UPDATE (Oct. 25): The dying of Grateful Useless’s Phil Lesh on Friday (Oct. 25), simply two days after the band was introduced because the 2025 MusiCares Individuals of the 12 months, was stunning information. The band will nonetheless be saluted on the MusiCares gala on Jan. 31, however now two of its founding members, quite than only one (the late Jerry Garcia), will likely be honored posthumously.
Laura Segura, MusiCares government director, shared this assertion on Friday: “MusiCares mourns the loss of Phil Lesh. As a legendary bassist and founding member of the Grateful Useless, Phil’s distinctive contributions to music, advocacy, and philanthropy depart an everlasting impression.
“Phil will likely be reverently honored along with his Grateful Useless bandmates as our 2025 Individuals of the 12 months, commemorating their journey that transcends music and fosters a profound sense of unity and generosity. This tribute stands as a testomony to Phil’s outstanding legacy, dedication to creating group, and unwavering dedication to causes near his coronary heart, together with his Unbroken Chain Basis and MusiCares.
“Phil will likely be deeply missed, and our ideas are along with his family members and the Grateful Useless group.”
PREVIOUSLY (Oct. 23): What an extended unusual journey it’s been, certainly.
Grateful Useless, a band that was by no means even nominated for a Grammy, and which turned one of the legendary stay acts in historical past regardless of having a grand whole of 1 prime 40 hit on the Billboard Sizzling 100, will honored because the 2025 MusiCares Individuals of the 12 months. The thirty fourth annual Individuals of the 12 months profit gala will likely be held on the Los Angeles Conference Middle on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, two nights earlier than the 67th annual Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Area.
Grateful Useless is the third band to obtain the glory, following Fleetwood Mac in 2018 and Aerosmith in 2020. Marking the band’s sixtieth anniversary in 2025, unique members Mickey Hart, Invoice Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bobby Weir will likely be acknowledged for his or her contributions to music, their philanthropic efforts and their pioneering function in fostering communities via their live shows and activism. The occasion can even embrace posthumous tributes to Jerry Garcia, one of many band’s founders, who died in 1995 at age 53.
Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh and Weir launched an prolonged joint assertion in regards to the honor. Right here it’s, in full:
“It’s easy: all of us want music. It speaks to every of us, providing what we have to face what life presents—enhancing our joys, serving to us unfold them, and making our sorrows simpler to bear. We will’t think about a world with out it. As our ol’ pal, Jerry, used to say, ‘You get some, you give some again,’ a tremendously efficient technique to share these advantages.
“Whereas we are able to’t show that the Muse—the power behind what we do—is working to construct a help system for the present, over sixty years in music has taught us that it takes lots of devoted folks to carry every thing to life. Every individual behind the scenes has honed their abilities to fulfill the numerous wants of the present. With out them, it wouldn’t be what the Muse intends, and every of them is crucial, pouring their hearts and spirits into it.
“We additionally wish to acknowledge the group of Useless Heads for his or her unwavering help over time—we wouldn’t be right here with out you.
“We’re deeply honored to be acknowledged as MusiCares Individuals of the 12 months. This honor is really a testomony to the legacy of the music, which has all the time been larger than us—it’s in regards to the connection between us, the crew, and all those that’ve been on this lengthy unusual journey. It’s not nearly what we create, however about ensuring the folks behind it, behind us each evening, those who quietly make all of it occur, get the help they should hold going, it doesn’t matter what life throws at them. We’re grateful to face with MusiCares and hope everybody continues to help this very important mission to make sure music thrives in perpetuity.”
Fashioned in 1965, Grateful Useless is likely one of the most influential bands in American historical past, famend for his or her distinctive mix of rock, folks, jazz and avant-garde music. In December, the month earlier than the MusiCares honor, Grateful Useless will likely be included within the forty seventh class of the Kennedy Middle Honorees, alongside Bonnie Raitt, Arturo Sandoval, Francis Ford Coppola and the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
The Useless’s closing tally of two,318 live shows stays a world file. An album recorded at their Barton Corridor Live performance at Cornell College in 1977 was inducted into the Nationwide Recording Registry in 2011.
As famous, the band by no means acquired a Grammy nomination, but it surely has two recordings within the Grammy Corridor of Fame: their back-to-back 1970 studio albums Workingman’s Useless (1970) and American Magnificence. The band additionally acquired the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
The Useless was inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame in 1994, the 12 months earlier than Garcia died.
The band has made the Billboard 200 with a staggering 124 titles. The best-charting was its 1987 Arista album Within the Darkish, which reached No. 6. That album additionally spawned the band’s solely prime 10 hit on the Sizzling 100, “Contact of Gray.” (The band’s signature music, “Truckin’,” was its second-highest single, reaching No. 64 in 1971.)
In February, the band broke the file for many prime 40-charting albums on the Billboard 200 because the chart started publishing on a daily weekly foundation in March 1956. It has since added two extra prime 40 albums, for a record-extending whole of 61.
The MusiCares Particular person of the 12 months tribute ceremony is likely one of the most prestigious occasions held throughout Grammy Week. It features a cocktail reception, adopted by a dinner and tribute live performance.
Since its inception in 1991, the Particular person of the 12 months gala has raised funds to help MusiCares’ well being and human providers packages, which provide bodily and psychological well being care, dependancy restoration, preventive clinics, unexpected private emergencies, and catastrophe aid to music professionals.
5-time Grammy winner Don Was will function musical director for the occasion. The gala will once more be produced by stay occasion broadcast outfit Lewis & Clark, comprised of Joe Lewis and R.A. Clark. Additionally they oversaw final 12 months’s gala honoring Jon Bon Jovi. AEG is the occasion’s principal sponsor.
“MusiCares is proud to honor the Grateful Useless on the 2025 Individuals of the 12 months Gala,” Laura Segura, government director of MusiCares, mentioned in an announcement. “Their legacy transcends music, having constructed a group of followers and collaborators that embody the spirit of connection and help, one thing that’s deeply aligned with MusiCares’ mission. The band’s ardour for the humanities and philanthropy, together with their enduring dedication to social causes, has made a long-lasting impression that goes past the stage. It’s a privilege to have a good time their contributions to each music and humanity.”
Past their musical achievements, Grateful Useless members have made vital contributions to philanthropic causes. Garcia, Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, and Weir have all supported efforts starting from environmental conservation and psychological well being to music schooling and social justice. Initiatives like Garcia’s involvement with the Rex Basis, Hart’s work in music remedy and mind well being, Weir’s advocacy for addressing local weather change and combating poverty, Kreutzmann’s ocean conservation efforts, and Lesh’s Unbroken Chain Basis underscore the band’s dedication to creating a distinction past the stage.
Tables and tickets can be found for buy at http://personoftheyear.musicares.org/. For extra details about the occasion or sponsorship alternatives, go to MusiCares.org or e-mail personoftheyear@musicares.org.
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