ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� A range of stars from the stage, screen and sport paid tribute Tuesday to former President ahead of his 100th birthday, the eclectic lineup meant to highlight the 39th president鈥檚 emphasis on human rights and his love of music as a universal language.
鈥淓veryone here is making history,鈥� Jason Carter, the former president鈥檚 grandson, told more than 4,000 people who filled Atlanta鈥檚 Fox Theatre to toast the longest-lived U.S. executive in history. 鈥淭his is the first time people have come together to celebrate the 100th birthday of American president.鈥�
The benefit concert, with ticket sales funding international programs of The Carter Center that Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter founded in 1982 after leaving the White House, brought together artists that crossed generations and genres that traced back to his 1976 campaign. The concert will be aired in full on Georgia Public Broadcasting on Oct. 1, Carter's birthday. Carter remains in hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia.
鈥淗e really was the rock-and-roll president,鈥� said Chuck Leavell, whose Georgia-based Allman Brothers Band campaigned with Carter in 1976. But more than that, Leavell said, Carter always understood music as something 鈥渢hat brings people together.鈥�
Indeed, Tuesday鈥檚 run of show assembled artists as varied as India Arie singing R&B and soul draped in a resplendent purple gown; the B-52s, formed in Athens, Georgia, singing 鈥淟ove Shack鈥� and projecting psychedelic imagery across the concert hall; and the Atlanta Symphony Chamber Chorus bringing a classical and patriotic repertoire.
Former President Barack Obama, known for releasing his summer playlists on social media, marveled at the range.
鈥淣ow I have another reason to respect you,鈥� Obama said in a video message. 鈥淗e has got great taste in music. ... I鈥檝e never thrown a concert that features pop, rock, gospel, country, jazz, classical and hip-hop.鈥�
Of course, Obama noted, 鈥淛immy never passes up the opportunity to send a message,鈥� and several artists referenced one of Carter鈥檚 widely circulated quotes about music: 鈥淥ne of the things that has held America together has been the music that we share and love.鈥�
Leavell took the stage multiple times Tuesday, reprising music he played and sang almost 50 years ago when Carter, then an underdog former Georgia governor, outpaced better-known Democrats to win his party鈥檚 nomination and the presidency in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.
鈥淢usic was such an important part of his political legacy,鈥� Jason Carter told The Associated Press. 鈥淭he Allman Brothers helped get him elected. Willie Nelson helped get him elected. He truly believed that.
鈥淲hen he was coming out of the South, running for president of the United States, the Allman Brothers and some of these other folks were really announcing this New South that was turning the page on the days of segregation 鈥� their lyrics, their whole vibe,鈥� the younger Carter continued. 鈥淗e used that to connect across generations.鈥�
Leavell traced Carter鈥檚 love of music to his upbringing in church; the former president has written about his early church experiences, including visiting a Black congregation near his home just outside Plains. Carter recalled being more captivated by the music there than what he heard in his all-white congregation. At the Naval Academy, Leavell noted, Carter and one of his friends would buy classical recordings of the same pieces to study how music can be interpreted differently.
Part of the evening involved recounting Carter鈥檚 legacy as president and with The Carter Center, which advocates democracy, resolves conflict and fights disease across the world.
Hannah Hooper, a lead singer of the alternative rock band Grouplove, praised Carter for dramatically expanding nationally protected park lands, most of it in Alaska. Actress Renee Zellweger narrated the lifelong relationship between the former president and his wife, whom he first met when she was just days old and who died last November after 77 years of marriage.
Two former Atlanta Braves baseball stars, Terry Pendleton and Dale Murphy, celebrated Carter as the team's No. 1 fan. They recalled what it was like to play with the Carters sitting in a field-level box, and they presented the former president's great-grandsons with a Braves jersey to give their great-grandfather. The jersey number: 100.
Bernice King, the daughter of slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., recounted Carter鈥檚 relationship with her family 鈥� he was close to her mother, and her grandfather was instrumental in Carter's 1976 election. Though Carter was not actively involved in King Jr.'s work, Bernice King thanked the former president for publicly crediting her father for his indirect role in Carter's political rise. Without the successes of the Civil Rights Movement, she recalled Carter saying, the nation never would have elevated a Southern governor who came of age in the era of Jim Crow segregation.
The night was mostly void of partisan politics. But there were signs of Democratic allegiances to Carter and shadows of the 2024 election.
Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers praised Carter as being ahead of his time and added that the country would have been better off if he had gotten to 鈥渇inish the job" 鈥� an obvious reference to Carter's landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.
The list of former presidents paying tribute was bipartisan: Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush were packaged with Obama. President Joe Biden added his greetings, recalling that he was the first U.S. senator to endorse Carter's White House bid. 鈥淚 admire you so darn much,鈥� Biden said, calling Carter, 鈥淢r. President.鈥�
But there was a notable omission: former President . The 2024 Republican nominee has this year repeatedly cast Carter as a failed president as he tries to make a comeback bid. After the 2016 election, Carter questioned Trump's legitimacy.
Arie's selections, meanwhile, included 鈥淲hat If,鈥� the lyrics of which include first names of Black women who have broken barriers. Among them: Kamala. That reference to the vice president and Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, drew roars from the crowd.
Jason Carter, for his part, said his grandfather has been captivated by Biden's decision to end his reelection bid and the possibility that Harris could become the first woman in the Oval Office. The younger Carter, who now chairs The Carter Center board, said Jimmy Carter struggled in the months after Rosalynn Carter's death but now is excited by another campaign.
鈥淗e's ready to turn the page on Trump,鈥� Jason Carter said, but more driven by the opportunity to vote for Harris. 鈥淲hen Kamala came onto the scene, it really galvanized the party, and it really energized him as well.鈥�
Bill Barrow, The Associated Press
