Kris Kristofferson – singer, actor, author, activist, United States army captain, helicopter pilot, boxer, football player, Rhodes Scholar, and, most importantly, one of the greatest songwriters to ever pick a guitar – died peacefully on Sept. 28, 2024 at the age of 88. He appeared on Austin City Limits four times – as a headliner in Seasons 7 and 35, as part of a songwriters special with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Billie Joe Shaver, and Kimmie Rhodes in Season 22, and as a special guest performer on Austin City Limits Celebrates 40 Years. He was inducted into the ACL Hall of Fame in 2016 by Rodney Crowell with a musical salute by his longtime friend Willie Nelson.
It’s nearly impossible to adequately express the impact of the man’s work on American popular culture. Admired by legends like Bob Dylan, John Prine, and Elvis Costello, the Brownsville native almost single handedly evolved country music beyond its roots and into the modern world. Though he carried a deep respect for the music’s traditions, he also injected the form with fresh ideas, incorporating the changes in American culture and life into his work, especially through his brilliantly composed lyrics. It may seem strange now, but a song like “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” – raw, unsentimental, but written like the student of William Blake he was – was considered too shocking to be on country radio in 1969. That didn’t stop Ray Stevens and Johnny Cash from covering it, the latter making it a number one hit on the country charts and launching Kristofferson’s career into the heavens.
Kristofferson spent a good chunk of his life on a different kind of stage, acting in a wide range of films like A Star is Born, Heaven’s Gate, Lone Star, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Cisco Pike, Semi-Tough, Songwriter (with his longtime friend Willie Nelson), and the Blade trilogy. He also formed the band the Highwaymen with Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash – if ever there was a band that truly earned the title “supergroup,” it was that one.
Kris Kristofferson on Austin City Limits, 2010. Photo by Scott Newton.
And of course he recorded bestselling albums of his own, earning hits under his own name with “Loving You is Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)” and “Why Me,” and scoring plenty of hits sung by others, including Ray Price (“For the Good Times”), Sammi Smith (“Help Me Make It Through the Night”), Jerry Lee Lewis (“Once More With Feeling”), Faron Young (“Your Time’s Comin’”), Roger Miller (“Me and Bobby McGee”), and Janis Joplin (also “Me and Bobby McGee”). That’s merely the tip of the iceberg of classics from Kristofferson’s pen – let’s not forget “The Pilgrim, Chapter 33,” “The Silver Tongued Devil and I,” “Border Lord,” “Chase the Feeling” (which made an appearance on the ACL stage in the hands of Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell), “Casey’s Last Ride,” “Best of All Possible Worlds,” “Closer to the Bone,” “Nobody Loves Anybody Anymore,” “Blame It On the Stones,” and “A Moment of Forever,” among many, many others. It’s a long list, and one most songwriters would envy.
“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose” – that indelible line from “Me and Bobby McGee” couldn’t have come from anyone else. It’s probably the reason why that song has been covered so often – who doesn’t want to be able to sing the line at least once, pretending you wrote it? Kristofferson’s songs connect across genres and generations, and will be his ultimate legacy. He wrote this in Esquire in 1999: “Tell the truth. Sing with passion. Work with laughter. Love with heart. ‘Cause that’s all that matters in the end.” No wonder his work is and will continue to be respected, beloved, and cherished.
From the bottom of the hearts of everyone at Austin City Limits, thank you, Kris Kristofferson, for the music, the memories, and the magic.
Kris Kristofferson on Austin City Limits Celebrates 40 Years, 2014. Photo by Scott Newton.
Austin City Limits is proud to announce a stellar slate of acts for October tapings to complete our milestone Season 50, including a number of ACL Fest headliners featured on our namesake festival this fall. On October 3 we welcome back country giant Chris Stapleton for his second appearance on the ACL stage; on October 5 we present chart-topping Global Latin music superstar Carín León in his ACL debut; country music trailblazer Mickey Guyton comes to ACL for her first appearance on October 9; nine-time GRAMMY-winning Norah Jones returns to the ACL stage for her fifth appearance on October 10; October 13 brings The Avett Brothers to the ACL stage for their third headlining appearance; and Sturgill Simpson returns for the first time in nearly a decade with a new taping on October 28. We’re thrilled to welcome these exceptional artists to the ACL stage for our Anniversary season.
Kentucky-born Chris Stapleton is a 10x GRAMMY, 16x CMA and 19x ACM Award-winner and one of the country’s most respected and beloved musicians. In the midst of yet another triumphant year, Stapleton recently won four awards at the 59th ACM Awards as well as two more trophies at 2024’s 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards. These accomplishments celebrate Stapleton’s album, Higher, which includes break-out songs “White Horse” and “Think I’m In Love With You.” Produced by Dave Cobb, Morgane Stapleton and Chris Stapleton, the record landed on multiple “Best of” lists including Billboard, Esquire, Los Angeles Times, Vulture and Rolling Stone, who praises, “dazzling…the best evidence yet for the way one man’s voice has become synonymous with the very idea of a musical genre.” Additionally, The New Yorker declares, “Stapleton is the rare country star with both traditional bona fides and broad commercial appeal. He has an outlaw soul and a pop star’s capacity for inescapable hooks,” while GQ proclaims, “In an age rife with division, he’s maybe the only thing Americans all agree on.” Known for his electric live performances, Stapleton continues his extensive “All-American Road Show” through 2024. Additionally, Stapleton has new collaborations with Post Malone (“California Sober”), Slash (“Oh Well”), George Strait (“Honky Tonk Hall of Fame”) and Dua Lipa (“Think I’m In Love With You (Live from the 59th ACM Awards)”) in addition to recording a version of “I Should Have Known It” for the new Tom Petty tribute album.
Carín León continues his rapid ascent after a monumental 2023, including winning a Latin Grammy for Best Norteño Album for Colmillo de Leche and releasing two massive hit singles, with “Primera Cita” and “Según Quién” each charting Top 25 on Spotify and Top 30 on the Billboard Global 200. Earlier this year, the global Mexican star earned a standing ovation at the Grand Ole Opry with a set entirely in Spanish and made history as the first Latin artist to perform at both Coachella and Stagecoach. His single “ALCH SI” with Grupo Frontera reached the #1 spot on Billboard‘s Regional Mexican Airplay chart. León’s latest album Boca Chueca Vol. 1 is out now to great fanfare, and his Boca Chueca Tour 2024 sees stops across major cities in North America and Europe, including a performance at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Originally from Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, León embarked on his musical journey at the age of 15, taking his first steps by learning to play the guitar and developing skills in singing and songwriting. In 2018, León released his debut album Desvelada con Banda y Mariachi which propelled him to quickly dominate the Regional Mexican music scene as a performer, singer and songwriter. In 2021 his album INÉDITO debuted atop the Apple Music charts, reaching #1 on the Mexican Music chart and #3 on the Latin Music chart and was named one of Billboard’s 25 Best Latin Albums of the year. León has received countless nominations and multiple awards, including a 2024 People’s Choice Country Award nomination for “The One (Pero No Como Yo),” his bilingual collaboration with country star Kane Brown, an ASCAP Award for the song “Me La Aventé,” numerous Premios Lo Nuestro (“Regional Mexican Breakthrough Artist,” “Best Male Artist” and “Banda Song of the Year”) and a 2022 Latin Grammy win for “Best Regional Mexican Song” for “Como lo Hice Yo,” a collaboration with Mexican pop group Matisse.
Mickey Guyton is a four-time GRAMMY-nominated artist and country music trailblazer. Over the course of her career, the Arlington, Texas native has been recognized for her musical achievements, including being named TIME Magazine’s Breakthrough Artist of the Year in 2022 and CMT’s Breakout Artist of the Year in 2021. With her 2021 debut studio album, Remember Her Name, Mickey made history as the first Black artist to earn a GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album. Additionally, she became the first-ever Black female solo artist to earn a nod in a country category with additional nominations for “Best Country Song” and “Best Country Solo Performance.” Beyond the GRAMMYs, Mickey has shined on the grandest of global stages, delivering powerful renditions of the national anthem at Super Bowl LVI and the 2023 World Series. She has also performed on a wide array of star-studded award shows and platforms, including the ACM Awards, CMA Awards, CMT Music Awards, ESPYs, CBS Mornings, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Jennifer Hudson Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, SHERRI, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Sesame Street, and many more. The multihyphenate has also evolved into a media personality, having co-hosted the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks special on NBC, the 2023 National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on CBS and co-hosted the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards on CBS along with Keith Urban. Mickey recently released a series of new songs, including “Scary Love,” “Make It Me,” and “My Side of the Country” leading to her highly-anticipated sophomore album House On Fire out Sept. 27, 2024 on Capitol Records Nashville.
Norah Jones’ ninth solo studio album Visions is a vibrant and joyous 12-song set of original songs that finds the singer-songwriter-pianist singing about feeling free, wanting to dance, making it right, and acceptance of what life brings. The album is a collaboration with producer and multi-instrumentalist Leon Michels (Sharon Jones, Dan Auerbach). “The reason I called the album Visions is because a lot of the ideas came in the middle of the night or in that moment right before sleep,” says Jones. “We did most of the songs in the same way where I was at the piano or on guitar and Leon was playing drums and we were just jamming on stuff. I like the rawness between me and Leon, the way it sounds kind of garage-y but also kind of soulful, because that’s where he’s coming from, but also not overly perfected.” Jones first emerged on the world stage with the 2002 release of Come Away With Me, her self-described “moody little record” that introduced a singular new voice and grew into a global phenomenon, sweeping the 2003 GRAMMY Awards including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. Since then, Jones has become a nine-time GRAMMY-winner, sold 53 million albums, and her songs have been streamed 11 billion times worldwide. She has released a series of critically acclaimed and commercially successful solo albums—Feels Like Home (2004), Not Too Late (2007), The Fall (2009), Little Broken Hearts (2012), Day Breaks (2016), Pick Me Up Off The Floor (2020), the live album ‘Til We Meet Again (2021), and her holiday album I Dream Of Christmas (2021). The 2010 compilation …Featuring Norah Jones showcased her incredible versatility by collecting her collaborations with artists as diverse as Willie Nelson, Foo Fighters, Outkast, and Herbie Hancock. In 2022, Jones launched her podcast Norah Jones Is Playing Along which features candid conversations and impromptu musical collaborations with some of her favorite musicians.
The Avett Brothers return with their first album in five years, produced by longtime collaborator Rick Rubin. The Avett Brothers, their eleventh studio album, is a record interested in the divine unknowable, as much untitled as it is self-titled. Songs like “Love Of A Girl,” “Country Kid” and “Forever Now” seek the sacred in the commonplace: a cheap cup of coffee, broken hearts and school bus lessons, a baby’s first steps, growing older and holding on to one’s roots, losing someone and accepting fate, rediscovering hope and finding sanctity in tragedy…ultimately reveling in the fun and surrender of what we cannot understand. Recorded in Malibu, Nashville, Mar Vista, and the band’s hometown of Concord, NC, the album is also one that revealed itself naturally over time. As their first LP on Ramseur Records/Thirty Tigers since 2007’s Emotionalism, The Avett Brothers is at once a cumulative opus and fresh start for the band’s future. Since the start of their expansive US tour of nearly 50 dates that extends throughout 2024, The Avett Brothers have remained tireless and gleefully unpredictable in their music, live set and beyond.
Respected, beloved and fiercely independent, Sturgill Simpson makes his highly anticipated return to music with the release of his acclaimed new album, Passage Du Desir, under a new name, Johnny Blue Skies. Of the new chapter, Johnny Blue Skies shares, “You can turn the page or you can light the book on fire and dance around the flames. You can try to live above hell or you can just go raise some. Here’s to clean livin’ and dirty thinking.” The eight-song Passage Du Desir was produced by Johnny Blue Skies and David Ferguson and recorded at Clement House Recording Studio in Nashville, TN and Abbey Road Studios in London, England. Simpson and his band—Kevin Black (bass), Robbie Crowell (keys), Laur Joamets (guitar) and Miles Miller (drums)—will also make their long-awaited return to the road this fall with the “Why Not? Tour.” Simpson’s first full tour in over four years, the extensive headline run includes stops at L.A.’s The Greek Theatre, Washington State’s The Gorge Amphitheater, Lexington’s Rupp Arena, Chicago’s Salt Shed (two nights), Queens’ Forest Hills Stadium and Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena among many more. Simpson also headlined Outside Lands and will close out both weekends of this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival. Since his debut, Simpson has released five full-length studio albums—2013’s High Top Mountain, 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, 2016’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, 2019’s Sound & Fury and 2021’s The Ballad of Dood and Juanita—along with the 2020 projects, Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Throughout his singular career, Simpson has relentlessly pushed against expectations, earning widespread acclaim and countless accolades including a Grammy Award in 2017 for Best Country Album and six GRAMMY nominations across four genres: country, rock, bluegrass and americana.
We’re thrilled to welcome these remarkable artists to the ACL stage for our milestone season. Want to be part of our audience? We will post information on how to get free passes a week in advance of each taping. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for notice of postings. The broadcast episodes will air on PBS as part of our upcoming anniversary Season 50.
Austin City Limits is thrilled to announce a new taping with one of country music’s most legendary voices and iconic performers: Wynonna. A musical force like none other, we welcome her to the ACL stage on September 3 for our milestone Anniversary Season 50.
One of the most widely recognized and awarded female country musicians in history, Wynonna is celebrating a remarkable 40-year career. Her 1992 self-titled solo debut sold over five million units, becoming the highest-selling debut album by a female artist at the time. Wynonna earned three consecutive #1 hits and the singer followed the wildly successful debut with the multi-platinum album Tell Me Why. Building on the groundbreaking music she and her mother created as The Judds, Wynonna grew into her once-in-a-generation vocal prowess with an ease that resonated with legions of fans. Chart-topping hits “No One Else On Earth,” “Tell Me Why,” “She Is His Only Need,” “Girls With Guitars,” and “I Saw The Light” set the next chapter in motion for the girl from Ashland, Kentucky who became a global superstar. Having practically grown up as America’s favorite musical daughter, Wynonna matured into a woman who embraced life’s peaks and valleys, great thrills, and heavy disappointment. Beyond the Grammy Awards, multi-platinum albums and sold-out tours, the country/soul vocalist expanded on the Appalachian traditionalism that defined The Judds to create a world where Top 5 dance/club hits were as possible as being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Wynonna has sold-out concerts scheduled throughout the summer before she hits the road for her “Back to Wy” tour in September. She’ll be playing her debut and sophomore albums back-to-back for 17 special shows across the country. Wynonna first appeared on Austin City Limits with The Judds during ACL’s 10th Anniversary Season in 1985 and opened our Season 22 in 1997 with a full-hour season premiere. We’re proud to welcome her back during our 50th Anniversary Season for the first time in nearly three decades.
Want to be part of our audience? We will post information on how to get free passes a week in advance of the taping. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for notice of postings. The broadcast episode will air on PBS as part of our milestone Season 50, which premieres on September 28, 2024.
Iconic music series Austin City Limits (ACL) kicks off the 50th Anniversarycelebrations by welcoming a new Austin City Limits Hall of Fame honoree into its ranks for this milestone: Garth Brooks. For the first time in the decade-long history of the ACL Hall of Fame, only one inductee will be honored at this epic 10th Anniversary Hall of Fame celebration taking place on September 5, 2024, at ACL’s studio home, ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. Brooks and his band will perform for the occasion. Brooks anchored ACL’s 25th Anniversary broadcast season with a pair of appearances and returns now for the Hall of Fame salute to launch the trailblazing television series’ record-making 50th season. Musical highlights and Brooks’ induction from the Hall of Fame ceremony will air as a special hourlong broadcast of Austin City Limits as a highlight of the program’s golden anniversary Season 50 which premieres on September 28, 2024, on PBS.
“To be part of anything Austin City Limits is and always has been an honor,” Brooks said. “I am humbled and grateful to not only be a part of the 50th Anniversary, but to be inducted into the ACL Hall of Fame is over the top.”
The event is open to the public and a limited number of tickets will be on sale August 2 at acltv.com/hall-of-fame via AXS ticketing. Sponsor packages are available now. This event will be a phone-free experience. Upon arrival at the venue, tickets will be scanned and all phones will be secured in Yondr cases that will be unlocked at the end of the event. Austin City Limits 10th Annual Hall of Fame Honors is produced by Austin PBS and proceeds benefit the public television station.
2024 marks the 50th Anniversary of the live music beacon Austin City Limits, which taped its debut pilot episode on October 17, 1974; the pioneering series then premiered on PBS in 1975. ACL celebrates its remarkable legacy with a yearlong celebration through 2025. Since its inception in 2014, the ACL Hall of Fame has honored legendary artists who have played a pivotal role in the trailblazing music series’ outstanding half-century as a music institution. The inaugural awards in 2014 honored Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Garth Brooks has longtime ties to ACL, with three legendary Austin City Limits performances. He first appeared on the program in 1990, during Season 15, at the beginning of his career. The celebrated artist returned a decade later to both open and close ACL’s milestone Season 25 with two hourlong episodes.
Brooks returned to ACL in 2021 for a memorable pair of intimate, non-broadcast events to close Studio 6A on the University of Texas campus, the fabled soundstage where the program first started recording in 1974. Brooks carved his name into ACL’s history with the final performances in the historic studio that was the show’s home from 1974 to 2010, before a move to downtown Austin. The singular artist performed the special benefit shows solo acoustic to a sold-out audience of 200 fans per night, as a fundraiser for Austin PBS, sharing stories, taking song requests, and answering questions from the audience.
“Garth is a special friend—there’s no one else quite like him,” said longtime ACL executive producer Terry Lickona. “He never forgets his roots, or the people who were there for him in those early days. He hit the ACL stage just as his career was taking off, kicked off our 25th anniversary season, and now almost 25 years later, it’s our turn to honor him.”
Austin City Limits Hall of Fame celebrates the legacy of legendary artists and key individuals who have played a vital part in the pioneering music series’ remarkable half-century as a music institution. The Hall of Fame has inducted over twenty artists at nine previous ceremonies including Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble, Lloyd Maines, Asleep at the Wheel, Loretta Lynn, Guy Clark, Flaco Jiménez, Townes Van Zandt, Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King, Roy Orbison, Rosanne Cash, The Neville Brothers, Ray Charles, Marcia Ball, Los Lobos, Lyle Lovett, Buddy Guy, Shawn Colvin, Lucinda Williams, Wilco, Alejandro Escovedo, Sheryl Crow and Joe Ely. The ninth annual Hall of Fame in 2023 welcomed John Prine and Trisha Yearwood to its ranks.
About Garth Brooks:
Garth Brooks just opened his brand new bar on Lower Broadway in Nashville, Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk. The opening was celebrated with a Dive Bar concert on Black Friday that streamed exclusively on Amazon. He also just released a new boxed set, “The Limited Series,” which is the third and final in the series and contains Garth’s 14th studio album, Time Traveler. The boxed set is on sale exclusively at Bass Pro Shops. Garth has returned to radio with the SEVENS Radio Network on TuneIn. So far, the announced stations include The BIG 615 with Storme Warren, Tailgate Radio with Maria Taylor and The Garth Channel. He currently has a residency, Garth Brooks/Plus ONE at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. 2023 completely sold out, dates for 2024 are currently on sale. In 2022, Garth completed the three and a half year long Stadium Tour. It drew an average of more than 95 thousand people in each city it played and was seen by a cumulative audience of nearly three-million people. The tour ended that September when Garth played the fifth sold-out concert at Dublin, Ireland’s Croke Park. The five concerts were seen by over 400-thousand people. Garth has received every accolade you can bestow on an artist. Garth has received The Kennedy Center Honor, the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, seven CMA Entertainer of the Year honors and nine Diamond Awards. He remains the #1-selling solo artist in U.S. history, certified by the RIAA with 162 million album sales.
Austin City Limits and the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame are produced by Austin PBS. Austin PBS is a non-profit organization providing public television and educational resources to Central Texas as well as producing quality national programming.
Austin City Limits
Austin City Limits (ACL) offers viewers unparalleled access to featured acts in an intimate setting that provides a platform for artists to deliver inspired, memorable, full-length performances. Now launching its 50th Season, the program is taped live before a concert audience from The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. Austin City Limits is the longest-running music series in television history and remains the only TV series to ever be awarded the National Medal of Arts. Since its inception, the groundbreaking music series has become an institution that’s helped secure Austin’s reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World. The historic Austin PBS Studio 6A, home to 36 years of ACL concerts, has been designated an official Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark. In 2011, ACL moved to the new venue ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. ACL received a rare institutional Peabody Award for excellence and outstanding achievement in 2012. ACL celebrates 50 years as an American music institution in 2024-2025.
Kinky Friedman records Austin City Limits, 1975. Photo courtesy Austin City Limits/Austin PBS.
Novelist, columnist, gubernatorial candidate, raconteur, cigar aficionado, and, of course, singer/songwriter Kinky Friedman left this earth on June 27, 2024 at the age of 79. According to the Texas Tribune, the cause was Parkinson’s disease.
Kinky Friedman sings “Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight,” from an unbroadcast episode produced in 1975.
After stints with the Peace Corps and in Nashville, Kinky (who, like his pal Willie Nelson, is on a first-name basis with the universe) became the quick-witted provocateur of seventies outlaw country, writing or covering songs (“Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed,” “Sold American,” “They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore,” the notorious “Okie From Muskogee” lampoon “Asshole From El Paso”) that raised the hackles of the satire-impaired and restricting his audience to connoisseurs with a certain sense of humor. He reached a bigger crowd in the eighties when he began writing bestselling novels, many of them starring himself as a hard-boiled private detective, as well as contributing a long-standing column to Texas Monthly. Kinky became a national icon when he ran for governor of Texas in 2006, earning 12% of the vote – not nearly enough to win, of course, but not too shabby, either. Following a second, equally unsuccessful campaign, he returned to writing books and songs, as well as founding the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch in 1998.
Kinky Friedman sings “Wild Man From Borneo,” 1975, for an episode of Austin City Limits that was never broadcast.
Kinky also recorded an episode of Austin City Limits in 1975 for Season 1, but it famously never aired. There’ve been many reflections on why – in the press at the time, in one of Kinky’s memoirs, and in Clifford Endres’ 1987 history of ACL. Suffice to say that PBS executives of the time previewed the episode and decided it would be best for it to stay in the can, even when Austin PBS (then KLRN) offered to let it be a “soft feed,” i.e. a free program to be used at individual stations’ discretion. Fortunately, while it was never broadcast, the show was released in 2007 by New West Records.
Kinky Friedman records ACL, 1975. Photo courtesy of Austin City Limits/Austin PBS.
Of course, any story like this only serves to make the life in question even larger, as Kinky himself acknowledged. “In any case, when the producers of ACL, in their infinite wisdom, decided not to air the show, the legend only grew,” he wrote in his TMT column. “Had they gone ahead and run it, I’d undoubtedly be playing a beer joint tonight on the backside of Buttocks, Texas. I’d never have had the chance to become a best-selling novelist, a friend of presidents, and a candidate for governor. The truth is I wouldn’t even be writing this column, which would be a real shame, since it’s the only job I’ve ever had in my life. So God bless Austin City Limits.”
We’ll miss you, Kinky. You kept Austin – and Texas – weird before the phrase was ever coined. Rest in peace.
Terry Lickona receives the PBS Beacon Award, 2024.
Today, PBS announced it has honored AUSTIN CITY LIMITS executive producer Terry Lickona with the 2024 Beacon Award for his work leading the iconic live music institution. The highest honor in public television, the Beacon award pays tribute to individuals whose work inspires Americans and enriches our nation, in keeping with the mission of PBS.
PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger presented the award to Lickona at PBS’s Annual Meeting of Member Stations along with Catherine Robb, General Vice Chair of the PBS Board; Luis Patiño, President & Executive Officer of Austin PBS; and musician Dave Grohl.
“Terry is a legend,” said Kerger. “He has grown Austin City Limits from a small regional showcase into the longest-running music series in television history. I am proud to present PBS’s highest award to him for the extraordinary contributions he, and ACL, has made to our country by bringing so many legendary performances to a national audience.”
Since 1978, Lickona has been the producer/executive producer of AUSTIN CITY LIMITS. He is also co-producer of the Grammy Awards telecast on CBS, and the Latin Grammy Awards broadcast on Univision. Celebrating its 50th year on PBS, ACL gives viewers a front-row seat to the best in live performance. In 2003, AUSTIN CITY LIMITS was awarded the National Medal of Arts, and in 2012 received a rare institutional Peabody Award for excellence and outstanding achievement. The program and its original Studio 6A were designated an official Rock and Roll Landmark by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. The series presents a wide variety of musical styles and genres. Lickona has worked with artists ranging from Ray Charles and Johnny Cash to Kendrick Lamar, B.B. King, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Brandi Carlile, Foo Fighters, Rosalía, Jon Batiste, Ed Sheeran, Bonnie Raitt, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and countless more.
A monument to music, ACL has showcased iconic performances from legends and innovators in every genre of popular song for a half-century. Produced by Austin PBS, the show remains a required stopping point for the finest acts to deliver stellar performances from the venerable ACL stage in Austin, Texas. On October 17, 1974, the notoriously TV-shy Willie Nelson taped the pilot episode; the trailblazing series then premiered on PBS in 1975. This renowned program has earned its place in history and will salute its golden anniversary and incredible legacy with a yearlong celebration featuring archival gems, all-star tapings, a primetime PBS special, live concerts, and much more.
PBS is proud to honorLickona with the Beacon Award for his many cultural contributions, impact, and leadership across public media.
The PBS Beacon Award, formerly known as the Be More Award, was established in 2004. Last year’s recipient was FRONTLINE. Other former awardees include Fred Rogers (2004), Jim Lehrer (2005), Bill Moyers (2006), Neil DeGrasse Tyson (2008), Ken Burns (2009), Joan Ganz Cooney (2010), Rebecca Eaton (2011), Gwen Ifill (2012), Alberto Ibarguen (2013), Miles O’Brien (2014), David Fanning (2015), Newton Minow (2016), Bill Isler (2017), Stanley Nelson (2018) Judy Woodruff (2019), Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2021), Sonia Manzano (2022).
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