The artist will be honored in Los Angeles

Blackbird Presents and Live Nation are thrilled to announce a very special concert celebration honoring a generational icon, Mavis Staples. Mavis Staples 85th: All-Star Birthday Concert will take place on Thursday, April 18th at the YouTube Theater, featuring once-in-a-lifetime performances with Mavis Staples and an incredible lineup of superstar artists, including Black Pumas, Chris Stapleton, Grace Potter, Hozier, Jackson Browne, Jeff Tweedy, Keb’ Mo’, Michael McDonald, Nathaniel Rateliff, Norah Jones, Robert Randolph, Taj Mahal, The War And Treaty, plus more to be announced.

Tickets for the general public go on sale Friday, February 16th at 10 am PT via Ticketmaster.

“At the end of last year, I was talking about retiring,” says Mavis Staples. “But after sitting with it for a while, I stopped myself and thought, ‘Well, what would I do?’ I asked the Lord, ‘Why am I still here? What do you want of me? Have you kept me around for a reason?’ And the only reason I could see is to sing my songs. That’s why I’m still here, and I’m looking forward to this show with my friends singing my songs, too!”

“Producing this show is the honor of my life, as we all come together to celebrate a woman whom has given so much to so many over the years through her actions, her music, and her magic,” adds Blackbird Presents CEO and Chief Creative Officer Keith Wortman

Staples is the kind of once-in-a-generation artist whose impact on music and culture would be difficult to overstate. She’s both a Blues and a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer; a civil rights icon; a three-time Grammy Award winner (and a Grammy lifetime achievement award); a chart-topping soul, gospel, and R&B pioneer; a National Arts Awards Lifetime Achievement recipient; named to Rolling Stone’s Top 200 Singers of All Time at No. 46; and a Kennedy Center honoree. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., performed at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration and sang in Barack Obama’s White House. Over the past few decades alone, she’s collaborated with everyone from Prince and Bob Dylan, to Arcade Fire and Bon Iver, blown away countless festivalgoers from Newport Folk and Glastonbury to Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, and graced the airwaves on Fallon, Colbert, Ellen, Austin City Limits, Jools Holland and the Grammys.