MusiCares names The Grateful Dead 2025 Persons of the Year

[October 24, 2024]  By MARIA SHERMAN

MusiCares, an organization that helps music professionals who need financial, personal or medical assistance, will honor the Grateful Dead as its 2025 Persons 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 foster community through concerts and for their impact on American music on their 60th anniversary.

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

The Grateful Dead will be honored at the 34th annual Persons of the Year benefit gala at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Jan. 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 founding and best-known members, Jerry Garcia. He died of a heart attack in 1995. The Grateful Dead disbanded afterward and launched into a series of spin-off projects.

“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,” Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh and Weir shared in a joint statement. “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.”

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

 Mickey Hart, from left, Bob Weir, and Bill Kreutzmann pose at the premiere of "Long Strange Trip," a documentary about the Grateful Dead rock group, during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on Monday, Jan. 23, 2017, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP, File)

In 2007, the Grateful Dead received the Lifetime Achievement award from the Recording Academy.

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

In December, the band will be included in the 47th class of the Kennedy Center Honorees.

“Their legacy transcends music, having built a community of fans and collaborators that embody the spirit of connection and support," MusiCares executive director Laura Segura wrote in a statement. "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.”

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

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