Barack Obama bids farewell, for now, to art world
President Barack Obama attended his last Kennedy Center Honors gala Sunday night, making some of his final goodbyes to celebrated artists before leaving office next month.
Ahead of the ceremony, Obama hosted a reception in the White House East Room for this year's award recipients: actor Al Pacino, The Eagles rockers, singer James Taylor, gospel singer and civil rights activist Mavis Staples and Argentine pianist Martha Argerich.
"The Kennedy Center honors are about folks who spent their lives calling on us to think a little to harder and feel a little deeper and express ourselves bravely and maybe take it easy every once in a while," Obama said, calling the gala "one of the parts of the job that I will miss."
Obama jokingly asked Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, a notorious troublemaker, to not trash the White House because he is leaving soon and wants his "security deposit" back.
The Eagles were set to be honored last year but postponed due to the illness of founding member Glenn Frey, who died in January. He received the Kennedy award posthumously.
At a reception hosted by Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday, Kennedy Center chairman David Rubinstein handed the artists medallions and hung wide rainbow-colored ribbons around their necks.
"In 1968, when James Taylor signed with Apple Records, I was in Vietnam and America was at war abroad and in turmoil here at home. We were fighting and marching to the music of (Jimi) Hendrix, the drumming of Ringo (Starr), the Doors, the (Rolling) Stones, and the (Grateful) Dead," Kerry said.
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