1971.)
In February, the band broke the record for most top 40-charting albums on the Billboard 200 since the chart began publishing on a regular weekly basis in March 1956. It has since added two more top 40 albums, for a record-extending total of 61.
The MusiCares Person of the Year tribute ceremony is one of the most prestigious events held during Grammy Week. It includes a cocktail reception, followed by a dinner and tribute concert.
Since its inception in 1991, the Person of the Year gala has raised funds to support MusiCares’ health and human services programs, which offer physical and mental health care, addiction recovery, preventive clinics, unforeseen personal emergencies, and disaster relief to music professionals.
Five-time Grammy winner Don Was will serve as musical director for the event. The gala will again be produced by live event broadcast outfit Lewis & Clark, comprised of Joe Lewis and R.A. Clark. They also oversaw last year’s gala honoring Jon Bon Jovi. AEG is the event’s principal sponsor.
“MusiCares is proud to honor the Grateful Dead at the 2025 Persons of the Year Gala,” Laura Segura, executive director of MusiCares, said in a statement. “Their legacy transcends music, having built a community of fans and collaborators that embody the spirit of connection and support, something that is deeply aligned with MusiCares’ mission. The band’s passion for the arts and philanthropy, along with their enduring commitment to social causes, has made a lasting impact that goes beyond the stage. It is a privilege to celebrate their contributions to both music and humanity.”
Beyond their musical achievements, Grateful Dead members have made significant contributions to philanthropic causes. Garcia, Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, and Weir have all supported efforts ranging from environmental conservation and mental health to music education and social justice. Initiatives like Garcia’s involvement with the Rex Foundation, Hart’s work in music therapy and brain health, Weir’s advocacy for addressing climate change and combating poverty, Kreutzmann’s ocean conservation efforts, and Lesh’s Unbroken Chain Foundation underscore the band’s commitment to making a difference beyond the stage.
Tables and tickets are available for purchase at http://personoftheyear.musicares.org/. For more information about the event or sponsorship opportunities, visit MusiCares.org or email personoftheyear@musicares.org.
If you or someone you know has been impacted by this severe hurricane season, MusiCares may be able to help. MusiCares’ comprehensive support for music professionals includes emergency financial assistance, mental health and emotional support, medical and housing resources and support around basic living expenses. Whether it’s a natural disaster, personal emergency, or unexpected hardship, […]
Just as Bon Jovi has done for 40 years, musicians came to rock at the Los Angeles Convention Center Friday night (Feb. 2) as the band’s namesake, Jon Bon Jovi, was honored at MusiCares 33rd Person of the Year annual gala.
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The honoree himself set the tone for the night, opening the evening with “Legendary,” the propulsive first single from the band’s forthcoming album that sounds like a classic Bon Jovi track. “As I look out here at all you tuxedoed executives, I remind you this is a Bon Jovi concert,” Jon Bon Jovi said. “We don’t sit down.”
And there was certainly no sitting as Bon Jovi then introduced Bruce Springsteen, calling him “my mentor, my hero, my brother, my friend,” as the audience of more than 2,000 began chanting the requisite “BRUUUUUUCE.” Springsteen’s participation had been in doubt after his 98-year old mother, Adele, died on Wednesday (Jan. 31).
As Bon Jovi later explained, when Springsteen — MusiCares Person of the Year in 2013 — first got the news about his mother, he was already on a plane to Los Angeles. “I certainly would have understood if he’d said that he couldn’t make it,” Bon Jovi said, “but he wanted to be here tonight for MusiCares. And he wanted to be here tonight for me. And I’m forever grateful to you.
The two most famous musicians from New Jersey (perhaps other than Frank Sinatra) ripped into spirited renditions of Bon Jovi’s 2006 hit “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” which boasts Springsteenean “Alrights” in the chorus, and Springsteen’s “Promised Land,” with Bon Jovi playing Springsteen’s trademark harmonica parts before the Boss joined in for a little harmonica duet at the end.
Among those singing along in the audience were Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, MSNBC host Ari Melber, frequent Bon Jovi collaborator Desmond Child, Rita Wilson, Carly Pearce, Gayle King, Nile Rodgers and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul. The latter pair made the rounds earlier in the evening, schmoozing with Bon Jovi, 2012 MusiCares honoree Paul McCartney and Springsteen.
Bon Jovi then sat down, flanked for much of the evening by Springsteen and McCartney, as a constellation of artists took the stage to deliver some of the most beloved anthems in the arena rock canon from the past 40 years. With more than 150 million albums sold, including 12 times platinum rock juggernaut Slippery When Wet, and nearly 20 top 40 hits, there was no shortage of familiar material to draw from.
Melissa Etheridge, joined by Larkin Poe had the tough task of following Bon Jovi and Springsteen, but proved more than up to the challenge with a sizzling version of Jon Bon Jovi’s No. 1 solo hit, “Blaze of Glory,” from the 1990 film Young Guns ll. Train’s Pat Monahan delivered a stylish take on 2000’s driving hit, “It’s My Life”; Shania Twain turned in a dramatic reading of ballad “Bed of Roses”; Sammy Hagar was joined by guitar slinger Orianthi for Bon Jovi’s first No. 1, 1986’s “You Give Love A Bad Name”; and Jason Isbell pulled out a double neck guitar, similar to the one sported by former band member Richie Sambora, on the iconic “Wanted Dead or Alive.” While many acts pulled from the multi-platinum group’s ’80s and ’90s era, the Goo Goo Dolls dipped into more recent fare, taking on the title track from 2016’s This House is Not for Sale.
Comedian Jim Gaffigan served as a nimble and often hilarious host, good naturedly roasting Jon Bon Jovi for his ’80s fashion and even more so for his ’80s big hair, and even taking to the stage in a replica of a trademark beefcake poster of Jon Bon Jovi from the ’80s in a cut-off Jack Daniels T-shirt, obscenely short denim shorts and a wig with a shocking amount of teased, flowing blond locks. As he sarcastically noted of the ridiculously photogenic Bon Jovi, “You have to wonder where he would have gotten if he was good looking.”
Later, he suggested that Bon Jovi, McCartney and Springsteen, as well as table mate, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, could form a new iteration of The Traveling Wilburys, with Kraft on lead vocals.
Additionally, a new generation of artists equipped themselves well taking on songs that they had likely grown up with or heard their parents play. Best new artist nominee Jelly Roll delivered a growly, rollicking “Bad Medicine,” while taking advantage of the playing before a room full of powerful music industry executives to spread a message about an issue close to his heart, drug addiction. The country artist, who spoke at a congressional hearing in support of an anti-fentanyl bill in January, sported a jacket with facts about drug addiction, including one across his back that read “190 people a day overdose and die in the United States of America.”
A pigtailed Lainey Wilson followed with a spirited “We Weren’t Born to Follow,” while Måneskin’s charismatic frontman Damiano David performed a propulsive “Keep the Faith.” Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth WVH delivered a pounding “Have A Nice Day,” and guitar wiz Marcus King showed off his blazing fret work on “Born to Be My Baby.”
Playing on the round, revolving B-stage in the middle of the audience, best new artist nominees The War and Treaty gave one of the evening’s most inspired performances at times singing directly to each other with an elevated, emotional take of “I’ll Be There For You,” Bon Jovi’s 1989 tale of devotion that husband and wife team Michael and Tonya Trotter should definitely consider cutting for their next album. Also utilizing the smaller space to great effect was 17-time Grammy nominee Brandy Clark with a beautiful rendition of 2007’s “(You Want to) Make a Memory.”
The evening also included video tributes from Matthew McConaughey, John Mayer, P!nk, Ed Sheeran and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, who praised Bon Jovi for “his everyday commitment to [help] other people.” Bon Jovi’s myriad philanthropic efforts include the JBJ Soul Foundation, which has built close to 1,000 units of affordable housing, and JBJ Soul Kitchens, which operate on a pay-it-forward model where those in need volunteer for their meals at the kitchen while paying customers are asked to make a donation that will cover their meal as well as the meal of someone in need.
Kraft, who first met Bon Jovi on the sidelines at the 1997 Super Bowl (“In a game we lost,” he noted), presented Bon Jovi with his award, praising the honoree for his business acumen and social consciousness.
“Unlike the majority of artists and performers, who understandably, are insular, Jon’s always had an empathy for the world at large,” Kraft said. “And he’s shown that impact as a philanthropist. He has used his platform as a global rock star and paired it with his own money and operating skill and created the Soul Foundation… building a model program for solving the vicious cycle of hunger, poverty and homelessness that has now been copied by many others.” He also praised the son of two Marines for his long-lasting marriage to his high school sweetheart, Dorothea.
After thanking Springsteen and McCartney (saying to the Beatle, “I think it’s fair to say that the reason most, if not all, of us are in the room tonight, is because of you.”), Bon Jovi quickly noted that this award wouldn’t have been possible without those around him. “Everything that I’ve accomplished with or without the band or in my philanthropic life has had the support of my family, my friends, bandmates, collaborators and an army of the willing, who’ve been ready to take my dreams and make them a reality,” he said.
He also praised the ability of music as the “common thread” that “moves us when we’re happy and it comforts us when we’re sad and brings us together.” He then spoke of recently buying back his first electric guitar that he sold in 1979 for $100. With his newly reclaimed guitar back in his hands, “the first thing I did was held it, cradled it, really, and then wrote a song… another thing I’ve come to know is that every time that I strum my guitar, I’m reminded that I have a best friend for life. That instrument will never let you down.”
Bon Jovi then thanked MusiCares for providing assistance to those musicians not as fortunate as himself, who have needed a helping hand. Since 1991, MusiCares has handed out more than $110 million to provide essential support for programs and services assisting the music community, including physical and mental health, addiction recovery, preventive clinics, unforeseen personal emergencies, and disaster relief.
(L-R) Michael Trotter Jr., Hugh McDonald, Jon Bon Jovi, Sammy Hagar and Jelly Roll attend the 2024 MusiCares Person of the Year Honoring Jon Bon Jovi during the 66th Grammy Awards on Feb. 02, 2024 in Los Angeles
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Ending by saying, “the 18-year-old in me wants to sing with everybody else,” Bon Jovi called his band back to the stage, including keyboardist David Bryan and drummer Tico Torres, as well all the evening’s participating artists (minus Springsteen) to perform the group’s beloved anthem and 1986 Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Living on a Prayer.” Jon Bon Jovi roamed the stage, hugging and trading lyrics with many of the performers to close the evening.
See the MusiCares Salute to Jon Bon Jovi set list below:
“Legendary,” Bon Jovi“Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen“The Promised Land,” Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen“Blaze of Glory,” Melissa Etheridge and Larkin Poe“Bad Medicine,” Jelly Roll“We Weren’t Born to Follow,” Lainey Wilson“It’s My Life,” Pat Monahan“Bed of Roses,” Shania Twain“Wanted Dead or Alive,” Jason Isbell“Keep the Faith,” Damiano David“This House is Not for Sale,” Goo Goo Dolls“I’ll Be There for You,” The War and Treaty“Have a Nice Day,” Mammoth WVH“(You Want To) Make a Memory,” Brandy Clark“Living on a Prayer,” Bon Jovi and guests
Jon Bon Jovi will be honored as the 2024 MusiCares Person of the Year at the annual benefit gala, to be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024 — two nights before the 66th annual Grammy Awards at the adjoining Crypto.com Arena.
In addition to his musical achievements, Jon Bon Jovi is being recognized for his philanthropic work. In 2006, he established the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, which is dedicated to disrupting the cycle of hunger, poverty and homelessness.
“I’m truly humbled to be this year’s MusiCares honoree,” Jon Bon Jovi said in a statement. “MusiCares’ work with music professionals is vitally important in creating much-needed support and wellness programs that cultivate a healthier and more vibrant community for us all. Philanthropic work has been a cornerstone of my life and has always run in tandem to my music career and achievements. Nearly two decades ago when I formed the JBJ Soul Foundation and JBJ Soul Kitchens, I saw firsthand and continue to see today the impact of charitable community-based work. I know this for sure: helping one’s community is helping one’s self.”
Jon Bon Jovi is 61, which makes him the youngest solo honoree since Don Henley received the honor at age 59 in 2007. (MusiCares usually selects veteran artists because they have decades worth of connections in the industry, which means more tickets and tables sold for the charity event.)
Jon Bon Jovi is the second New Jersey native to receive the honor, following Bruce Springsteen in 2013.
This isn’t the first time a group leader or key member of an ongoing band has been honored individually. Tom Petty (2017), Springsteen (2013), Bono (2003) and Henley (2007) were also singled out. Two groups have received the honor: Aerosmith (2020) and Fleetwood Mac (2018).
The Person of the Year ceremony is one of the marquee events during Grammy Week. It includes a cocktail reception, followed by a dinner and concert featuring other artists paying tribute to the honoree.
Since 1991, money raised from this gala goes toward MusiCares health and human services programs that assist the music community with physical and mental health, addiction recovery, preventive clinics, unforeseen personal emergencies and disaster relief.
“MusiCares is thrilled to honor Jon Bon Jovi at the 2024 Person of the Year Gala,” Laura Segura, executive director of MusiCares, said in a statement. “His remarkable contributions to rock and roll have not only left an indelible mark on the music industry, but also in the hearts of countless fans around the world. Furthermore, his long-standing commitment to serving food-insecure and unhoused individuals inspires us all. We’re looking forward to celebrating him and the many ways he has made a difference in this world.”
Jon Bon Jovi joins an impressive list of recent MusiCares honorees including Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac and Dolly Parton.
The band Bon Jovi was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. It received its one and only Grammy to date in 2007 for “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” featuring Jennifer Nettles, which was voted best country collaboration with vocals.
The band has amassed six No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 – Slippery When Wet (1986-87), New Jersey (1988), Lost Highway (2007), The Circle (2009), What About Now (2013) and This House Is Not for Sale (2016).
The band has notched four No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 – “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Livin’ on a Prayer,” “Bad Medicine” and “I’ll Be There for You.” In addition, Jon Bon Jovi has had one solo No. 1 on the Hot 100, “Blaze of Glory” (from Young Guns II).
The band has also had one No. 1 hit on the Hot Country Songs chart – and how many rock bands can say that? – with the aforementioned “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” featuring Jennifer Nettles. The song led for two weeks in May 2006.
Since its inception in 2006, the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation has provided more than 700 units of affordable and supportive housing in 11 states and provided homes to 77 previously homeless veterans along with a stable of support onsite. Jon and his wife Dorothea opened the first JBJ Soul Kitchen in 2011, a nonprofit community restaurant with a pay-it-forward model and have since served more than 100,000 meals in multiple locations.
The Person of the Year event will again be produced by live event broadcast outfit Lewis & Clark, comprised of Joe Lewis and R.A. Clark. Rob Mathes will serve as musical director.
Tables and tickets are available for purchase here. For more information about the event or sponsorship opportunities, visit MusiCares.org or email personoftheyear@musicares.org.
Individual tickets for the event start at $2,500. Better-situated individual tickets are priced at $3,500, $5,000 and $6,000. Tables (seating 12) start at $25,000 and go up to $70,000. But a three-table package can be had for $200,000, a $10,000 discount over the per-table price.
MusiCares announced the launch of Humans of Hip Hop on Thursday (June 22). The program is focused on providing resources tailored to the needs of the hip-hop community nationwide with an initial focus on eight key cities – Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles/Compton, New York, Oakland, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.
“Like so many other communities post-pandemic, the hip hop community is in need of support,” Rico Love, the Miami-based chair of the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective, said in a statement. “I’ve heard my community voice their needs. With MusiCares and Humans of Hip Hop, I’m excited to work directly with artists and change-makers to get people the services that will really make a difference in their lives.”
A MusiCares spokesperson clarified that while the Black Music Collective played a key role in the creation of this program, the program is open to all members of the hip-hop community. “The Humans of Hip Hop program was created to achieve greater reach within a specific genre of music. Any person who identifies as part of the hip-hop music community can participate, regardless of race, age, gender, location or music profession. MusiCares is trying to reach people making hip-hop music and make sure MusiCares is addressing their needs.”
Humans of Hip Hop will bring programming to key cities over three years. The focus is on fostering long-term relationships to continue building MusiCares programming that is responsive to the needs of the hip-hop community.
Between August 2021 and July 2022, one-fifth of all MusiCares clients identified as Black music professionals. A MusiCares spokesperson says: “This statistic demonstrates that MusiCares serves a significant portion of clients from the Black music community. The program’s goal is to gain even further awareness for MusiCares’ services within a specific genre, open to all races.”
MusiCares will add a full-time project lead for Humans of Hip Hop to serve as the day-to-day focal point for building inroads and maintaining partnership with the hip-hop community.
“MusiCares is grateful to our sponsors and artist advocates for helping us kick off this program,” Laura Segura, executive director of MusiCares, said in a statement. “This work will allow us to zero in on the unique needs of the community and continue our work creating meaningful services driven by leaders and advocates of hip-hop.”
“We are thrilled to see this important initiative for our music people in the hip hop community come to life,” Harvey Mason jr, CEO of the Recording Academy and MusiCares, said in a statement. “Providing the resources and services needed will ensure the community knows their voices are being heard.”
Ticket marketplace Vivid Seats is the program’s supporting partner. Vivid Seats has partnered with MusiCares since 2020, sponsoring COVID-19 and natural disaster relief efforts.
To be eligible for MusiCares assistance, applicants must be able to document employment history through a minimum of five years employment in the music industry or six commercially released recordings or videos. MusiCares may grant short-term financial assistance for personal or addiction needs that have arisen due to unforeseen circumstances. Funding may also be awarded to help with needs such as rent, car payments, insurance premiums, utilities, medical/dental expenses, psychotherapy, addiction treatment, sober living, and other personal expenses.
For more information about the Humans of Hip Hop program, visit musicares.org.
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