Atlanta Chapter of the Recording Academy to honor THE B-52’S, Charlie Brusco, Coretta Scott King and Usher
Proceeds from Atlanta's Heroes Awards Gala to Benefit the
Chapter's Professional Arts Education Programs and MusiCares® Foundation

ATLANTA (February 14, 2005) — The Atlanta Chapter of The Recording Academy® has selected The B-52’s, Charlie Brusco, Mrs. Coretta Scott King and Usher Raymond IV (USHER) as its 2005 Atlanta Heroes Awards recipients. The Heroes Award is the highest honor bestowed by an Academy Chapter and is given to honor outstanding individuals and institutions in the Georgia region that have improved the environment for the creative community. The gala event, which attracts recording artists, key entertainment executives and community leaders, will be held on Thursday, April 21, 2005, at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel (210 Peachtree Street, downtown Atlanta). Proceeds will benefit the Academy's professional arts education programs for the music community of the Atlanta region and a portion to benefit the MusiCares® Foundation — the health and human services charity founded by The Recording Academy.

   The event will commence at 6:45 p.m. with a VIP Press Reception and a special Silent Auction and cocktail hour offering one-of-a-kind music memorabilia, as well as travel and entertainment packages. The Heroes Awards Dinner and Show begins at 8 p.m. and will recognize the esteemed honorees with VIP presenters and performances. Sponsorship packages and table sales are available by calling the Atlanta Chapter office at 404.816.1380.

   Recipients of the Heroes Award are selected in acknowledgment of the excellence and integrity embodied in their work, as well as their willingness to support and participate in programs benefiting the music community.

Honorees:
   The first of many acts to cement the college town of Athens, Georgia, as a hotbed of alternative music, the B-52's took their name from the southern slang for the mile-high bouffant wigs sported by singers Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, a look emblematic of the band's campy, thrift-store aesthetic. The five-piece group, which also included founding members Fred Schneider, guitarist Ricky Wilson and drummer Keith Strickland, formed in the mid-1970s after an evening at a Chinese restaurant. The band members had little or no previous musical experience and performed most of their earliest shows with taped guitar and percussion accompaniment. After pressing up a few thousand copies of the single "Rock Lobster," the B-52's traveled to the famed Max's Kansas City club for their first paying gig, subsequent appearances at CBGB's brought the group to the attention of the New York press. In 1979, they issued their self-titled debut album, a collection of manic, bizarre, and eminently danceable songs, which scored an underground club hit with a reworked version of "Rock Lobster." The following year, they issued Wild Planet, which reached the Top 20 on the U.S. album charts, and later Mesopotamina. In 1989, the B-52's finally returned with Cosmic Thing, their most commercially successful effort to date, the album launched several hit singles, including the party smash "Love Shack," "Roam" and "Deadbeat Club." In 1990, Cindy Wilson retired from active duty, leaving the remaining trio to soldier on for 1992's Good Stuff. A year later, dubbed the BC-52's, they performed the theme song for Steven Spielberg's live-action feature The Flintstones. Wilson returned to the group for a tour supporting the release of 1998's hits collection Time Capsule and later an anthology in 2002, Nude on the Moon, was released. For years, the B-52’s have supported the AIDS Foundation, Earth Day and PETA, to name a few. A long awaited new album will be released in 2005.

   Charlie Brusco’s early love of rock and roll music has led to one of the industry’s most successful careers in artist management. Brusco discovered and managed The Outlaws, who were the first act signed to Clive Davis’ Arista Records in 1973. His work with this multi-platinum southern rock giant paved the way for his relationship with classic rock radio legend, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and his successful revival of Skynyrd’s career brought other classic rock acts to his door such as Bad Company, Peter Frampton, Survivor, Tesla, John Waite and Styx. Brusco arranged and produced many concerts for the benefit of Jimmy Carter’s campaign and promoted the benefit Amnesty International Concert at the Omni in 1986. After the events of 9/11 he organized Volunteers for America in 2001 and 2002, which benefited the Port Authority Police World Trade Survivor Fund, Port Authority Police and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Educational Fund. Brusco currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

   Mrs. Coretta Scott King is one of the most influential women leaders in our world today. She received a B.A. in music and education from Antioch College in Ohio, and then went on to study concert singing at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music, where she earned a degree in voice and violin. She entered the world stage in 1955 as wife of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and as a leading participant in the American Civil Rights Movement. Mrs. King has traveled throughout our nation and world speaking out on behalf of racial and economic justice, women's and children's rights, gay and lesbian dignity, religious freedom, the needs of the poor and homeless, full-employment, health care, educational opportunities, nuclear disarmament and ecological sanity. For 27 years (1968-1995), Mrs. King devoted her life to developing The King Center. As founding President, Chair, and Chief Executive Officer, she dedicated herself to providing local, national and international programs that have trained tens of thousands of people in Dr. King's philosophy and methods. Mrs. King has carried the message of nonviolence and the dream of the beloved community to almost every corner of our nation and globe. She served as a Women's Strike for Peace delegate to the seventeen-nation Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Switzerland in 1962. She is the first woman to deliver the class day address at Harvard, and the first woman to preach at a statutory service at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. A woman of wisdom, compassion and vision, Mrs. Coretta Scott King has tried to make ours a better world and, in the process, has made history.

   International superstar USHER has sold twenty-four million albums, both domestically and internationally. Notorious for turning out non-stop hits, such as GRAMMY®-winning "U Remind Me," "U Got It Bad" and "U Don't Have To Call", USHER ensures his place as one of today's most successful recording artists. His fourth album, CONFESSIONS debuted No.1 on the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Album charts, setting an astonishing seven soundscan sales records and selling 1.1 million albums the first week. The singer, songwriter, actor and producer has acquired a bevy of awards over the span of his short career, including 2 GRAMMY Awards, 3 Soul Train Music Awards, a BET Award, a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award, 2 Teen Choice Awards, 3 Billboard Music Awards, 3 R&B Hip Hop Conference Awards, 3 ASCAP Awards, a Blockbuster Music Award, not to mention countless other international awards from several countries. In addition, USHER is a blossoming actor who has appeared in such films as Light It Up, The Faculty, She's All That, Disney's Geppetto and Texas Rangers. Usher is involved with the Hughes Spalding Children’s Hospital, Starlight Children’s Foundation, North Georgia Jaguars Athletic Association and his own foundation entitled the New Look Foundation. Also, his tour last year granted wishes for kids of the Make A Wish Foundation in every city that he toured.

   Established in 1957, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., also known as The Recording Academy, is an organization of musicians, producers and other recording professionals, that is dedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers. Internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards, The Recording Academy is responsible for groundbreaking professional development, cultural enrichment, advocacy, education and human services programs ? including the creation of the national public education campaign What’s The Download® ( www.WhatsTheDownload.com . For more information about the Academy, please visit www.grammy.com. 
 
   Established in 1989 by the Recording Academy, MusiCares' mission is to ensure that music people have a compassionate place to turn in times of need while focusing the resources and attention of the music industry on human service issues that directly impact the health and welfare of the music community. MusiCares is dedicated to providing a safety net of critical assistance and to treating each case with integrity and confidentiality. Our programs provide much-needed services and resources to individuals in the music community who are confronted by a wide range of financial, medical and personal emergencies.

   For more information about the Heroes Awards, the Atlanta Chapter or the Recording Academy in general, please visit www.grammy.com.