Atlanta music jam grows for (almost) 100-year-old Jimmy Carter
More performers have been added to the list of country music crooners, southern rockers, hip-hop artists and other musicians and celebrities who will take part in an Atlanta concert to mark Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday. The concert will raise funds for one of the former president’s most cherished undertakings.
The Sept. 17 “Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song” event at the Fox Theatre is intended to support the Carter Center’s peace, health and freedom initiatives around the world.
The Atlanta-based nonprofit said the lineup for the event has expanded to now also include The B-52s, Carlene Carter, Angélique Kidjo, BeBe Winans, Duane Betts, India Arie, Lalah Hathaway and actress Renée Zellweger.
The concert’s previously announced program includes Chuck Leavell, a keyboardist who has played with the Rolling Stones and the Allman Brothers Band. Also performing are: D-Nice, Drive-By Truckers, Grouplove, Maren Morris, The War and Treaty, Rickey Minor and The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus. Celebrity guests include rapper and activist Killer Mike, actor Sean Penn and former Atlanta Brave Dale Murphy.
Tickets are $100 (before fees and taxes) in honor of Carter’s 100th birthday and are available at FoxTheatre.org/JimmyCarter100.
Other events related to Carter’s birthday have been scheduled in Atlanta and his southwest Georgia hometown of Plains, where he remains.
Carter’s 100th birthday is Oct. 1 and just the possibility that he might reach that milestone is stunning to some, given that the nation’s former commander-in-chief entered hospice 18 months ago, at which time doctors indicated he might have only days to live.
“He has always surprised us,” Paige Alexander, the Carter Center’s chief executive, said earlier this summer. “This is one more example of his ability to keep going.”
Deep into his 90s, Carter continued to travel the world for the Carter Center, participate in homebuilding projects with Habitat for Humanity, lead Sunday school classes at his home church in Plains, and hunt, fish, swim and stroll with the love of his life, wife Rosalynn Carter, who died last November.
In hospice, though, he’s mostly remained at home in Plains, out of public sight.
Alexander said there is “no chance” that the former president will attend the Sept. 17 musical event in Atlanta. But other Carter family members are expected to be there and the event could be streamed or recorded for him to view later, she said.
Building the event around music is “a tribute to how important music was to President Carter’s life,” she said.
Alexander said Carter shared with her that he viewed music as a unifying force among people. He incorporated music in his campaigns for office, teaming up with popular artists including the Georgia-based Allman Brothers Band. He quoted Bob Dylan in a speech accepting the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1976. And, at times, he joined Willie Nelson on stage.
In Plains, even in recent years, he would sometimes walk around listening to music on a Sony Walkman, Alexander said.
“His CD collection was eclectic,” incorporating numerous genres, she said.
CDs that are part of Carter’s personal collection still sit in stacks in his office at the Carter Center. Among the music: works by J.S. Bach (French Suite No. 5, English Suite No. 3), the Allman Brothers Band, Queen Latifah, Bob Dylan (Blood on the Tracks as well as Together Through Life), pianist David Osborne, k.d. lang (Shadowland), Kathy Mattea (Love Travels), Lindsay Rakers Band (Rakers also is a Carter Center staffer in the River Blindness Elimination Program), and Madonna (Ray of Light).
Alexander once asked the former president to name his favorite musician. He refused to share that.
His grandson Jason Carter, who chairs the Carter Center’s Board of Trustees, said in a news release that “music has been — and continues to be — a source of joy, comfort, and inspiration for my grandfather.”
Beyond the September concert, the Carter Center has launched another activity to honor Carter’s 100th birthday: a new digital mosaic composed of images, videos and messages from members of the public. People can view it and contribute to it by visiting CarterCenter.org/JimmyCarter100.
Who are the longest-living U.S. presidents?
Jimmy Carter turned 100 on Oct. 1, 2024.
The former U.S. president entered home hospice care in February 2023 after a series of health challenges in recent years, including a cancer diagnosis in 2015. He died Dec. 29, 2024.
His wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, died in November 2023 in their small rural hometown of Plains, Georgia. The couple had lived together in the same modest ranch house since 1961, save for their years in the governor’s mansion and the White House.
Carter, the 39th U.S. president from 1977 to 1981, is the longest-living president in American history.
Below is a list of the longest-living presidents.
1. Jimmy Carter, (age 100 years as of Oct. 1, 2024)
2. George H. W. Bush, 1924–2018 (age 94 years, 5 months, 18 days)
3. Gerald Ford, 1913–2006 (age 93 years, 5 months, 12 days)
4. Ronald Reagan, 1911–2004 (age 93 years, 3 months, 30 days)
5. John Adams, 1735–1826 (age 90 years, 8 months, 4 days)
6. Herbert Hoover, 1874–1964 (age 90 years, 2 months, 10 days)
7. Harry S. Truman, 1884-1972 (88 years, 7 months, 18 days)
8. James Madison, 1751-1836 (85 years, 3 months, 12 days)
9. Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826 (83 years, 2 months, 21 days)
10. Joe Biden, (age 82 years as of Nov. 20, 2024)
Source: CalculatorSoup.com
About the Author
Matt Kempner is an award-winning journalist who seeks out intriguing twists about people and subjects beyond what the AJC might typically cover. A former columnist and editor, his past assignments have included business investigations, energy, the economy, entrepreneurs, big business, consumer spending, politics, government and the environment.
