Jimmy Carter memories: President and Live Nation executive bonded over love of rock and roll

Peter Conlon was so close to Jimmy Carter that the former president once publicly called him "almost like a member of the Carter clan."

Conlon, a legendary concert promoter and Live Nation's Georgia chairman, was among the mourners at Carter’s funeral on Thursday.

"It was the honor of my life to be his friend," Conlon told FOX 5's Johnny Edwards, speaking from the Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington.

Conlon had a front-row seat for Carter's extraordinary life - their bond: music.

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Former US President Jimmy Carter (L) smiling broadly and standing next to Country and Western singer Willie Nelson (R) at concert during Plains, Georgia's 100th anniversary. (Photo by Thomas S. England/Getty Images)

"He told me one night at a show backstage - he put his hand on my shoulder - and he said, ‘You know, Peter, I'm the most proud of you of anybody who worked for me.’" Conlon said. "And I said, ‘Well, thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate that.’ He didn't say why."

Long before he became a live entertainment bigwig, Conlon was a 23-year-old intern who joined the Carter presidential campaign in 1975. Then he became a campaign official and served as assistant treasurer of the inaugural committee post-victory.

In the Carter Administration, Conlon served as the White House liaison for the Small Business Administration. During Carter’s unsuccessful re-election bid, he was his national fundraising director.

Their friendship grew in the decades to come.

osalynn Carter and former President Jimmy Carter (R) with longtime friend Peter Conlon of Live Nation (C) before the Willie Nelson and B.B. King concert at Chastain Park Amphitheater on July 27, 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Rick Diamond/WireIm

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Time after time, Conlon said, he hooked the Carters up with concert tickets. He estimates he attended at least 100 shows with them during a 40-year period. Carter asked Conlon to organize a 2004 free Willie Nelson concert in Plains.

He described losing his friend as bittersweet.

"I mean, he made it to a hundred," Conlon said. "He was such a righteous individual. Not some BS Christian. I mean, he walked the walk."

"So I'm happy for him because, physically, the state I'm sure he was in, I think he was looking forward to the next thing," he said.

Georgia governor and US presidential candidate Jimmy Carter, dressed in an Allman Brothers T-shirt, talks with the press while vacationing on Jekyll Island, just after the 1976 Democratic convention. (Photo by © Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty

 
Something else he says Carter was genuine about: His love of rock and roll.

The Allman Brothers famously helped Carter fundraise for his1976 campaign.

"When he got in the White House, he totally changed the presidential record collection," Conlon said. "You know, it was all The New Christy Minstrels and Pat Boone. And Carter gets there, and it's The Allman Brothers and Bob Dylan and the Beatles."

Carter's surprise close friendship to Bob Dylan

Conlon described another close Carter friendship.

"Bob Dylan considers Jimmy Carter to be his best friend, and Carter considers Bob to be one of his best," he said.

Conlon was there when Carter introduced Dylan at the 2015 Grammy Awards for Dylan’s MusicCares Person of the Year honors.

"I've been around Bob a lot, in meetings and rooms with him," Conlon said. "They had a really good friendship. They would talk and laugh."

Honoree Bob Dylan, former President Jimmy Carter and president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Neil Portnow pose with award onstage at the 25th anniversary MusiCares 2015 Person Of The Year Gala honoring Bob Dylan at the Los An

He said the two men first met in the early ‘70s at the Georgia governor's mansion when Carter impressed Dylan by quoting his lyrics. He would later quote Dylan in his 1977 inauguration speech, saying, "We have an America that, in Bob Dylan's phrase, is busy being born, not busy dying."

Conlon said his last meeting with the president would be at a Dylan concert at the Fox Theatre, the year before Carter entered hospice and Rosalynn Carter died.

"He’d always say in conversations, ‘Is there anything you want to ask me?’" Conlon recalled. "He said, ‘You can ask me anything. What do you want to talk about?’ I never did."

If he could, what would Conlon ask Carter now?

"About Area 51," he laughed. "I think there's some secrets here that they don't talk about. You know, maybe the Kennedy assassination."

The Source: FOX 5's Johnny Edwards reported this story out of Atlanta.

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