As the safety net of the music community, MusiCares offers health services, human services, and mental health and addiction recovery services to those in need. Through the programming and resources offered year-round, MusiCares acts as a constant advocate for mental health and wellness in the music industry.

For Mental Health Awareness Month this May, here are some examples of how MusiCares advocates mental health and wellness all year long.

Free Support Groups

MusiCares recognizes that far too many people with mental health and addiction issues are not getting the help or treatment that they need. MusiCares offers 10 free and confidential cyber emotional support and addiction recovery support groups on a weekly basis to those in need. These support groups serve as a safe and secure place to sort through a variety of wellness issues or concerns. Each group is led by a licensed professional, with additional assistance available if needed.

Three of MusiCares’ weekly support groups assist specific communities in the music industry. Join Danielle Bowker, Licensed Professional Counselor, every Thursday for a Women’s Support Group. Bowker is able to offer a unique perspective having grown up as a child in and around the music industry, and as the wife of a touring Weekend Warrior. Bowker also has over 10 years of experience working directly with music professionals.

Adrienne Williams leads a weekly Black Music Community Group and a LGBTQ Music Community Group every Wednesday and Thursday. Adrienne is a Licensed Social Worker with a Master’s in Education and is a current doctoral candidate at Widener University. Williams is a clinician in private practice, where her goal is to dismantle stigma and shame about mental health and sex in our society — particularly within the Black community. She provides individual therapy, couples counseling, sex therapy, workshops, and professional development.

To assist its clients in recovery, MusiCares offers various types of free, online recovery support groups in Los Angeles, Nashville, Austin, New Orleans, New York, Atlanta, and Fort Collins, Colorado. These groups offer a safe environment in which clients can discuss the challenges of staying clean and sober in the music industry.

All support groups are currently offered virtually. For more information about any of the emotional support and addiction recovery support groups above, please visit https://www.musicares.org/get-help/addiction-recovery.

Mental Health Treatment & Resources

In addition to free support groups, MusiCares has a Mental Health and Addiction Services Team composed of licensed professionals dedicated to assisting eligible individuals find the mental health treatment that they need. MusiCares offers financial assistance and resources for psychotherapy, coaching and psychiatric expenses, inpatient and outpatient treatment, detox and sober living costs.

To qualify for this funding, individuals must have worked in the music industry for a minimum of three years or have at least six commercially released recordings or videos.

For more information, visit www.musicares.org/get-help.

In-Person & Virtual Programming

The MusiCares Health & Human Services Team hosts in-person and virtual programming throughout the year that places a focus on the importance of mental health and wellness within and beyond the music industry.

May’s upcoming programs explore topics including suicide prevention, stress management, empowering breathwork, disordered eating, and more.

See a full list of MusiCares’ upcoming programs in celebration of Mental Health Awareness Month here.

Educating Communities

The MusiCares Health & Human Services Team speaks publicly at various panels, events, and on podcasts about the importance of mental health and wellness. This team of licensed professionals are constantly advocating for the prioritization and destimigitization of mental health in the music industry.

This year, MusiCares will be speaking on a panel about mental health during WisdoMania Fest on May 14th. The Health and Human Services Team will also be speaking on a panel at the Sound Mind Live Music Festival on May 19th. All proceeds from Sound Mind Live will support the free mental health programs of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and its local affiliates. MusiCares has previously participated in mental health focused panels at the Americana Music Conference, A3C Festival, SXSW, and more.

You can listen to previously recorded conversations on mental health featuring members of our Health and Human Services team here: Gone In 30 Minutes, Wolf In Tune: Music as a Bridge to Mindfulness, Positive Sobriety Podcast

Free Weekly Yoga

MusiCares hosts free virtual Yoga sessions every Wednesday at 8 a.m. PST / 11 a.m. EST. These 30 minute sessions require no previous experience and promote mid-week mindfulness.

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, May’s sessions will place a focus on developing mental stability, clarity, and peace. In a safe and virtual environment, attendees will move through calm flows that release tension and turn down the mental “chatter.”

All are welcome! Register and learn more here.

7 Easy Resolutions For Better Physical And Mental Health In 2022

Imagine a world where care and concern is distributed in a holistic circuit, rather than being hoarded away or never employed at all. That's the paradigm that GivingTuesday is reaching toward.

Created in 2012 under the simple precept of being generous and celebrating generosity, GivingTuesday is a practical hub for getting involved in one's community and giving as freely to benefit and nourish others.

Since GivingTuesday has swelled not just from a single day in the calendar year, but a lens through which to view the other 364 days. You can find your local GivingTuesday network here, find ways to participate here, and find ways to join  GivingTuesday events here.

Where does the Recording Academy come in? Helping musicians in need isn't something they do on the side, an afterthought while they hand out awards.

No, aiding music people is at the core of the Academy's mission. MusiCares, the Academy's philanthropic arm, has changed innumerable lives for the better.

And through this society of music professionals and its other major components — including  Advocacy, the GRAMMY Museum and GRAMMY U — the Academy continues its fight in legislative and educational forms.

If you're willing and able to help musicians in need this GivingTuesday, here's a helpful hub of nine charitable organizations with whom you can do so.

MusiCares

Any list of orgs that aid musicians would be remiss to not include MusiCares.

Through the generosity of donors and volunteer professionals, this organization of committed service members has been able to aid struggling music people in three key areas: mental health and addiction recovery services, health services, and human services.

For more information on each of those, visit here. To apply for assistance, click here. And to donate to MusiCares, head here.

GRAMMY Museum

"Museum" might be right there in the name, but there's a lot more to this precious sector of the Recording Academy.

The GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles doesn't just put on immersive exhibits that honor the legacies of musical giants; it's a hub for music education.

At press time, more than 20,000 students have visited the Museum, more than 10,000 students have participated in the Museum's Clive Davis theater, and 20,000 students have participated in their GRAMMY Camp weekends.

To donate to the GRAMMY Museum, click here. To become a member, visit here.

Give a Beat

By now, the evidence is ironclad: Giving incarcerated people access to music and art dramatically increases morale and decreases recidivism.

Give a Beat is keenly aware of this, both on direct-impact and mentorship levels.

The org hosts classes for incarcerated people, in order for them to "find healing, transformation, and empowerment" through its Prison Electronic Music Program, which helps incarcerated folks wade deep into the fields of music production and DJing.

Its On a New Track Reentry Mentoring Program initiative connects music industry professionals with formerly incarcerated individuals in order to transfer their skills into a professional setting.

To become a member of Give a Beat, click here. To donate, visit here.

Jazz Foundation of America

Despite being at the heart of American musical expression, jazz, blues and roots can sometimes feel roped off on the sidelines of the music industry — and its practitioners can slip between society's cracks.

That's where the Jazz Foundation of America comes in. They aid musicians struggling to hang onto their homes, connect physicians and specialists with uninsured artists and help musicians get back on their feet after life-upending natural disasters.

To donate to the Jazz Foundation, click here; for all other info, visit their website.

The Blues Foundation

Headquartered in Memphis, the Blues Foundation aims to preserve the history and heritage of the blues — which lies at the heart of all American forms. This goes not only for irreplaceable sites and artifacts, but the living, breathing people who continue to make it.

The Blues Foundation offers educational outreach, providing scholarships to youth performers to attend summer blues camps and workshops.

On top of that, in the early 2000s, they created the HART Fund to offer financial support to musicians in need of medical, dental, and vision care.

And for blues artists who have passed on, the HART Fund diverts money to their families  to ensure their loved ones would be guaranteed dignified funerals.

For more information on the Blues Foundation, visit here. To donate, click here.

Musicians Foundation

Founded all the way back when World War I broke out, the Musicians Foundation has spent more than a century cutting checks to musicians in times of need.

This includes financial grants to cover basic expenses, like medical and dental treatments, rents and mortgages and utilities. Submitted grant applications are reviewed by their staff and a screening committee. If approved, the money is dispatched rapidly and directly to the debtor to relieve financial pressure as soon as possible.

The Musicians Foundation's philanthropic legacy is enshrined in Century of Giving, a comprehensive analysis of financial aid granted to musicians and their families by the Foundation since 1914.

For more information, visit here; click here to donate.

Music Maker Foundation

Based in North Carolina, the Music Maker Foundation tends to the day-to-day needs of American roots artists — helping them negotiate crises so they can "keep roofs over their heads, food on their tables, [and] instruments in their hands."

This relief comes in the forms of basic sustenance, resources performance (like booking venues and providing CDs to sell) and spreading education about their contributions to the American roots canon.

Check out their website for more information; to donate, click here.

Sweet Relief: Musicians Fund

When music people are in danger, this charitable organization sees no barriers of genre, region or nature of crisis.

If you're a musician suffering from physical, mental or financial hardship — whether it be due to a disability, an affliction like cancer, or anything else — Sweet Relief has got your back.

There are numerous ways to support Sweet Relief; you can become a partner, intern or volunteer, or simply chip in a few bucks for one of their various funds to keep their selfless work moving.

For any and all further information, visit their website.

Music Workers Alliance

The Recording Academy's concern and consideration for music people hardly stops at musicians — they're here to support all music people.

They share this operating principle with Music Workers Alliance, which tirelessly labors to ensure music people are treated like they matter — and are fairly remunerated for their efforts.

This takes many forms, like fighting for music workers at the federal, state and city level for access to benefits and fair protections, and ensuring economic justice and fair working conditions.

Music Workers Alliance also fights for economic justice on the digital plane, and aims to provide equal access for people of color and other underrepresented groups in the industry.

For more info, visit their website; for ways to get involved, click here.

2023 GRAMMYs: How The New Best Song For Social Change Special Merit Award Inspires Positive Global Impact & Celebrates Message-Driven Music and How To Qualify

Music can be a salve, a companion, a fount of euphoria. But is that enough? It gave brilliant and complicated souls like Scott Weiland, Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell a tether to the world and cemented them in history, but their inner struggles nonetheless claimed them.

That's where MusiCares comes in, and why Dave Navarro — who knew all three of those rock legends — works with them. Together, they pull music colleagues out of the maw of addiction, depression and other menaces. Navarro wouldn't be able to access that storehouse of healing, though, without a liberal helping of gratitude.a

"Billy comically brought up show 47 on a world tour, and I know what he means by that," the six-time GRAMMY nominee tells MusiCares — referring to musician, producer and Billy Idol sideman Billy Morrison, who's dragging on a cigarette in the next Zoom window. "That's when you're just kind of in the trenches and the doldrums of it all."

Gavin Rossdale at Above Ground 2019. Photo: Jim Donnelly

When Navarro feels unmoored, he looks at a taped message on his pedalboard: "You get to do this." "I need little reminders for myself of just how much I have to be grateful for," he says in a nimbus of vape smoke. "But I'll tell you one thing: when we do the Above Ground shows, I don't have to read that thing one time. because that transformative magic is happening live on stage."

That magic is about to transpire again. On Dec. 20, Navarro and Morrison will bring their annual Above Ground concert back to Hollywood's Fonda Theater for a third round (they had to skip last year amid the pandemic). The premise is that they corrall famous friends to cover albums in full — this time around, it's Lou Reed's Transformer andthe Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks, with Corey Taylor, Perry Ferrell and more. Purchase tickets here.

Navarro and Morrison caught up with GRAMMY.com to discuss the origins of Above Ground, the joys of digging into classic LPs in full and the central message of their work: it's OK to ask for help.

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This interview has been edited for clarity.

What can we expect from the third Above Ground concert?

Billy Morrison: Look, Above Ground started like everything Dave and I start — with a conversation on a plane based around our mutual love of Adam and the Ants. We were just larking around, going, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could play that album?

In that same month or six-week period, we lost Chester. We lost…

Dave Navarro: Chris.

Morrison: Chris. And we recently lost Scott Weiland. And Dave has been very, very much a mental health advocate for a long while now, dealing with his own traumas.

Dave Navarro: What are you talking about?

Morrison: What? Your own trauma. The stuff you tweet about!

Navarro: [Scoffs jokingly.] I don't have Twitter! Twitter, that archaic device?

Morrison: You know what I mean!

Navarro: Wasn't that, like, 2007? Anyway, go ahead.

Morrison: He was spearheading mental health awareness. We've both been connected with musicians who also are huge figureheads of mental health and suicide prevention. And it just came: "Why don't we do this annual event where we get the joy of picking two iconic albums that you can't hear [live, in full] anymore?"

The idea is, you go to a concert and you get the top three songs off of each album. And we've been very pure about picking albums and playing the whole thing. Even the strange left-of-center tracks that are often on albums.

That turned into Above Ground one, and Above Ground three is just the natural extension of that minus a year because of COVID.

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Navarro: Billy and I play in a band called Royal Machines, and we also had a band called Camp Freddy. Both bands are essentially the same band. And Royal Machines is a group of musicians who love playing music, who loved the songs they grew up on. 

We play those songs, and we have a special guest per song. We have a different singer every couple of songs, who comes out and does a song with us. Or, a great guitar player comes out and plays.

I think we've been doing that for — what, 20 years?

Morrison: Yeah, 20 years now.

Navarro: So Above Ground was an extension of that, in a way, because we kept the same model of having friends and musicians — players that we would love to reach out to.

Some of them say yes; some of them say no. But we collect as many people that we can find interested in the event and just throw a big celebration of the music that we all loved.

In Royal Machines, it's usually a song or two from a band, but they're hits, because you want to keep the house moving. You want to keep the party moving. So it's hit, hit, hit, hit, hit.

And Billy's right. We were talking about our love for Adam and the Ants' Kings of the Wild Frontier. That's one of the first records that took me a little bit out of the heavy metal genre and into the post-punk genre, if you will. And then I went backward, did my research and that was my conduit to all things goth, all things punk.

Billy being from England and having a huge understanding of the genius of Adam and knowing our shared love of Adam, I called him one day and said, "Wouldn't it be wild to play the entire album with two drummers all the way through and learn every single nuance on that thing?"

We got into it, and it was a mindf*** in terms of what those guys were actually playing and learning those songs and doing them correctly. But we did, we got together, we did that. And we also chose — this is for Above Ground one — The Velvet Underground & Nico. Which was also a monumental album to try and deconstruct and break into and figure out what's going on.

So, apart from the mental health aspect, one of the things we love in addition to raising funds and awareness is having the ability to get into these records and pull them apart and look under the hood. We become better players as a result of it.

Morrison: Oh my god. The tonality of some of the instrumentation on all the albums we've chosen is so left-of-center to where Dave and I both usually are.

When he stands on stage with Jane's Addiction, he sounds like Dave Navarro. And I stand on stage with Billy Idol and I have my Billy Morrison chunk tone. The joy for me is: Dave comes over to my studio and we are listening to guitar tones on little tiny parts that are in the right speaker and going, "OK, you use this guitar through this amp and just do this."

We take recreating in the albums very seriously to the point where, this year, we have a three-piece horn section. We have strings; we have a keyboard player. I mean, we will get whatever we need to do to totally recreate the record.

Which I think, sets [us apart]. No offense to cover bands; I'm in one of the biggest cover bands in the world. But this is more than a cover band.

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Navarro: It's an extension. But it made perfect sense for Billy and me to team up on this because we've been doing covers for so long. The idea of getting into the entire vinyl LP front-to-back is an experience that has been lost in the worldwide culture at this point. We wanted to celebrate that as well.

So that's why we do two albums that are very opposing and contradictory yet fit together very well in the same way. Kind of like a Kubrick film in terms of how we select our albums. So this year you're getting Lou Reed's Transformer and you're getting Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols.

Only the stone classics, it seems!

Navarro: Well, the ones that I think — if I'm being honest, and correct me if I'm wrong — are albums that have shaped who Billy and I are.

Morrison: The process of picking the records is quite a long one, because I'll pick an album that means so much to me, but it doesn't mean that much to Dave. And I'm not going to mention the album, because…

Navarro: You can! No, you can!

Morrison: But then everybody's going to pressure me to actually do it.

Navarro: But you said yes! You said yes!

Morrison: Because I love you!

Navarro: I wanted that experience for you! To me, it was a gift!

Morrison: David is a huge Pink Floyd fan. And part of the Above Ground experience is we bring in way more production than any theater gig should have, including oversized video walls — all kinds of stuff. And Dave said, we need to do The Dark Side of the Moon.

Now, I am not a Pink Floyd fan. I'm just not.

Really!

Morrison: So, you've got to remember — one of my first memories is Johnny Rotten walking on stage in a T-shirt that says "I Hate Pink Floyd." And the Sex Pistols are the band that changed my life. And so, even before I ever heard the band as a kid, Pink Floyd was not cool.

Now, I am obviously a grown adult. And Dave is expanding my Pink Floyd dictionary, if you like.

Navarro: We just couldn't get it done by December 20.

Morrison: The deal is not sealed by 2021, but who knows? 2022 might bring that out.

Dave Navarro and Jack Black at Above Ground 2019. Photo: Jim Donnelly

To bridge the conversation into mental health, can you guys tell me about your connections to Scott, Chester and Chris?

Navarro: We both knew all three of those guys just through the work we do.

Morrison: Scott Weiland actually fronted the Camp Freddy band that we had for a year. He was the frontman. Dave, I know, was close with Chris. We were both close with Chester. We had Chester get up with us as one of those guests that Dave was talking about. Chester would always say yes when I or Dave called him. So, we were close.

Navarro: We were very close, and I attended both of those funerals back to back. And what a walloping we all took that year. Chester was always just a constant professional — upbeat, happy to help. Held the door for the catering guy. He was just the humblest, nicest guy. And then when he got on stage, he was just unstoppable.

So, those deaths really hit us hard. Chris's death hit me really, really hard because he and I used to do speaking panels for kids in rehabilitation programs and talk to them about, like, "Hey, we're out here, we're doing this stuff sober on tour and it's doable and we're having a great life."

We were trying to carry that message, because one of the things you've got to do in recovery is to carry the message — whatever type of recovery it is.

Scott, of course, I've known for 20 years, ever since Stone Temple Pilots came out. As Billy said, he was a member of our band for a while. And that was another loss too. They call it drug addiction, but there's something underlying that's underneath drug addiction, if we want to get into it.

So, we felt that since MusiCares was a force and has a reach as vast as it does — they also handle drug addiction and mental health issues — that's the umbrella that we felt that we would want to give back to, to help support people.

MusiCares has gotten people into hospital beds, both Billy and I know, for nothing. People who couldn't afford their own treatment. People who couldn't afford their own care. People who couldn't take care of themselves got taken care of. That's what they do.

Morrison: I think the personal experience that both Dave and I have had with MusiCares made it an easy choice.

Plus, as Dave says, the reach and the voice that they have is definitely a force. I've made a phone call to someone at MusiCares at 10:00, and the person who was dying was in treatment by 6:00. No questions asked, no money.

Those deaths that we talked about — the positive that came out of that for us — was a conversation that was revealed to Dave and me.

Or, it just articulated something that we had thought collectively for a long time about our traumas and our PTSD and depression and addiction issues that we've both been vocal about.

Navarro: Very.

Dave Navarro and Juliette Lewis at Above Ground 2019. Photo: Jim Donnelly

Morrison: What it boils down to is that we have a responsibility to say it's OK to ask for help, because underlying a lot of all of those issues that people suffer from is a stigma that tells us it's wrong to be depressed. Or we don't talk about depression. Or trauma is something that we lock away and don't ever articulate.

Navarro: A lot of family systems teach their children growing up that that's how you live. And I will say, he's right.

I feel like we are at a turning point in society where those issues are being taken seriously. You hear way more about mental health awareness, care, treatment and so forth than you did maybe five years ago. It's become at the forefront. It's a movement of people that just want to see other people having their best human experience.

Both Billy and I have suffered with our drug addictions and so forth. I believe that my drug addiction was rooted in trauma from when I was a kid, and at a certain point for some people like me, it's no more about treating the drug addict side of me.

We've done this; let's get in here. Let's get into the trauma, because that physically lives in the body. That can hold somebody frozen for decades.

Morrison: Dave is right that there is positive forward motion in the mental health space these days. Which is fantastic for us, because it means whatever collective voice we have and we put together for our event is all part of the greater good around the mental health space.

Navarro: I think it's nice for people to see that — sure, it's Billy and I, but there's a lot of artists that join us that people really, really look up to and love and have followed and admired for years. 

Billy Idol is one of them. Perry Farrell is one of them. Taylor Hawkins [was just inducted into] the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [with Foo Fighters], so we'll have a Hall of Famer up there.

Every one of these names has either been through it, seen it, dealt with it, gone through it or experienced it, lived it like Billy and I have. One of the tenants to the principles that we practice is that you can't keep it unless you give it away.

And we like to give it away in the form of messaging that says, "Look, even the people who you think have it all together and have the ideal life, even they feel like you do." So, let's even the playing field here.

We're just all human beings trying to have a human experience, and everything is OK if we just wait for the next breath and let it be OK.

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Morrison: Dave and I not only play the guitar, but produce the whole thing from start to finish. And the beautiful thing that happens with us is that we'll get a response from someone that neither of us knows.

Jack Black would be an example. The last time we did this, two years ago, Jack Black came forward and wanted to be involved, and was involved — [he] got on stage and absolutely killed it. He didn't do that because he wanted to get on stage and sing "Suffragette City"; he did that because he responded to the message that they just articulated.

So the beautiful thing for us is, we see all those other people out there that want to go, "Yes, we agree with this." Let's level the playing field, like Dave said.

Navarro: You also have to consider that the types of people who choose this line of work for a living are the kinds of people who need a lot of attention. So, there's certainly an undercurrent among all of us that we can all identify with. Most people don't need a thousand people screaming back at them to feel OK about themselves.

So, we come out and we share very intimate, personal stuff in a general way, and on a global level that hopefully can reach somebody who's struggling.

I mean, I had a friend of a family member kill himself two days ago because he got into an argument with somebody. So, obviously, the argument isn't the killer, it's the years of untreated, whatever it was that led to that decision.

I'm seeing it more and more. We saw an increase in drug addiction and suicides during the beginning of the pandemic. And now we're seeing an uptick in both of those things as the world is starting to come back together, because people are having a hard time wrapping their heads around getting back together.

Everybody is built differently, and their trauma lives in different parts of their body. Certain things are a trigger for one person, but they're not a trigger for another person. 

So, we're here to say that not only can you live with those triggers, but you can have a happy and fruitful life with those triggers and not have them hijack your central nervous system and dictate your entire existence.

Dave Mason On Recording With Rock Royalty & Why He Reimagined His Debut Solo Album, Alone Together

Fifty-five years after Clive Davis signed Donovan, the trailblazing A&R man and singer/songwriter sat down for an interview and performance at Davis' 2021 GRAMMYs celebration on May 15. For reasons one can probably guess, they weren't in the same room. 

"The main problem was, what guitar should I use?" Donovan recalls thinking before his performance. "It's very bad sound through these Zoom microphones." After the 1960s star grabbed a classical guitar and beamed in his performance, the pair got to chatting about their epic history together, which predates the Summer of Love. 

"Clive and I opened a new way ahead for music in 1966—he in a new way as a record label leader, me in a new way forward for music," Donovan tells GRAMMY.com, referring to his pivotal, Davis-facilitated 1966 album Sunshine Superman. "The new way was established. The effect would begin to influence bands to come. My shamanic mission for that time [was] accomplished."

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Donovan's new single, "I Am the Shaman," and upcoming children's series, "Tales of Aluna," for which he and his wife, Linda Lawrence, have completed 26 episodes, speak to his ability to transform the world heart by heart. (The single is available on limited physical formats on his website; the show’s release date remains TBD.) The former, produced and with visuals by David Lynch, casts a purple-clothed Donovan as the titular healer. The latter teaches youngsters to steward a battered Earth.

Over Zoom, with his long, gray locks tucked beneath a hood, Donovan comes across not only as an ageless wizard of yore but a happy, vital artist in the now. "I had to be reminded I made four albums in two-and-a-half years," he says with a laugh. Two of those were 2019’s Joolz Juke, a bluesy collaboration with his step-grandson (and Brian Jones’ grandson) Joolz Jones, and 2021’s Lunarian, a mystical tribute to Lawrence.

GRAMMY.com caught up with the psychedelic-folk troubadour about his recent rendezvous with Clive Davis, the wild renaissance of his 1966 song "Season of the Witch" and his memories of his wholehearted 1965 debut album, What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What does the word "shaman" connote to you, and what role does the spiritual realm hold in your daily life?

People who go online think of a shaman up in the freezing north of the world, dressed in ceremonial costumes. A very important role to play in the tribe. I've always known that there are shamans in all countries. My shaman's role is always, I've realized, to assure us that we're heroes of our own adventure. You see, the shaman has got a song, usually. That song is very helpful to the tribe, and, in my case, to a huge audience in the world.

Because the song of the shaman allows us to rise above our fears and doubts. We identify with the story in the song. Because we're doing this for the GRAMMYs, which is about music and song, I want to explain to you that one can see clearly when a modern song appeals to millions. Even though the language of the lyric is English, the song is understood in every language.

We identify with the story and the characters. They overcome their trials. So we need these shamans—the male and the female—to be guides on the journey of life. When you look at the old idea of a shaman, that's exactly the role he plays. [For] anybody in difficulty—and it's usually a psychological difficulty—the shaman is there to move that person into their place of healing. You know, [like I say in] the line in my song, "I Am the Shaman": "She guides us on our way/When hearts, they go astray." 

This GRAMMY motto—MusiCares—expresses it quite clearly. The care, of course, can be physical. To help music-makers get the real healing is the invisible sound of music, which releases the obscure emotions of the heart. And that line in the song: "Who'll dry your pretty eyes?" I was committed to [being a shaman] very early. When a shaman is young, usually, that shaman gathers people around them; has some kind of skill, usually in music; and more often than not, has a childhood illness, which I had, which separates one from the others and makes you different.

Donovan in 1966. Photo courtesy of the artist.

What was it like collaborating with David Lynch for the visuals?

Well, it wasn't a planned session. It was obvious that at one point, we would run into each other. Before David became a huge promoter of [Transcendental Meditation] and created the David Lynch Foundation to bring TM essentially to schools and young people—now, it's quite wide, the range—Linda and I, and the Beatles, of course, were into TM. It was obvious I would run into David at one point.

So, when we did finally meet, it was in his studio. There, I had my guitar, of course. We got on really well. In the studio, he became interested in my process. He said, "Sit in front of the microphone, Don, with your guitar." So I sat, and he'd already said, "Bring a song in that is just emerging. Absolutely not even begun to be a song." I did, and he said, "OK, can you just play and write a song, sitting there? Just there?" I said, "Sure I can."

I started "The Shaman," and he said, "That's great. OK, let's roll tape." I started doing the song in a very special way that I do sometimes. Extempo. I was making it up as I went along. I only had a couple of structures, and the structures came out just right. This is a way that a skilled songwriter like I can just be open to the possibility. Maybe like a skilled artist who lets the pen play on the paper and sees the images come forth. Then, in the next few days, David put on his magic—I didn't know he was a record producer, really—and we created "I Am the Shaman."

What can you tell me about "Tales of Aluna," the show you're working on with your wife?

If you can imagine a long incubation period of 50 years, Linda and I, having met in '65—she was my sunshine supergirl—we met again after the turbulent '60s was over. We met; we married. We lived in Windsor. At one point, we traveled to Ireland. I started getting out my writings and she was looking at them and we thought, "Let's move out of music. The '60s [are] over. Let's try and move into the world of audio/visual."

We spoke of how difficult it had been to do anything in the late '60s, early '70s, about ecology. Nobody really wanted to talk about it. The government certainly didn't know anything [about] what to do and never mentioned it. Anybody that mentioned it was considered back-to-nature, a hippie, a bohemian. But Linda and I were also surprised that none of my contemporaries were writing [any] green songs. I'd already started.

But when we looked at the green songs I had, it was important that the message can't just go to teenagers and adults, because they're quite conditioned as well. So what I thought would be better, and so did Linda: "Why don't we make a tale for the very young before the conditioning grabs them?" 

When we started to make "Aluna," it was very difficult. Animation was expensive and it was very hard to get into, but the story continued! We went to animation meetings and my publisher, peermusic, encouraged it all. And it went on and it was off and it was on and it was off. [laughs] And then, finally, out of Australia came this wonderful company called Three's a Company, and we created it.

Down there in Australia, 26 episodes have been produced. It's odd. Things have to come in their own time. But we never gave up the project. Now it's here, "Tales of Aluna." The girl [character] is very much based on Linda and her interests. There's a character that's based on me. But really, they're stories that I wrote 50 years ago, so it's taken a while.

How did the Clive Davis performance go? What's your history with Clive?

Of course, it was known by him and I that when he took over Columbia and created Epic, I was his first signing. But it didn't all become—what should we say—historic until later. He got so busy, I got so busy, and in 1966, he signed me, and the album was Sunshine Superman. 

What we see now is it was quite a new door that he'd opened. He would be creating a new kind of record company and development of talent, similar to what happened in earlier decades when artists were encouraged seriously to be found and promoted. At the time Clive was in the driving seat of Columbia, a lot of pop music had gone down already. But he was sort of a visionary. He wanted to develop and find new talent.

Now, looking back, I realize Sunshine Superman kind of opened a door one year before Sgt. Pepper—opened a door to a fusion. This door was wide open now. Clive developed that with me and he developed all of my albums in the '60s. Then, it came around that I ran into Richard Barone on the phone again. We've known each other for years. We talked about various things and he was working [with] the GRAMMYs. He said, "Why don't you and Clive get together and talk about those days?" He arranged the gala and I was very, very pleased. It was probably my first Zoom. When Clive and I got together, I found myself feeling rather touched. Him, too.

It was very moving [of Clive to] place me at the end of the gala, honoring me. And I honored him during the interview. It was quite historic, really. It was a piece of history that people don't point to very much, but the doors have to be opened wide by somebody.

I'd never thought of it that way, that Sunshine Superman paved the way for Pepper.

Well, most of the bands up until '66 were quite formatted. Four guys, same suits, of course, long hair. Blues had arrived and was tearing things apart a bit, but nobody was thinking to fuse all forms of classical, Indian, folk music, poetry, jazz, and rock—"Season of the Witch."

I didn't plan it. I didn't sit down and say, "I'm going to do this." It just happened, and my sense of avant-garde—if you look at what the avant-garde is described as on Wiki—it is pushing boundaries. At first, [it was] quite unacceptable. But of course, I had "Sunshine Superman." That was the song that [producer] Mickie [Most] knew would go whizzing up the charts, and it did. Opening doors with that album was a great pleasure to me.

You brought up "Season of the Witch." Any time I see anything mildly haunting on TV or film, that song almost invariably plays—yours or someone else's version. How does it feel to have that song permeate the public consciousness again?

It's crazy! It's not mellow. It's not "Superman." It's not "Jennifer [Juniper]." It's "Season of the Witch" that has risen. The plays on Spotify, for instance, are extraordinary. It is an angst-based song. And Donovan, the soft, gentle singer, why is he singing so dark? David Lynch and I would smile because he gets the same: "Here you are promoting peace with meditation and you have these dark forces in your movie!"

I said to him, "Yeah, so what did they say to Picasso when he painted Guernica? Did they say, 'Why are you painting terrible, visionary, dark forces, when really, you should be supporting peace and brotherhood?'" You have to show the dark because out of the darkness of this modern age, we must come out. That darkness has to be plumbed. It seems like I did it with "Season of the Witch."

Donovan with his friend David "Gypsy Dave" Mills  in 1966. Photo: Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix via Getty Images​

Your first album, What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid, rang in its 55th anniversary last year. That album's really important to me. Any memories you can share of that one?

I'm interested. Without going into detail, how old were you when you first heard it, would you say?

I was probably 13 or 14.

I think what you were experiencing was what I was experiencing on the album. I was growing into myself and wondering where I was going. I'd already left home and hitchhiked with Gypsy Dave and been the Ramblin' Boy and all that. At your point in life, maybe that feeling was what you felt most.

In those days, in the recording world, I knew I was going to the folk world; I knew I was going out of the folk clubs and pubs. I wasn't headed for the folk labels. The mission with Gypsy and I was, "Why don't we make a real record for the real charts, and we'll be part of the flow of the invasion of popular culture by folk music, blues, poetry, and jazz?" But more folk, more poetry from my end, at first, and I wanted to make a record. What you're listening to on that album was a kid who'd just begun to record. That was me. Those recordings [that comprise] What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid, I had the zeal and the power and the energy to want to sing of civil rights and protest songs. But at the same time, my guitar picking had developed very fast, and it was even before I went to Tin Pan Alley. I was a publishing signing first.

I made most of those in the basement at Denmark Street in London. Now, those albums are re-released on vinyl via BMG, which is great. There's two of them: What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid and Fairytale. That's 1965. You are not alone. 1965 recordings of Donovan are now way in the forefront, leaving "Superman" behind in interest by the younger and even younger and your age, as well.

Jethro Tull's 'Aqualung' At 50: Ian Anderson On How Whimsy, Inquiry & Religious Skepticism Forged The Progressive Rock Classic

2020 has been like no other. Musicians, organizations and all parts of the music industry are facing a whole new, unprecedented reality that is changing the way the industry works. It’s been a tough year, to say the least. But despite the ongoing trials, the music community has found ways to remain resilient through it all.

GRAMMY.com looks back at how the industry's unity, perseverance and creativity helped the music community rise up and face the challenges head-on. 

Recording Academy And MusiCares Establish COVID-19 Relief Fund

Unprecedented times call for an unprecedented response, Harvey Mason jr., Chair & Interim President/CEO of the Recording Academy, said in mid-March when the Recording Academy responded to the crisis by launching the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.

The Recording Academy and its affiliated charitable foundation MusiCares have established the COVID-19 Relief Fund to help people in the music industry affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and subsequent cancellation of multiple music events. From hotel and bar gigs to major music festivals, COVID-19 is deeply impacting live music events, and the creative community behind it all.

Administered through MusiCares, the COVID-19 Fund will be used to directly support those in the music community with the greatest need. To establish the fund, both the Recording Academy and MusiCares have contributed an initial donation of $1 million each, totaling $2 million.

Marching Six Feet Apart: How High School Marching Bands Are Coping With The Pandemic

Schools were left with a lot of unknowns this year. At one school in Colorado, teachers wondered what the new normal would mean for their band season, but most importantly, for their students. Emilee Lindner took GRAMMY.com readers into a high school to show how one community of teachers and students worked through it all.

Since you can't really conduct band from a laptop, teachers are getting creative. We're talking practice journals, music theory worksheets, listening assignments and music history readings. [James Shuman, band director at Rocky Hill High School in Connecticut,] even created a bracket for students to battle out which song from Star Wars is the best. Anything to keep the kids stimulated. But it's a struggle. Band has lost the essence of collaboration; instead, it’s mutated into individual study.

Recording Academy Board Members Cover John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery" To Benefit MusiCares' COVID-19 Relief Fund

Many lives succumbed to COVID-19 this year, including GRAMMY-winning legend John Prine. To honor him and his legacy, the Recording Academy Board Members came together to cover his song, “Angel From Montgomery.” Revenues from the song went to MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund. 

"We started this project as a way to raise money for MusiCares. With John’s passing, we also wanted to raise awareness that this can strike anybody. It doesn't matter if you’re famous or not, a seasoned veteran, or perhaps just building your career. If we can help in some way, if we can help make sure that those in need have food, or rent, or something else to help keep [getting] them through," Recording Academy trustee Michael Romanowski said.

"Nothing Like This Has Ever Happened": How Orchestra Musicians Are Faring In The Pandemic

COVID-19 has caused lockdowns all over the country. Members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), New York Philharmonic (NY Phil), and Los Angeles Phil spoke to GRAMMY.com about what it meant for them.

When the lockdown began, Stephen Williamson, principal clarinet player for CSO, was on his way to a concert when he learned the news. "I was [driving] to CSO for a performance of 'Rhapsody in Blue' when I got a call that the concert was canceled," he shares. CSO's Associate Concertmaster Stephanie Jeong, the youngest member of the orchestra ever to hold this prestigious title, was in Kansas City visiting her boyfriend when she learned of the Shelter in Place order going into effect in Chicago. "I ended up staying in Kansas City, and I’m still here."

What was hoped to be a temporary shutdown soon turned into a stay-at-home order with no end in sight, and the shattered economy that accompanied it was something many musicians didn’t anticipate in the United States. "In my almost-30-year tenure with the orchestra, nothing like this has ever happened," CSO bass player Robert Kassinger explains. "Maybe once every 10 years a concert had to be canceled because of weather conditions, sure, but nothing like this."

Independent Publicists Persist Through The Coronavirus Impact On The Music Industry

As the beginning of the pandemic caused the cancellation of several live shows and festivals and paused album releases, the publicists for artists like Jessie Reyez, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Lido Pimienta, Palehound and more talked about how they worked through the hard times for their clients.

Independent publicists and smaller PR agencies now face their own unique challenges. Many run on project-based work focused on touring and album campaigns. With artists now canceling tours and rethinking album releases, the music publicity sector now faces a potential, and significant, loss in income—if not now, then in the future. On top of that, there is no option of severance for many publicists if they lose their jobs or clients.

Bartees Strange, Anjimile & More On What It's Like To Release A Debut Album In A Pandemic

Some artists continued to release their projects, although it meant they couldn’t go through a traditional release cycle.

A variety of rising artists sit down to discuss the unusual and inopportune circumstances of releasing a debut record during COVID, and what it takes to make the best of an impossible situation.

The Pivot To Livestreams: VERZUZ  Was Born

To keep the show going, artists went full-on digital with intimate and all-out production performances, giving way to new forms of musical entertainment. Cue in VERZUZ, a full-on lyrical and production battle that pitted some of the greatest rappers and R&B artists head-to-head.

What originally started as a live song-for-song set at Hot 97's Summer Jam concert in 2018 between musical powerhouses Timbaland and Swizz Beatz has now found its way into countless quarantined homes. The recommence of Verzuz began and continues to serve as a celebration of Black musical pioneers: the DJs, songwriters, singers, rappers, producers, performers—and everybody in between.

The battles are selected by how sonically and entertaining both artists can be together. Kicking off in March, the growing phenom has showcased battles between Teddy Riley vs. Babyface, Boi-1da vs. Hit-Boy, The-Dream vs. Sean Garrett, Erykah Badu vs. Jill Scott, Johntá Austin vs. Ne-Yo, Nelly vs. Ludacris, T-Pain vs. Lil Jon, Scott Storch vs. Mannie Fresh, DJ Premier vs. RZA, Ryan Tedder vs. Benny Blanco, 112 vs. Jagged Edge and Beenie Man vs. Bounty Killer.

Helping The Musical Community Through Music 

Whether it was raising money for venues across the country at the Save Our Stages virtual event or labels like Mexican Summer releasing projects benefitting artists or charities of their choice, artists and musical entities found ways to support their community. Streaming service Bandcamp, also among those leaders, waived fees for artists on their platform, showing support for independent creators.

Capturing Los Angeles' COVID-Closed Venues

With clubs closed until at least next year, photographer Farah Sosa documented L.A.'s shuttered venues—many of which may not reopen without federal support

How Bandcamp's Fee Waiver Days Are Supporting Musicians In The Pandemic

"It sounds simple, but we’ve always believed that the best way to support artists is to buy their music and merch directly," Bandcamp COO Josh Kim told GRAMMY.com. 

Bipartisan Package Brings New COVID Relief And More

In the waning days of the 116th Congress, a bipartisan package includes new COVID relief and more. 

After months of shifting negotiations and perpetuating stalemates, Congress reached a deal to provide the American public with additional COVID-19 relief. Congressional leadership, composed of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), announced an agreement on Sunday, December 20, to attach the relief to an end-of-year government spending bill to be voted on Monday, December 21, and signed into law by the president. 

Bootsy Collins, Carla Morrison, Rico Nasty & More: GRAMMY.com's Favorite Conversations Of 2020