The Late Jerry Garcia & His Grateful Dead Band Mates Named MusiCares’ 2025 Persons of the Year

Posted on October 23, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

The late Jerry Garcia is getting a special posthumous honor…

The half-Spanish American singer/songwriter/guitarist and his Grateful Dead band mates have been named as the 2025 Persons of the Year by MusiCares, with the band’s original members due to be feted at the organization’s annual gala concert and dinner on January 31, two days prior to the Grammys.

The honor will effectively kick off what may turn out to be a yearlong celebration of the 60th anniversary of the group’s founding. As always, the fundraiser for this charitable arm of the Recording Academy will culminate in a series of all-star performances covering the honoree’s catalog.

The evening will take place in its usual location in a vast ballroom at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

In the 33-year history of MusiCares events, this marks only the third time that a superstar group has been selected for the honor instead of an individual. The previous bands chosen were Fleetwood Mac in 2018 and Aerosmith in 2020.

It’s the first time that someone no longer among the living will be officially celebrated as part of the tribute. Garcia, who died in 1995 at the age of 53, will get his posthumous due during the evening, along with the four living Dead members from the original lineup — Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bobby Weir.

The four musicians have played in spinoff groups since Garcia’s passing, with Weir and Hart continuing to be active as mainstays of Dead & Company.

That outfit officially retired from touring after a 2023 outing, but went on to play a ravenously well-received residency at Sphere in Las Vegas from May through August of this year.

Fans are hoping for a return engagement or some other live commemoration in the coming year to help mark the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead.

Don Was, who just served as musical director of last week’s Robbie Robertson tribute at the Kia Forum, will take up MD duties again for this event. Returning as producers are Lewis & Clark, a live event broadcast outfit made up of Joe Lewis and R.A. Clark.

Laura Segura, executive director of MusiCares, said in a statement that the Dead’s 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.”

The Dead will be following in the footsteps of MusiCares’ 2024 honoree, Jon Bon Jovi, and a three-decade-long list of previous recipients that includes Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Barbra Streisand, Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Bono, Elton John, Quincy Jones, Billy Joel, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young and Paul Simon.

Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh and Weir collectively issued a statement that said in part, “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.”

MusiCares cited the group’s charitable efforts as one reason for their selection, noting how “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.”

MusiCares’ mission is to offer musicians in need a network of preventive, emergency and recovery programs.

Arturo Sandoval Among This Year’s Kennedy Center Honors Recipients

Posted on July 19, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Arturo Sandoval has earned a special national honor…

The 74-year-old Cuban jazz trumpeter, pianist, timbalero and composer will be among this year’s Kennedy Center Honors recipients.

Sandoval will be recognized alongside director Francis Ford Coppola, rock band Grateful Dead, blues and rock singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt and the venue The Apollo.

While living in his native Cuba, Sandoval was influenced by jazz musicians Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1977 he met Gillespie, who became his friend and mentor and helped him defect from Cuba while on tour with the United Nations Orchestra. Sandoval became an American naturalized citizen in 1998.

His life was the subject of the film For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story starring Andy García.

Sandoval has won 10 Grammy Awards, Billboard Awards and one Emmy Award. He performed at the White House and at the 1995 Super Bowl.

Mickey Hart, Billy Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bobby Weir will be recognized for The Grateful Dead. Jerry Garcia, lead guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, died in 1995.

The ceremony will take place on December 8, for broadcast on December 23 on CBS.

This will be the 47th year of the honors, which started in 1978. It’s one of the premiere cultural events of the year in D.C., typically attended by the president and first lady, as well as the chief justice of the Supreme Court and congressional leaders. President Joe Biden has hosted the recipients at a White House ceremony and reception just before the Kennedy Center event. The night before, the State Department also hosts a ceremony for the honorees.

Done+Dusted will produce the ceremony for the third year, in association with ROK Productions.

The first Kennedy Center honorees were Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers and Arthur Rubinstein.

Martin Scorsese Directing Film About Jerry Garcia & The Grateful Dead, Starring Jonah Hill

Posted on November 20, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

The late Jerry Garcia’s band life story is headed to the big screen…

Jonah Hill is set to play the late half-Spanish American guitarist, singer and songwriter in a feature about The Grateful Dead from director Martin Scorsese.

Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the writers behind biopics like Dolemite Is My Name and Big Eyes, penned the screenplay about the infamous jam band.

Apple, where the project is set up, has acquired the right to use the Grateful Dead’s music in the film.

The Grateful Dead was founded in the Bay Area in the 1960s as a part of San Francisco’s burgeoning counter-culture movement.

Garcia acted as the lead guitarist, as well as vocalist. He died in 1995 after the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

It’s unclear what part of the band’s history will be covered in the film, but Scorsese has already been a part of bringing the band’s story to the screen, executive producing the 2017 rock doc about the group, Long Strange Trip.

Scorsese will produce via his Sikelia Productions under a first-look deal with the tech giant. Hill will produce via his Strong Baby banner with Matt Dines.

Rick Yorn will also produce, with Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Trixie Garcia, Eric Eisner and Bernie Cahill executive-producing.

Scorsese is currently working on his next feature, The Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It will also be a reteaming for the director and actor, who previously worked together on The Wolf of Wall Street.

Trixie Garcia Teams Up with Keen to Honor Late Father Jerry Garcia’s Commitment to Sustainability with New Shoe Collection

Posted on April 22, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Trixie Garcia is putting her late father’s best foot forward…

The 46-year-old part-Spanish American entrepreneur and the daughter of late Grateful Dead singer Jerry Garcia has teamed up with shoe company Keen, honoring the late legend’s commitment to sustainability with a follow-up collection to the Keen x Garcia product line.

The three styles in the new collection include the Yogui slip-on, the Elsa Lite sneaker and the limited edition Newport sandal, which features Garcia’s “Junglescape” artwork.

1% of proceeds will benefit the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the Earth’s largest temperate rainforest. Additionally, Keen has opened an auction of the #420 individually numbered collector’s limited-edition Newport Junglescape Sandal via Bidding For Good, with 100% of the proceeds going toward The Wilderness Society’s Protect the Tongass campaign.

“The Tongass is our last largest and mostly in tact rainforest in our country,” Trixie tells Billboard. “The Trump administration had relaxed the laws about building roads there. Roads lead to resources, and there are all these people hungry to mine.”

“Keeping it intact is actually a greater benefit to us collectively in the long term,” she continues. “It’s a huge carbon capture, it’s home to many varieties of salmon, bears, glaciers, everything. As stewards of this planet and with all that we know now, it’s just unconscionable that we allow that to be pillaged the way we have the rest of the planet.”

Jerry Garcia, the legendary songwriter and lead guitarist for the Grateful Dead, was passionate about rainforests. In September 1988, the band organized the Rainforest Benefit Concert at Madison Square Garden with the hope that they would motivate their audience and the world to help one of the Earth’s greatest ecosystems.

“Keen is one of those ethically-minded companies that is really making an effort to give back and reduce their footprint and make the world a better place,” Trixie says of continuing her father’s fight. “When we’re finding partners for Jerry Garcia, there’s no reason to do it unless there’s bigger picture involved. We love to have some charitable components, so Keen is an amazing company.”

Her favorite shoe in the collection is the white Newport sandal with the Banyan tree design. “I’m wearing them now,” she says with a laugh. “They’re super cute and super comfortable and I have a breeze coming through the shoes touching my toes. I’m super proud. I love the quality of work on these shoes. They’re beautiful and stylish. I love to be outside and these are great exploring shoes.”

As for her tips for living a more sustainable lifestyle, Trixie says it’s all about mindfulness. “Be active politically, go vote for the right people that are lobbying for positive change and be mindful of what you’re consuming on a daily basis,” she explains. “Be mindful of the plastic that you’re buying, be mindful of how much water you’re using and where your food is coming from. All of these things help make it cool to be a tree hugger, like we were trying to do so long ago.”

“I’m stoked to see someone like Greta Thunberg out there, inspiring the masses like wildfire,” she adds. “I think we’re going to have a whole new generation of people involved in politics and dedicating their lives to fighting for something that’s more meaningful. We’ve been put into this whole 9-to-5, just money, money, money thing in America and it’s not healthy. That’s another thing that the Grateful Dead community knew. Get on the bus. Get out of the daily grind. Do something that brings you joy. That’s the way you can also make the world a better place, by being a happier person. Happy planet, happy people.”

Shop the Keen x Garcia collection here, and sign the petition to protect Alaska’s Tongass National Forest here.

Garcia Family Shares the late Jerry Garcia’s 1986 Rendition of Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece” Alongside John Kahn

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Jerry Garcia‘s legacy lives on…

Garcia Family Provisions is sharing thelate half-Spanish American Grateful Dead frontman and guitarist’s rendition of Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece” alongside bassist John Kahn.

It’s the latest offering from GarciaLive Volume 14: January 27th, 1986 the Ritz, which will be released on Friday, July 24.

In the performance, Garcia and Kahn offer a fully stripped-down take on the song, with just guitar and bass skipping and tumbling alongside each other.

Vocally, Garcia pushes his voice up to the edge of a raspy wail — while still keeping the vibe totally intact — as he sings, “I left Rome and landed in Brussels/On a plane ride so bumpy that I almost cried/Clergymen in uniform and young girls pulling muscles/Everyone was there to greet me when I stepped inside.”

Dylan wrote “When I Paint My Masterpiece” in 1971. Although the Band delivered the first recorded version of the song on their 1971 album Cahoots, Dylan’s rendition would appear a few months later on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II.

Garcia was performing “When I Paint My Masterpiece” as early as 1972, and its regular inclusion in his shows with Kahn during their 1986 trek notably foreshadowed its eventual status as a staple in Grateful Dead setlists starting the following year.

GarciaLive Volume 14, as its title suggests, captures Garcia and Kahn’s January 1986 show at the Ritz in New York City.

The show found the pair playing a mix of Grateful Dead songs, folk standards and one other Dylan cover, “Simple Twist of Fate.”

GarciaLive Volume 14 is available for preorder, and those who purchase it via Garcia Family Provisions or local independent record stores will receive a bonus CD featuring a recording of Garcia and Kahn’s January 28th, 1986, concert at the Ritz as well (while supplies last).

A vinyl version of the album, limited to 5,000 copies, will be released on August 14.

The album boasts new liner notes from bluegrass artist Billy Strings.

Garcia to Be Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Jerry Garcia legacy lives on…

The late part-Spanish American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead, will be posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame this week.

Garcia and his songwriting partner Robert Hunter, who will also be honored, first paired together as performers in a folk duo in the early 1960’s. When Garcia formed the Grateful Dead in the mid-1960’s, he looked to Hunter for lyrics. Hunter became an official lyricist for the band, and when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, Hunter was inducted as a band member, the only non-performer ever honored.

Garcia wrote the music while Hunter penned lyrics for songs like “Casey Jones”, “China Cat Sunflower,” “St. Stephen” and “Truckin,’” which was recognized by the United States Library of Congress in 1997 as a national treasure.

With more than 35 million albums sold worldwide, other notable tracks include, “Dark Star,” which is listed as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll” list, and was ranked #57 on Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time,” the 1987 single, “Touch Of Grey” which was also the band’s first music video and, “Friend of the Devil” from the 1970 album American Beauty, which has been covered by Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, The Counting Crows, Elvis Costello, Lyle Lovett and John Mayer. In 2007, the Grateful Dead received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The 46th Annual Induction and Awards Dinner will take place on June 18 at the New York Marriott Marquis.

The attendees will gather to celebrate the core of creativity that drives the music business: the craft of songwriting.

Other members of 2015 class of inductees: country hitmaker Bobby Braddock, late blues icon Willie Dixon, country star Toby Keith, ’80s pop chart-topper Cyndi Lauper and Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes, who has written hits for Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, James Blunt, the Dixie Chicks and others.

“Our 2015 lineup of inductees represents the rich diversity of American musical styles – Rock, Country, Blues and Pop – that have captivated the world over the past six decades,” said SHOF President & CEO Linda Moran. “Each one of these brilliant music creators have written instantly recognizable classics, songs that are both of their time and timeless. Our Annual Awards Gala is sure to be unforgettable.”

The evening’s lineup of performers and presenters includes Tony Bennett, Benny Blanco, Zac Brown, Michael Buble, Ledisi, Ne-Yo, Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, Bernie Taupin and Paul Williams.

Garcia to Be Subject of Documentary…

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Tom Castaneda

The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia will be the subject of a feature-length documentary…

Filmmaker Malcolm Leo, who has previously helmed movies about Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys, will create a documentary about the late part-Spanish guitarist, who died of a heart attack at the age of 53 in 1995. He’ll reportedly build the film around a three-hour interview he conducted with Garcia in 1987.

Last summer, during Jerry Garcia Day at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Leo and his team shot a ceremony that included members of the Dead legacy band Furthur singing the national anthem and a world-record-setting performance of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” played by more than 40,000 fans on kazoos.

Leo and co-producer John Hartmann, who has managed bands like the Eagles and Crosby Stills & Nash, have secured the critical music rights to tell Garcia’s story, something that has eluded other potential filmmakers over the years.

Leo and Hartmann hope to have the film ready by spring.

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