The others honored with the annual award are Canadian singer Leonard Cohen, blues musician David "Honeyboy" Edwards, country star Loretta Lynn, pianist Andre Previn, fluegelhorn player Clark Terry and the late singer Bobby Darin.
Over the years, Jackson won 13 Grammys and scored 17 No. 1 singles in the United States, and his 1982 "Thriller" is the highest-selling album of all time.
The Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammys, will honor the lifetime achievement winners at an invitation-only event on January 30, the day before the Grammy Awards are handed out in Los Angeles.
Past winners of the lifetime achievement award include Frank Sinatra, Smokey Robinson, B.B. King and Bob Dylan.
Jackson died at age 50 in June, from an overdose of powerful medications. His death is still the subject of a criminal investigation.
Separately, the Recording Academy said on Friday that "The Climb," by 17 year-old Disney star Miley Cyrus, has been withdrawn from the Grammy category of Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media.
The academy said Walt Disney Records informed them that "The Climb," written by Jessi Alexander and Jon Mabe, was not written specifically for Cyrus' star vehicle "Hannah Montana: The Movie," as the academy had previously thought.
"The Climb" was replaced with "All is Love," a song from this year's movie "Where the Wild Things Are" that was written by Karen O and Nick Zinner of the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Jill Serjeant)
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