Article Contributed by Sacks and Company
Published on February 11, 2026
Photo by Chris Marden
Farm Aid announced today that Americana award-winning artist Nathaniel Rateliff has joined its Board of Directors. After a unanimous vote, Rateliff will work alongside founders Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp, fellow artist board members Dave Matthews and Margo Price, and a team of industry professionals. Rateliff is the third artist to be added to Farm Aid’s Board since its original founding.
“Farm Aid has made a huge impact on me,” Rateliff shared. “It is always one of my favorite events of the year. It is an honor and a privilege to join my heroes and peers as a Farm Aid board member. I look forward to working together to continue educating the public on the struggles family farmers face and to raise money to support them for a better future.”
The Farm Aid Board has guided the organization for 40 years, working year-round to build an agricultural system that values family farmers, good food, healthy soil and water, and strong rural communities. Deeply committed to Farm Aid’s mission, the Board artists anchor the annual festival — an event that offers unforgettable music while also raising critical funds, growing public awareness, celebrating family farmers and galvanizing support for them across the country. These artist-leaders stay closely connected to the people and places they support, elevating the voices of farmers from diverse backgrounds and using their own voices to amplify the urgent issues shaping the future of agriculture.
Rateliff is a steadfast ally of Farm Aid, first performing for Farm Aid’s community of loyal supporters at Farm Aid Eve in 2013 and then returning repeatedly to the stage since 2016. Over the years, he has shown up not just as a performer, but as an advocate off the main stage, appearing frequently as a featured speaker on the FarmYard Stage and lending his voice through interviews, podcasts and other opportunities to elevate the organization’s mission.
Raised in Hermann, Missouri, and now based in Colorado, Rateliff has long felt a deep connection to the land and the people who steward it. His music career began playing drums in his family’s church band. Following a decade of performing mostly as a folk-inspired solo act, Rateliff formed the rock outfit Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats. Since their 2015 self-titled breakthrough album, the band has established themselves as generational talents through their dynamic live performances and growing catalog of essential studio recordings, including Platinum and Gold RIAA certifications.
After The Night Sweats first played Farm Aid in 2016, Rateliff immediately knew that it was a place he wanted to return to year after year. Since then, he has only leaned further into the work, using the annual festival not only as a performance opportunity but as a space to learn — especially about the challenges farmers face and the vital role they play in sustaining their communities. That ongoing experience helped spark a deeper conversation within his own team and ultimately inspired the creation of The Marigold Project, his foundation dedicated to funding strategies that confront income inequality, boost civic engagement, expand equitable access to growing and eating good food, and advance gender and racial justice.
For more information on Farm Aid’s Board of Directors, visit: farmaid.org/about-us/board-and-staff.
Farm Aid’s mission is to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. Farm Aid artists and board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Margo Price host an annual festival to raise funds to support Farm Aid’s work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family farm food. Since 1985, Farm Aid, with the support of the artists who contribute their performances each year, has raised more than $90 million to support programs that help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms.
