Country music crooners, southern rockers, hip-hop artists and other musicians have waived their fees to take part in an Atlanta concert to mark Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday and 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, announced Thursday by the Carter Center, is intended to support the Atlanta-based nonprofit’s peace, health and freedom initiatives around the world.
A number of 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 nearly 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 this week. “This is one more example of his ability to keep going.”