MUSICARES COMES ALIVE FOR GRATEFUL DEAD

Grateful Dead-loving musicians of all stripes will assemble to perform at the upcoming MusiCares Persons of the Year gala honoring the pioneering jam band on 1/31 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Bravo's Andy Cohen will host, while Zac Brown, Stewart Copeland, Mick Fleetwood, Sammy Hagar, Bruce Hornsby, Norah Jones, Wynonna Judd, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Maren Morris, Lukas Nelson, Billy Strings, The War on Drugs, Vampire Weekend, Dwight Yoakam, Sierra Ferrell, Noah Kahan, Maggie Rose, My Morning Jacket and The War and Treaty will take the stage.

Mayer will also join surviving Dead members Bob Weir (pictured), Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart for a Dead & Company performance, while comedian Bert Kreischer has been tapped as a presenter.

The house band will be led by Don Was and feature longtime Dead keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench, Greg Leisz, Goose's Rick Mitarotonda, late bassist Phil Lesh's son Grahame, Kendrick Scott and Terence Higgins.

Proceeds from the event will aid members of the music community in times of need, including the recent Los Angeles wildfires. A portion of them will be donated to organizations supporting transplant patients on behalf of Lesh, who received a new liver in 1998.

For tickets and tables, click here. HITS will assume our usual position so far in the back of the room that we won't be able to tell "Scarlet Begonias" from Scarlett Johansson.