The Grateful Dead will be among those celebrated at the 47th Kennedy Center Honors in December 2024.
After a fan petition failed to get them included in 2015, surviving band members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, and Bobby Weir will receive recognition for their lifetime of artistic achievements alongside an esteemed cohort of fellow honorees including acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola (who previously worked with Hart and Kreutzmann on the soundtrack for his 1979 film Apocalypse Now), rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Bonnie Raitt, jazz trumpeter, pianist, and composer Arturo Sandoval, and the Apollo Theater, which will receive a special Honors as an iconic American institution.
“The Grateful Dead has always been about community, creativity, and exploration in music and presentation,” the band said in a statement. “We’ve always felt that the music we make embodies and imparts something beyond the notes and phrases being played—and that is something we are privileged to share with all who are drawn to what we do—so it also must be said that our music belongs as much to our fans, the Dead Heads, as it does to us. This honor, then, is as much theirs as ours.”
“The Kennedy Center Honors recognizes artists who have made an extraordinary impact on the cultural life of our nation and continue to have an immeasurable influence on new generations,” Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein said before remarking on each of the 2024 honorees:
“A brilliant and masterful storyteller with an unrelenting innovative spirit, Francis Ford Coppola’s films have become embedded in the very idea of American culture; a social and cultural phenomenon since 1965, the Grateful Dead’s music has never stopped being a true American original, while inspiring a fan culture like no other; Bonnie Raitt has made us love her again and again with her inimitable voice, slide guitar, and endless musical range encompassing blues, R&B, country rock, and folk; ‘an ambassador of both music and humanity,’ Arturo Sandoval transcended literal borders coming from Cuba 30+ years ago and today continues to bridge cultures with his intoxicating blend of Afro Cuban rhythms and modern jazz; and on its 90th anniversary, The Apollo, one of the most consequential, influential institutions in history, has elevated the voices of Black entertainment in New York City, nationally, and around the world, and launched the careers of legions of artists.”
Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter added, “Our Honorees this year have each played an invaluable, pioneering role in developing American culture—not with one act of art but with their decades-long devotion to pushing creative boundaries.”
The 47th Kennedy Center Honoree class will receive their honors on Sunday, December 8th during a ceremony at the Kennedy Center Opera House featuring tribute performances and more. The presentation will air on CBS on Monday, December 23rd. For more information about the event and honorees, head here.
If they all attend, this will mark a rare public appearance by all “Core Four” surviving members of the Grateful Dead, who last performed together at the 2015 Fare Thee Well concerts at Soldier Field with Trey Anastasio and Bruce Hornsby. In the years since, Kreutzmann, Hart, and Weir toured arenas and stadiums as Dead & Company with John Mayer on guitar while Phil Lesh opted for limited engagements at a few select venues and festivals around the country. Kreutzmann and Dead & Company parted ways in 2023 ahead of the band’s Final Tour, replaced by Jay Lane who now drums with the band at their Dead Forever residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere.
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