The Grateful Dead, Francis Ford Coppola, and Bonnie Raitt are among the recipients of the 2024 Kennedy Center Honors, with the artists to be celebrated at a ceremony this December.
Jazz artist Arturo Sandoval and legendary Harlem venue the Apollo Theater — receiving a “special Honors as an iconic American institution” — will also be honored at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on December 8, with a CBS broadcast of the ceremony to follow on December 23.
The four surviving founding members of the Grateful Dead — Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, and Phil Kreutzmann, said of the honor in a statement, “It goes without saying that the Kennedy Center Honors represents the highest of reaches for artistic achievement. To be recognized alongside the artists who have in the past received this honor is beyond humbling.”
The band added, “The Grateful Dead has always been about community, creativity, and exploration in music and presentation. 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.”
Coppola — the filmmaker behind the camera for The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, and the upcoming Megalopolis — told the Associated Press of receiving the Kennedy Center Honors, “I’ve been eligible for the past 20 years, so the fact that I never received it made me feel that maybe I never would. I just assumed I wasn’t going to win it, so to hear that I was chosen was a surprise and a delight.”
A longtime resident of the Bay Area, Coppola added, “And it’s a big treat to be there this year with the Grateful Dead, my San Francisco colleagues. I’m very delighted and pleased.”
Raitt is a longtime veteran of the Kennedy Center Honors as, during the Jimmy Carter administration, she accompanied her father John Raitt to the ceremony as he took part in a tribute to composer Richard Rogers; she also performed at the event in 2012 and 2016 at ceremonies honoring Buddy Guy and Mavis Staples, respectively. This year, she’ll be the one receiving the lifetime achievement award.
“I am deeply honored and thrilled to have been chosen to receive one of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors. I have long been an admirer of the Awards and have been so blessed to be able to participate in several shows honoring others,” Raitt said in a statement.
“There is no higher level of esteem nor as delightful a celebration and I want to extend my sincere thanks to all who have chosen me to receive this honor. I look forward to the upcoming ceremony and festivities, which I know will be one of my life’s peak experiences.”
