Jimmy Carter is likely headed for the Grammy history books. The former president’s audiobook Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration, is nominated for best audio book, narration and storytelling recording. If it wins on Feb. 2, Carter, 100, will become the oldest Grammy winner in history. That distinction is currently held by blues pianist Pinetop Perkins, who was 97 in 2011 when he won best traditional blues album for Joined at the Hip.
Perkins is followed by legendary singer Tony Bennett, who was 95 in 2022 when he won best traditional pop vocal album for Love for Sale, his second collab with Lady Gaga; George Burns, who was also 95 when he won in 1991 for spoken word or non-musical recording album for Gracie: A Love Story, a tribute to his late wife and comedy partner Gracie Allen; and Carter, who was a whippersnapper of 94 in 2019 when he won best spoken word album for Faith: A Journey for All.
If Carter wins, this would be his fourth Grammy, which is more than any other president. He previously won in 2007 for Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis; in 2016 for A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety, and in 2019 for Faith – A Journey for All. Two other former U.S. presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, have each won two Grammys.
Four of this year’s five nominees in the audiobook category are over 75. Funk legend George Clinton, nominated for …And Your Ass Will Follow, is 83; Barbra Streisand, nominated for My Name Is Barbra, is 82; Dolly Parton, nominated for Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, is 78. The relative youngster in the nominations is Guy Oldfield, who produced All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words. He’s 55. (The two living former Beatles — Paul McCartney, 82, and Ringo Starr, 84 — are not nominees.)
Carter has had the longest life of any U.S. president. That title was formerly held by George H.W. Bush, who was 94 when he died in 2018. Carter has also had the longest post-presidential retirement of any U.S. president (nearly 44 years). That distinction was formerly held by Herbert Hoover, whose retirement lasted more than 31 years. Both Carter and Hoover were one-term presidents, who were unseated by Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt, respectively. Their long retirements provided some consolation for their landslide losses.
