The Grateful Dead Named 2025 MusiCares Person of the Year

MusiCares, an organization that helps music professionals in need of financial, personal or medical assistance, will honor the Grateful Dead as the 2025 Person of the Year.

MusiCares announced Wednesday that it will recognize original members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bobby Weir for their philanthropic efforts, their unique ability to advance the community through concerts and for their impact on American music on its 60th anniversary.

Over the years, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame members have supported causes of environmental conservation, mental health, music education, social justice, and advocated for anti-poverty, including with initiatives such as Lesh’s Unbroken Chain Foundation and Garcia’s involvement with the Rex Foundation.

The Grateful Dead will be honored at the 34th annual People of the Year benefit gala at the Los Angeles Convention Center on January 31, two nights before the 2025 Grammy Awards are held at the adjacent Crypto.com Arena. The ceremony will include posthumous tributes to one of the band’s founders and best-known members, Jerry Garcia. He died of a heart attack in 1995. The Grateful Dead later disbanded and launched into a series of spinoff projects.

“This honor is truly a testament to the legacy of music, which has always been bigger than us – it’s about the connection between us, the team and all those who have been on this long and strange journey,” Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh and Weir shared a joint statement. “It’s not just about what we create, it’s about making sure the people behind it, who stand behind us every night, the ones who silently make it all happen, get the support they need to keep going, no matter what life takes. offer them.”

The Grateful Dead formed in the Bay Area in 1965, evolving to perfect a kind of hybrid approach to their improvisational, jam band style, a sound that encompasses acid rock, psychedelia, folk, jazz, Americana, Bakersfield country and more. They created their own counterculture centered around their tours, a community known as Dead Heads, and became one of the most in-demand live acts.

In 2007, the Grateful Dead received the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

In February of this year, The Grateful Dead broke the record for most Top 40 albums on the Billboard 200 charts, ahead of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra with 59. Forty-one of the band’s 59 Top 40 entries have come since 2012, thanks to the popularity of the series of archive albums compiled by David Lemieux.

In December, the band will be inducted into the 47th class of Kennedy Center Honorees.

“His legacy transcends music, having built a community of fans and collaborators who embody the spirit of connection and support,” wrote MusiCares Executive Director Laura Segura in a statement. social causes, has had a lasting impact that goes beyond the stage.”

Last year, Jon Bon Jovi was honored for his musical achievements and philanthropic efforts as the 2024 MusiCares Person of the Year. Fleetwood Mac was the first group to win the award in 2018.