Grateful Dead, Francis Ford Coppola, Bonnie Raitt on 2024 Kennedy Center Honors list

By Isabella Gomez Sarmiento

Published July 18, 2024 at 6:45 AM CDT

The 2024 Kennedy Center honorees, clockwise from left, The Apollo theater; the Grateful Dead (Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Billy Kreutzmann); jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer Arturo Sandoval; blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, Bonnie Raitt; and director and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.

The recipients of the 47th Kennedy Center Honors have been announced.

The award for lifetime artistic achievements will recognize director and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola; blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Bonnie Raitt; jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer Arturo Sandoval; the Apollo Theater; and the four surviving members of countercultural rock band the Grateful Dead.

Guitarist Bob Weir, who collaborated with the National Symphony Orchestra to bring the Dead's catalog to the Kennedy Center in 2022, told NPR he was speechless — and profusely thanked the devoted Deadheads who've sustained the band for nearly six decades, as well as his late bandmates Jerry Garcia and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan.

"Not so long ago, we were sort of outsiders. Now, all of that's kind of changed," Weir said. "We've been accepted into the American musical tradition, which is where we've always been."

The Honors raise money for the Kennedy Center while recognizing artists who have played a key role in the development of American culture. The annual ceremony is slated for Sunday, Dec. 8, and will air on CBS on Monday, Dec. 23.

“A brilliant and masterful storyteller with an unrelenting innovative spirit, Francis Ford Coppola’s films have become embedded in the very idea of American culture; a social and cultural phenomenon since 1965, the Grateful Dead’s music has never stopped being a true American original while inspiring a fan culture like no other,” said Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein in a statement announcing the winners.

“Bonnie Raitt has made us love her again and again with her inimitable voice, slide guitar, and endless musical range encompassing blues, R&B, country rock, and folk; ‘an ambassador of both music and humanity,’ Arturo Sandoval transcended literal borders coming from Cuba 30+ years ago and today continues to bridge cultures with his intoxicating blend of Afro Cuban rhythms and modern jazz; and on its 90th anniversary, The Apollo, one of the most consequential, influential institutions in history, has elevated the voices of Black entertainment in New York.”