From President Richard Nixon hosting Elvis Presley in the White House to President Barack Obama having Prince perform in the East Room, America’s top leaders have enjoyed unique relationships with popular musicians.
That was not always the case.
At least not until Jimmy Carter ran for president in the mid-1970s.
Previous presidential campaigners had occasionally cozied up to musical celebrities, like President Kennedy did to Frank Sinatra, or like 1972 Democratic candidate George McGovern did to folk musicians Peter, Paul and Mary.
But Carter took it further. He partnered with the music industry during his 1976 presidential campaign. As president, he embraced bands from jazz to soul, Southern rock to country — harnessing their energy and to raise money and appeal to voters of every genre.
“Carter was a progressive Southerner and he wanted to appeal to younger voters,” said Peter Conlon, the Atlanta-based music promoter who got his start as an intern in the Carter presidential campaign.
“The country was looking for change, and Carter was a breath of fresh air,” Conlon told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2019. “He wasn’t from Washington, and he wasn’t a lawyer. He was a Southerner, and he was honest.
“But he loves all kinds of music, he is familiar with all kinds of music and likes listening to everything.”
Credit: AP file
Credit: AP file
Conlon interned with Carter’s campaign in 1975, and went to Washington after the election to work for him. He became Carter’s national fundraising director for the 1979 presidential campaign.
But Carter’s interest in music originated long before he was president. He courted the music industry as early as 1973 while still Georgia’s governor.
He forged a relationship with Phil Walden, the head of Capricorn Records in Macon, the label for the Allman Brothers Band and many other Southern rockers. Walden had been lobbying the state to crack down on music bootleggers. Carter, who wanted to promote the state’s film and music industry, pushed anti-piracy legislation which protected the rights and properties of recording artists. That endeared him to musicians in a state that produced notable artists in every genre, from Fiddlin’ John Carson and Johnny Mercer to James Brown.
He soon found himself hosting Georgia bands in the governor’s mansion, or listening to recording sessions of Allman’s guitarist Dickey Betts in Macon, or attending Capricorn’s annual picnics wearing a pair of Levi’s and a band T-shirt.
Walden became one of Carter’s most active campaigners, writing hundreds of letters to music industry colleagues asking for support.
The Allman Brothers held campaign concerts across the country for him. Robert Shaw, the legendary conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, wrote him a $1,000 check, while James Brown, Johnny Cash, Charlie Daniels and producer Jerry Wexler also contributed.
Folk singer Oscar Brand sang the campaign song “Why Not The Best?”
On the eve of the 1976 election, Rolling Stone Magazine reported that Carter had raised about $350,000 through rock concerts and matching funds from the federal government.
At concerts, Carter would often get on stage to introduce the acts.
“I’d like to say one thing,” Carter would yell over a delirious crowd waiting for the Allmans. “My name is Jimmy Carter and I’m running for president. I’d like to introduce you to my friends, the Allman Brothers.”
Credit: Greenwich Entertainment
Credit: Greenwich Entertainment
“Carter had become friends with the Allman Brothers, and he saw it as an opportunity to raise money and reach out to a lot of potential supporters through music,” Conlon said.
Carter rode into the White House on the heels of the Watergate scandal and the buttoned-up Gerald Ford Republican administration.
Rock music and rock-star lifestyles in the 1970s were frowned upon by the establishment. But in his 1975 acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Carter quoted Bob Dylan, whom he had hosted in the Georgia governor’s mansion.
“I have never had more faith in America than I do today,” Carter said, before paraphrasing a line from Dylan’s “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).” “We have an America that, in Bob Dylan’s phrase, is busy being born, not busy dying.”
In Carter’s 1976 autobiography, “Why Not The Best,” he wrote that Dylan was “a source of my understanding about what’s right and what’s wrong in this society.”
Conlon said: “A lot of politicians were afraid of the lifestyles of (musicians) and how that could taint their image. Carter didn’t care and he understood that they were creative individuals.”
Credit: Hyosub Shin
Credit: Hyosub Shin
Carter, running as an outsider, was comfortable with their edginess. “These people have been friends of mine a long time. And if people don’t like their lifestyle, they don’t have to vote for me,” he said.
Conlon said that giving presidential access to rockers and musicians, “gave them some validation.”
At a victory party following the 1976 election, sometime Allman band member, pianist Chuck Leavell, summed it up.
“It’s going to be good to have a country boy running the nation,” he said. “It’s nice to have a guy who cares about the music and who has grown out of the South. Sea Level (the band Leavell was fronting at the time) wants to boogaloo down Pennsylvania Avenue.”
During his term in the White House, Carter hosted country acts like Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton, funk masters The Commodores and jazz luminaries like Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock and Max Roach. During one performance with Gillespie, Carter got to the microphone to sing one of the musician’s most popular songs — “Salt Peanuts.”
Credit: Jimmy Carter Library
Credit: Jimmy Carter Library
Carter, who grew up in rural South Georgia, told The New York Times that he had been listening to jazz from a young age and called it an art form that helped break down racial barriers.
In Carter’s later years, he was still a fan of music. Whenever Conlon brought Nelson to Atlanta, Carter and his wife Rosalynn would usually attend.
During a 2012 concert at Chastain Park Amphitheatre, Carter and Rosalynn joined Nelson on stage to sing “Amazing Grace.”
Credit: Courtesy of Carter Presidential Library
Credit: Courtesy of Carter Presidential Library
Smiling alongside his friend, midway through the song, the former president reached into his back pocket and pulled out a red bandana, Nelson’s trademark headgear, and wrapped it around his own head.
Chris Farrell, the producer of the 2021 documentary “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President” told Relix music magazine, “Music just brought him joy, regardless of the genre. You can see that enthusiasm with jazz, you can see it with country — there’s no stratification. Still, to this day, when he talks about music, it just brings him joy.”
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