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ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Celebrations for Jimmy Carter’s upcoming 100th birthday began Tuesday with Atlanta’s Fox Theatre’s hosting of “Delta Air Lines Presents: Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song.”

Carter will turn 100 on Oct. 1, 2024, marking another milestone in the life of America’s longest living ex-president in history.

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.

Tuesday’s event honoring Carter included artists from pop, rock, gospel, country, jazz, hip-hop and classical music. Performers included Athens’ own The B-52s; singer-songwriter Duane Betts, son of legendary Allman Brothers Band co-founder Dickey Betts; singer-songwriter Carlene Carter, daughter of June Carter Cash; Angélique Kidjo, BeBe Winans, India Arie; Lalah Hathaway; Chuck Leavell; D-Nice; Drive-By Truckers; Eric Church; GROUPLOVE; Maren Morris; The War And Treaty; and The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus.

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Other celebrity guests included Academy Award-winning actress Renée Zellweger and former Braves players Terry Pendleton and Dale Murphy. Dr. Bernice King and Monica Pearson spoke at the event, and Ambassador Andrew Young was in attendance.

The evening included video birthday wishes from former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and musicians Dave Matthews and Norah Jones.

Mary Wharton, director of the documentary “Jimmy Carter: Rock andamp; Roll President,” also presented a short film exploring Carter’s relationship with popular musicians.

“He really was the rock-and-roll president,” 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 “that brings people together.”

Indeed, Tuesday’s run of show assembled artists as varied as India Arie singing RandB and soul draped in a resplendent purple gown; the B-52s, formed in Athens, Georgia, singing “Love Shack” 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.

“Now I have another reason to respect you,” Obama said in a video message. “He has got great taste in music. ... I’ve never thrown a concert that features pop, rock, gospel, country, jazz, classical and hip-hop.”

Of course, Obama noted, “Jimmy never passes up the opportunity to send a message,” and several artists referenced one of Carter’s widely circulated quotes about music: “One of the things that has held America together has been the music that we share and love.”

Emmy award-winner Rickey Minor was the show’s musical director.

“I think he understood how important music is and so you find the songs and the material and artists that can pay tribute to him through music, and I think it’s going to be a big celebration. We looked and we tried to pick the right song and the right timbres and inclusion of artists in all genres,” Minor said before the event. “The artists that are performing have chosen material that they feel will uplift, not only the President, but will uplift this country and the world,” he said.

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’s nomination and the presidency in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.

“Music was such an important part of his political legacy,” Jason Carter told The Associated Press. “The Allman Brothers helped get him elected. Willie Nelson helped get him elected. He truly believed that.

“When 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 – their lyrics, their whole vibe,” the younger Carter continued. “He used that to connect across generations.”

Leavell traced Carter’s 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.

The concert will be aired in full on Georgia Public Broadcasting on Oct. 1. Carter remains in hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia.

Hours ahead of the show, Atlanta News First also spoke with the president and CEO of the Fox Theatre.

“My understanding is that he had a very eclectic taste in music and loved all kinds of music and felt music brought people together, so that’s what The Fox does,” said Allan Vella, president and CEO of The Fox Theatre. “The Fox brings people together so we’re very honored to be hosting this very special event tonight,” he said.

“He’s definitely special to us as one of Georgia’s own. He’s done such good work as a humanitarian all around the world but even here in Atlanta, in Georgia,” Vella said. “If it’s in Habitat of Humanity or if it’s with the Carter Center, he’s just had a life of Service and so you have to love and appreciate that,” he said.

On Saturday, Sept. 28, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta is hosting a JC100 Film Festival from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The library said it will be showing some of Carter’s favorite list of films that were shown at the White House during his administration. Museum and event admission is free.

As Georgia governor, Carter started the state’s film office after the success of “Deliverance,” one of the first films ever made in the Peach State. Released in 1972 and based on writer James Dickey’s debut novel of the same name, it starred Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox and Jon Voight and was filmed in northeast Georgia communities of Clayton and Rabun counties. It became a huge commercial success.

Carter has been in hospice care for more than a year. He officially became America’s oldest living ex-president on March 21, 2019, surpassing George H.W. Bush, who died in November 2018 at the age of 94 years and 171 days old. Prior to Bush, previous record holders were Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Herbert Hoover and John Adams.

Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump are the nation’s only living ex-presidents.

Carter’s last public appearance was in November at Rosalynn Carter’s funeral — the former first lady passed away at the age of 96, only days after entering hospice care herself.

Carter was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, a small farming town located about 150 miles south of downtown Atlanta. He grew up in the nearby community of Archery.

Carter attended Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology before heading to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1946. While serving in the Navy, he became a submariner and rose to the rank of lieutenant.

On July 7, 1946, Carter married Rosalynn Smith. Seven years later, he resigned from the Navy and returned to Georgia. Carter was an active member of the community and eventually entered the political world in 1962, when he was elected to the Georgia Senate.

Four years later, he would run for governor, but lost in a primary to the eventual winner, Lester Maddox. Carter would try again four years later, and this time, would cruise to an easy victory over Republican Hal Suit. He was sworn in as Georgia’s 76th governor on January 12, 1971.

Carter’s rise to the White House ranks as one of the most unlikely political victories in U.S. history. He was virtually unknown to the country and campaigned on a promise to never tell a lie.

Exactly three years to the date of his inauguration into the governor’s mansion, Carter announced his candidacy for president of the United States. He would go on to win the Democratic nomination in 1976 and was elected on November 2, narrowly defeating incumbent Republican Gerald Ford.

The first - and still only - president and First Lady from Georgia capped off the day by walking in the inauguration parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, something never seen from a just-inaugurated U.S. chief executive.

Carter was inaugurated on January 20, 1977, but would only serve one term in office. He was defeated soundly in the 1980 election by Republican Ronald Reagan.

While some presidents ride off into the sunset after serving in office, Carter was just getting started. In 1982, Carter became University Distinguished Professor at Emory University in Atlanta and founded the Carter Center.

The Carters later become the public face of Habitat for Humanity. They both volunteered for the organization for 35 years, helping build homes alongside thousands of volunteers throughout the years.

In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”

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