Joan Baez Performs Benefit Show With Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt

Joan Baez retired from touring in 2019, but you can still catch the folk icon on special occasions — and in February 2025, the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund will honor her with a benefit concert.

Taking place Feb. 8 at San Francisco’s Masonic Auditorium, Baez will perform alongside Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Morello, Lucinda Williams, Hozier, Margo Price, Rosanne Cash, Taj Majal, Joe Henry and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. The tickets go on sale on Friday.

The announcement of the event arrives on the cusp of the release of James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biography A complete unknownwhich chronicles Dylan’s life from 1961 to 1965 (at times deviating from the historical record). In our latest Rolling Stone cover story about the film, Monica Barbaro talked about portraying Baez. “Her life is so much more significant than just the role it played in Bob’s life,” Barbaro said. “She deserves her own biopic, limited series, whatever.”

In 2024, Baez made several appearances on stage, including last summer’s Newport Folk Festival—the very festival she made her live debut at in 1959. At the annual event in July, she sang the band’s “The Weight” with Hozier and Mavis Staples, as well as “America the Beautiful.” In February, she covered Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” at New York’s Tibet House benefit with Maggie Rogers.

“I’m more happy with the phrase ‘retiring from touring’ rather than ‘retiring’ because for most people it has a kind of ‘yuck’ to it,” she shared Rolling Stone in 2019. “I can’t handle that as a word. I think the most important thing for me will be the painting because it’s pretty well established now that I’m on my way to doing it. That’s not why I decided to stop touring, but when I look at it, I’m like, ‘Oh, boy, this is what I get to do now without the interruptions.’ I’ve never spent a lot of time doing nothing, which I think is quite important, especially at my age, and kind of considering what’s coming. In this culture, we spend most of our time trying to avoid it. I would like to have a more Buddhist approach.”