Keith Urban, Little Big Town and More Country Artists Honor Fleetwood Mac at 2018 MusiCares Gala [PICTURES]
On Friday (Jan. 26), artists across genres came together at the MusicCares Person of the Year Benefit in advance of the 60th annual Grammy Awards, which took place on Sunday (Jan. 28) in New York City. This year was the first in which MusicCares honored a full band: Fleetwood Mac.
Country stars such as Keith Urban, Alison Krauss, Little Big Town and Zac Brown appeared onstage to honor the group, each performing a different song from Fleetwood Mac's seminal 1977 album, Rumors. Click through the gallery above to see some the evening's most memorable shots.
Urban took the stage for an uptempo, energetic rendition of "Second Hand News," the first track off Rumors and arguably the group's most recognizable musical testament to what became one of rock 'n' roll's most public love stories: the relationship and breakup between bandmates Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Urban's Instagram displays a photo of the country star with Fleetwood Mac member Christine McVie at the event, captioned "The songbird herself!" Urban has stated that Fleetwood Mac's music, and the Rumors album in particular has been a large influence on his musical career.
Little Big Town, who received a Grammys nod for Best Country Album in 2018 and won in the category of Best Country Group / Duo Performance for their single "Better Man" also took the stage at Radio City Music Hall on Friday evening, to deliver a seamless and faithful version of "Dreams." Check out video of that performance below.
Fleetwood Mac's "Songbird" received the bluegrass treatment from Krauss. She swapped out the piano lines of the group's classic ballad with a dobro performance courtesy of Jerry Douglas.
Zac Brown rounded out the tribute portion of the event with a performance of "Don't Stop." That song served as the official campaign song for President Bill Clinton, who also invited Fleetwood Mac to perform at his inauguration and appeared at Radio Music City Hall on Friday to honor the group and present them with their award.
Other artists paying tribute to Fleetwood Mac on Friday evening included Miley Cyrus, Lorde, Haim, Harry Styles, OneRepublic and others. The group of the hour themselves even took the stage for a micro-set of five songs: "The Chain," "Little Lies," "Tusk," "Gold Dust Woman" and "Go Your Own Way."
MusiCares, founded in 1989, is dedicated to supporting the music community by providing emergency and disaster relief, substance abuse rehabilitation and prevention, assistance with medical bills and more. Since its inception, the organization has raised $58 million, and brought in an additional $7 million on Friday's event. Check out a CBS recap of the event below.