Deadheads combined with bigwigs Friday evening on the annual MusiCares Individuals of the 12 months gala, the place the members of the Grateful Lifeless had been honored by the Recording Academy for his or her philanthropy and cultural influence 60 years after the long-lasting jam band shaped in 1965.
“Longevity was by no means a serious concern of ours,” the Lifeless’s Bobby Weir stated to laughs within the viewers as he accepted the award. “Lighting people up and spreading pleasure by the music was all we ever actually had in thoughts, and we received loads of that carried out.”
Held on the Los Angeles Conference Heart, the Grammy-weekend charity occasion — gown code: “colourful black tie” — raised greater than $5 million for music professionals affected by the wildfires that devastated a lot of L.A. final month. As friends munched rainbow grilled cheese sandwiches, host Andy Cohen roamed the well-heeled crowd in search of celebrities to speak up on digicam; at one level he buttonholed his previous pal John Mayer, whom he requested to call the horniest Grateful Lifeless track. (“Appears Like Rain,” which imagines “the sound of avenue cats making love,” was Mayer’s reply.)
Although it by no means actually was in peril, the Lifeless’s extraordinarily sturdy legacy received a serious increase final 12 months when Lifeless & Firm — wherein 77-year-old Weir and 81-year-old Mickey Hart carry out music from the Lifeless’s catalog with Mayer, Jeff Chimenti, Jay Lane and Oteil Burbridge — arrange at Sphere in Las Vegas for a hot-ticket summer season residency that appeared to go viral each weekend on TikTok. Right here, children and folks alike turned as much as pay tribute to the band.
Vampire Weekend provided a taut “Scarlet Begonias” and Maren Morris a stirring “They Love Every Different.” Noah Kahan and Béla Fleck had been folky but exact in “Good friend of the Satan,” whereas Norah Jones glided easily by “Ripple.” The Struggle and Treaty did a usually fiery “Samson and Delilah” with assist from a pair of dueling drummers: Fleetwood Mac’s Mick Fleetwood and Stewart Copeland of the Police. Dwight Yoakam introduced a tough nation edge to “Truckin’”; the Struggle on Medicine discovered a wistful drive for “Field of Rain.”
Wynonna Judd performs.
(Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Wynonna Judd was the evening’s musical and emotional excessive level: Describing Weir as her “household of alternative,” she thanked the whiskery guitarist for singing on the funeral of her mom, Naomi, in 2022, then introduced the viewers to its toes with a rollicking “Ramble on Rose.” Different performers included Zac Brown, Billy Strings, Sammy Hagar, Bruce Hornsby, My Morning Jacket and the duo of Sierra Ferrell and Lukas Nelson, who teamed up for “It Should Have Been the Roses.”
The evening’s wonderful backing band was led by Don Was and featured guitarists Rick Mitarotonda (of the ascendant jam band Goose) and Grahame Lesh, son of the Lifeless’s founding bassist, Phil Lesh, who died final 12 months at 84, simply days after the announcement of the MusiCares honor. The Lifeless’s late mastermind, Jerry Garcia, was represented by his daughter Trixie; Invoice Kreutzmann, the band’s founding drummer, despatched a video message alongside together with his son Justin.
Woody Harrelson, left, and Bob Weir communicate.
(Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
“The street is a tough existence,” Weir stated in his speech, “as plainly evidenced by the straightforward undeniable fact that there aren’t all that a lot of my previous bandmates right here tonight to obtain this recognition.” After Weir and Hart’s remarks — actor Woody Harrelson additionally spoke at some size about having carried out an enormous assortment of medicine with Garcia — the 2 stalwart musicians joined the remainder of Lifeless & Firm for a mini-set of classics that climaxed, warmly if inevitably, with the Lifeless’s inconceivable late-’80s pop hit, “Contact of Gray.”
“I’ll get by,” they sang with assist from the group, “I’ll survive.”