Grateful Dead & Bonnie Raitt among the 47th annual Kennedy Center Honors recipients

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Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Grateful Dead and Bonnie Raitt are among the artists who’ll be celebrated at the 47th edition of the Kennedy Center Honors, recognizing their lifetime artistic achievement.

This year’s other honorees include director Francis Ford Coppola and jazz musician Arturo Sandoval, as well as the iconic Harlem venue The Apollo, which will receive a special Honors recognition as an American institution.

“Our Honorees this year have each played an invaluable, pioneering role in developing American culture—not with one act of art but with their decades-long devotion to pushing creative boundaries,” Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter shares.

“It goes without saying that the Kennedy Center Honors represents the highest of reaches for artistic achievement,” Dead members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bobby Weir said in a statement. “The Grateful Dead has always been about community, creativity, and exploration in music and presentation … it also must be said that our music belongs as much to our fans, the Dead Heads, as it does to us. This honor, then, is as much theirs as ours.”

Raitt shared that she was “deeply honored and thrilled to have been chosen” as one of this year’s honorees, noting, “There is no higher level of esteem nor as delightful a celebration and I want to extend my sincere thanks to all who have chosen me to receive this honor.” 

She added, “I look forward to the upcoming ceremony and festivities, which I know will be one of my life’s peak experiences.”

The Kennedy Center Honors will be handed out on Dec. 8, ahead of a CBS broadcast of the event on Dec. 23.

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