What music did Jimmy Carter love? Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson among the greats he enjoyed

Jimmy Carter, the former US president who died on December 29 at age 100, was a lifelong music fan, inspired and deeply moved by his era’s rockers, gospel singers and country songwriters, who often returned the affection onstage and at the White House. His tastes in rock and pop music were a subtle but unmistakable gesture toward racial reconciliation and, as evidenced by his support of the National Endowment for the Arts later, a vision of a diverse and inclusive American culture. Carter grew up with gospel music in the church, telling The Washington Post that it was “not a racial music … it’s a music of pain, of longing, of searching, of hope and of faith”. While it seems at odds with his devout, peanut-farming reputation, Carter’s countercultural credibility helped build the coalition that won him the White House. In 1976, as he accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency, America was coming out of a contentious and mistrustful era of Watergate and the Vietnam war. Carter took the occasion to quote his beloved Bob Dylan in search of hope and optimism. “My vision of this nation and its future has been deepened and matured during the 19 months that I’ve have campaigned among you for president. I’ve never had more faith in America than I do today,” Carter said. “We have an America that, in Bob Dylan’s phrase, is ‘busy being born’, not ‘busy dying’.” Carter was fond of quoting Dylan. He had said in a 1974 speech: “After listening to his records about ‘The Ballad of Hattie Carroll’ and ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and ‘The Times They Are a-Changin’’, I’ve learned to appreciate the dynamism of change in a modem society.” Years later, Carter introduced the singer at MusiCares’ Person of the Year ceremony in 2015. Dylan was one of many musicians who came to trust in Carter’s tastes and moral compass. Rock group The Band covered “Georgia on My Mind” on Saturday Night Live in support of Carter just before the 1976 election and later released a studio version. At an event for Carter’s inauguration in 1977, Aretha Franklin sang “God Bless America”. While at the inauguration event, Paul Simon said onstage, “Perhaps a time of righteousness and dignity may be upon us.” The same year, David Crosby told Rolling Stone that Carter was “so intelligent that he knows how to be human and accessible and real. It’s sheer genius.” Even the right-wing singer-musician Charlie Daniels called Carter “a good man … He brought some credibility back to the office of the presidency”, in 2014. In 1978, Carter hosted a star-packed jazz concert on the South Lawn of the White House, where he hopped onstage with Dizzy Gillespie and drummer Max Roach for the famous two-word chorus of “Salt Peanuts”. Carter loved jazz and touted the pioneering free-jazz pianist Cecil Taylor in interviews. For Carter, a former Georgia governor just a few years removed from the heat of the civil rights era, it was a significant gesture of solidarity and respect for a defining black art form. Perhaps most famously – if of doubtful authenticity – in 1980, after performing for Carter in the Rose Garden, Willie Nelson claimed he smoked a joint while sitting on the roof of the White House. In his autobiography, Nelson wrote, “Sitting on the roof of the White House in Washington, DC, late at night with a beer in one hand and a fat Austin Torpedo in the other, I drifted into a reflective mood. “Nobody from the Secret Service was watching us – or if they were, it was with the intention of keeping us out of trouble instead of getting us into it.” (Nelson clarified that Carter was not present for this, as it was Carter’s son Chip up on the roof with Nelson that night.) On the news of Carter’s death, many musicians wrote heartfelt tributes to him. “President Jimmy Carter was a truly extraordinary man and a rare politician who always stood up and spoke out for idealism, compassion and human rights and particularly for the rights of women and those who suffered real oppression,” wrote singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel, a long-time friend who respected Carter’s peace advocacy, particularly his 2007 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. “Rest easy, Mr President. I’m sad for us, and happy for you. Your and Mrs. Rosalynn’s legacy of love will live forever,” wrote country singer Trisha Yearwood, who with her husband, Garth Brooks, worked on the 2024 Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project with the housing charity Habitat for Humanity. Nancy Wilson, singer-guitarist in the rock band Heart, called Carter “an incredible bridge between policy and our humanity”, while the Georgia rapper Killer Mike wrote on social media that “I am honoured to say I have known a ‘Good Man’ who truly made a difference in a wicked world.” Carter may yet earn one last piece of music history. Come February 2, he is up for his fourth Grammy win, for audiobook, narration and storytelling recording, for Last Sundays In Plains: A Centennial Celebration, which features recordings from his final Sunday School lessons at a church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.

What music did Jimmy Carter love? Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson among the greats he enjoyed

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Former US president Jimmy Carter loved music and musicians loved him back, from Aretha Franklin and Peter Gabriel to Killer Mike

Former US president Jimmy Carter loved music and musicians loved him back, from Aretha Franklin and Peter Gabriel to Killer Mike