Grateful Dead's Sugaree by Dave Matthews Susan Tedeschi Derek Trucks Kennedy Center Honors 2024

Kennedy Center Honors 2024 culminated with a star-studded tribute performance to the Grateful Dead. Actors Miles Teller and Chloë Sevigny each spoke about the band’s importance to American culture and the lives of fans, and David Letterman talked about having the band on his late-night program and played a clip of him jokingly giving a guitar lesson to Jerry Garcia.

The highlight, though, was a series of musical tributes featuring a stellar backing band led by producer and Wolf Bros bassist Don Was with Goose‘s Rick Mitarotonda, Dead & Company keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, Phil Lesh‘s son Grahame Lesh, and drummers Terence Higgins and Kendrick Scott. The performance included Maggie Rogers and Leon Bridges’ unique interpretation of “Friend of the Devil”; Sturgill Simpson, Grahame Lesh, and a synced video of Jerry Garcia singing “Ripple”; and Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, and Dave Matthews performing “Sugaree”. The evening then concluded with a joyful, all-hand-on-deck rendition of “Not Fade Away”.

“Sugaree” first appeared in 1972 on Jerry Garcia’s solo album. It makes references to an earlier song also called Sugaree. It’s a song about co-conspiration, forgiveness, and self sacrifice for love.

2024 Kennedy Center Honors special was broadcast on CBS December 22, 2024. The annual event was hosted for the first time by Queen Latifah, who was honored at last year’s show. The recipients honored at the annual national celebration of the arts were acclaimed director and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola; the legendary American rock band the Grateful Dead (Mickey Hart, Billy Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Bobby Weir); blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Bonnie Raitt; jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer Arturo Sandoval; and The Apollo, which will receive a special Honors as an iconic American institution.

The live show was filmed on December 8, 2024, at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington D.C. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were both in attendance with their spouses.