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    marye
    Joined:
    Here's the place for that story about how you ran into Jerry in the halls of Autodesk. Or some such. Thank you for sharing!

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  • chipwithrow
    Joined:
    Vince at the Cincinnati Zoo
    Summer 96, Vince and Missing Man Formation, JGB, and Airplane/Starship. After Vince's set, he was bopping through the crowd and 2 cool things happened. First, during his set a very, very eager fan was standing on her chair and clapping her hands way up over her head. Very noticeable because she had I think driven away all the people around her. She was a very large woman, very tall too, and she wailed "Vinnieeeeee" during and after every song.Well, after the show, we watched her approach him as he made his way through the crowd. She was obviously so worked up to meet him she could barely talk. He was so kind and patient with her. When he was finished with her, he made his way toward us and my buddy decided to get Vince to sign his ticket stub. So he stopped Vince and Vince waited while my buddy fished through his pockets. He pulled something out and handed it to Vince, who took it, looked at it, and said, "You want me to sign your ... driver's license?" Just a few months before he died. Vince did a mini-tour of SW Fla area bars - I thought I'd be able to catch at least one gig but was unable. But in the weeks before the shows I posted a few times to Vince's web site, mentioned I was a musician myself. Vince answered a few of my posts himself - as he often did - and said to make sure to stop him and say hi and maybe we could jam a bit. And I got the feeling he really meant it too. Vince was a good if not great fit for GD - filling in at a tough time, and often adding rich and beautiful color to the music as he got more and more acclimated. It's a shame that he couldn't see how much he made the world a better, friendlier place. "Got a few wrinkles but that's OK, hang out in the breeze and they'll blow away"
  • Marshun
    Joined:
    a few brushes
    i think i may recall my girlfriend's friend was working at autodesk in 89,90ish and mentioned something about the Jerry visit. my girlfriend at the time was working at an art studio in san rafael and came home one day asking me to guess who? - JG was a potential client of the company that also representeed some other very colorful artists from the 60's / 70's. i've since misplaced a sample postcard she brought home for me. my first sort of brush was second person. i met this girl i'll call carly at an astronomy class in '75/'76. she was wearing a beautiful yellow skull & roses shirt and turned out to be really cool. it turns out she had only been back east for a few months after having lived with someone in the family for a number of years. she had this astounding youthful mid-30's radiance. we hung out . she showed me some pictures of her home in the bay area. carly also understood astrology and she had once been asked by Jerry for an astrological chart. i asked her to try and give me one-word to describe Jerry. she replied "concerned". i lost track of my friend carly and little to my knowledge then, 10 years later would bring me to that beautiful bay area i had seen in carly's pictures. there were a couple more brushes yet waiting around some corner. "sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down"
  • jergirl61
    Joined:
    Jerry
    back in 87 i was in alpine valley and i had bought a jerdoll made by a girl in Florida, anyway, i took it to roanoke later that year and went to Jerry's hotel and waited. and waited. Finally see Anabelle get off the elevator and head to Dad's door, she smiles at me and the doll, brings Jerry over to me and they were both SO Gracious, signed my doll for me and we took the elevator down together. Still take my jerdoll to some shows....
  • SkyDawg
    Joined:
    Bobby At Wal Mart Butterfly Glasses and "Wheres My Palm?"
    I used to work at a Wal Mart store selling electronics which is where I met Bobby Weir not once but twice. The second encounter was the best. My coworker and I spied a Palm Pilot sitting by itself in an empty shopping cart while we were picking up abandoned stuff. I pick it up and feel a tap on my shoulder and I turn around and it's none other than Bobby. He's standing there with one of those looks and I tell him that we were gonna turn it in to lost & found. He just sticks his hand out and I hand it to him. He's telling us he wouldn't know where he was going or what he was going to do without his Palm Pilot. Just then Bobby notices these childrens sunglasses in my hand, another thing I was picking up to put away. They were those kind with the big butterflies or something on the corners of each lense..you know the kind, Anyway he asks for them and I didn't think he was serious but he's saying "no, no I want those" and he's holding them up looking through them, butterfly wings and all with this really silly smirk on his face. He asks me where to find water wings so I tell him and send him on his way with his bizarre little glasses. Just then this friend, this lady who works as store detective comes up to me to shoot the shit and I tell her that theres this fellow she should really keep an eye on heading over to sporting goods acting strangely. She's in plain clothes of course (she's also a biker chick who rides with one of our local clubs) and off she goes stalking her prey. Maybe I shouldn't have sicced the store detectives on Bobby, but then again who could resist such an opportunity to prank Weir? I didn't let on I knew who he was, and I didn't think he was gonna steal anything, but it seemed like the thing to do. Wonder if he knew he was being stalked by a biker chick?
  • tripperb
    Joined:
    The bus came by on 12-7-81
    The bus came by on 12-7-81 in Des Moines, Ia., I got on, that's when it all began.First song-Bertha Last song-Brokedown Palace (Denver 12-1-94) And Leave It On!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Met all the guys (80's lineup) 'cept fer Jer. So I guess my big cheap thrill was heaving a box o' Junior Mints onstage in '82 @ Red Rocks, safely ( I was a few rows back) landing within a couple of feet of Jer. He non-chalantly picked 'em up, put 'em in his back pocket & kept jammin' w/out missing a beat (or note) "gone are the days..."
  • Bobby Ace
    Joined:
    Vinnie...
    So I was doing a show at a place in New Jersey called the Underpass (great place; these guys are big Heads - pics of Jerry and everyone all over the walls) and as it happend it's Jerry's birthday - or would have been, this was in 05 or so. Anywho, it's me and my band and a friend named Lizzie, who popped up later in PLU, and the guys who ran the place had lined up Vince to show up and play a few tunes. We do our set and then i sit at the bar for a beer. Who comes in but Vince freakin' Welnick, and where does he sit but right next to me. So I says to Vince "Hi nice to meet you, I like your playing, can i buy you a beer?" and he says sure. So I buy the guy a Yuengling and we're talking and every two minutes a new beer pops up in front of Vince from people at the bar (It's a big round thing so everyone can see everyone else) and he keeps smiling more and more and looking more and more surprised. Finally I asked him "Does this happen often?" and he says "Never!" We talked a bit more and then I stupidly asked him about the big reunion show (must've ben Comes a Time), which he wasn't invted to, and I said something about Bobby and he got kinda sour and stopped talking. Finally he got up for his set, leaving about six beers behind. He played Shakedown and something else with a pickup band, and that was that. And now I have a good story to share!
  • SirX1970
    Joined:
    robert hunter
    i met robert hunter at a book signing, in boston, when he released "a box of rain" - i think 1990. it was a pretty neat experience, and i saw him and t.c. later that night at the somerville theater. some live tracks from that evening made it onto his commercial release. cool! i met him with my girlfriend hathaway, and he told us that was his grandmothers name. take care!
  • c_c
    Joined:
    more cool stories everyone,
    more cool stories everyone, thanks for sharing! not dead related but I met Maury Anderson once, too... http://www.imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1150/Mptv/1150/2018_0006.jpg.html?path… and Ed Sullivan... oh, never mind. that shit was nothing compared to meeting the boys in the band. ( -; peace. "The highway is for gamblers, you'd better use your sense Take what you have gathered from coincidence"
  • Jack Straw
    Joined:
    wow, Billy in Seaside...i
    wow, Billy in Seaside...i grew up in Toms River, where did they play in Seaside? I once saw the full blow NRPS with Dawson and Nelson in a bar in Seaside in must have been '78 or '79. Think it was called Baby O's back then.
  • Lazy-Supp-Deal
    Joined:
    Early '80s encounters
    Phil on the street outside Yale in New Haven '84, Bobby at the after-show gig for the Seva benefit in Toronto '84, Jerry on the grounds behind Merriweather in '84, and Billy at a Go Ahead gig in Seaside, NJ in '85. What nice guys...
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Here's the place for that story about how you ran into Jerry in the halls of Autodesk. Or some such. Thank you for sharing!
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I went to the first night of the Nov '78 Uptown Theater, Chicago run. It was because I had a car, and the guys wanting a ride were not in my high school, but heck yah! We had mezzanine seats. It was kind of hard to figure out what I had experienced. But, it was really fun, so the next day I had to work and didn't go, but a second friend was there working with me saying he so wanted to go. So, I went to the third night show. A third friend I knew from elementary school and I were scheming ways to make that happen anyways. My buddy scored 4 hits of some greendragon blotters at school. We ate them and headed into the city. By the time I got to the venue I was starting to really get off. We parked in the lot building thinking we were lucky. But, me being a youngster, I bought two more hits of Phoenix Rising blotters just in case. Got in line out on the busy city street sidewalk. Others were selling doses and got arrested right in front of us which was a total feakout. Then a homeless lady about 9 months pregnant was sitting on the curb with a sign that read "anyone want a baby" and an arrow pointing to her belly. Our suburban sensibilities were being tweaked. But, we got into the show because some disco dan and his debutant date that won free tickets on the radio didn't like the deadheads. My buddy got two hits of Mr Natural blotters in the bathroom just in case. We were not saying anything about the extra hits. But, we split them between us not knowing what Phoenix nor Mr Natural was? And we got to our 7th row center seats. 4 hits in my mouth was a bit much. We survived the first set. Man, that was huge! Then the 2nd set started. Scarlet Fire opener was how the bus doors opened. I really did have the telepathic experience with Jerry. He assured me everything was alright and Bobby singing Need A Miracle next confirmed it. Of course Jerry had to mess with me by singing He's Gone before they went into The Other One>Meltdown Jam. Yah, that was it. The Dead never got within 500 miles of me without me twisting and contorting my path towards them. I saw them somewhere in the triple digits worth of shows. Still seeing what's left of them (Dead & Co) at Ak Chin Pavillion PHX 2021 fall tour. It is still so much fun! Happy Trails Campers.

Hello. I am a 21 year old deadhead. I totally understand if you don't want to interview someone who never got the see The Grateful Dead. However, I have been very much involved in the Grateful Dead scene since 2017. I've seen Dead and Company, Bob Weir and the Wolf Bros, Dark Star Orchestra, and JRAD live in concert and have been researching the Dead to improve my knowledge on this wonderful band and music that I love so much. If you are looking to get input from a younger deadhead, I would love to be apart of your series of interviews.

I'd be glad to participate. I have an interesting story about my introduction to the Dead in 1976, and all that happened after that.

our regularly scheduled nonsense to bring you this important service announcement.
Remember to smile, relax, and be kind this extra insane holiday season!
Oh, yeah, and “wash your hands!” (That’s mom from the great beyond lol)

Garciasforest, check your PMs

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My friend Janine slept and didn't get Greek tickets. She said matter of factly "I'll give Jerry a card asking for tickets and I'll get them" So the JGB was playing The Stone in SF. We go to the show, she has the card with a Joint inside.

We walk out, just as Jerry is coming to the limo. I step up, thank him for the show and hand him the card. He thanks us back and off he goes.

She never got tickets. I can't blame Jer. The joint was horrible.

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happy 4/20

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I saw Phil sitting on the F train in NYC, I guess I was coming home from work? It was pretty crowded, I was certainly star struck, and he got off before I could overcome my inertia and just say "thank you." This was maybe summer 2015? Not positive, but there he was, on his own, just another face in the crowd :)

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It was 1974/75 and I was living in upstate New York at Albany. I was running weed from Jamaica. I tracked down Jerry w/ Merle Saunders at the Capitol Theater and met him at the hotel. I went up to speak with him to ask if I could soundboard record them with a new DBX compression device I had. He said, "Get in the limousine and let's talk". I made arrangements to go home and pick up my equipment promising Jerry that I had some great Jamaican weed. At home, I rolled three big blunts and put them in my front shirt pocket. When I got backstage, I asked Jerry is he wanted to smoke some phenomenal weed. "Sure", he said. I reached for my shirt pocket only to realize that I had changed shirts and had NO weed. I was flabbergasted and apologized to Jerry. "No problem," he said. "we'll smoke mine". And we did and all was well.

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Now would be a great time to compile a bunch of interviews from all the generations that have experienced the wonderful music and songwriting of the Grateful Dead. Honestly, when I went to my first show in 1987, I didn't know a single song, maybe Casey Jones or Truckin that might have gotten some airplay. But then I was hooked and now I can sing along with 90% of their songs and play/sing at least a dozen on my guitar.

Hell, John Mayer was a front man for the last 10 years or so and he wasn't born until 1977, and this is a quote from him on FB, "This music has made me a better player, and this band made me a better person. I was given the opportunity of a lifetime - to have access to the greatest songbook in modern music, and the deepest well of life memories shared by hundreds of thousands of Deadheads who extended their grace and acceptance to me?

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I just ran into this site by accident! I’m glad I did. I was a member of the Well back in 1992! I’ve been a fan of the Grateful Dead since 1974! First show was Thanksgiving Day 1978! I was a mentor of the NetHeads still have my t shirt.

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See the Recent posts under the drop down on upper right to join in the fun. Usually the latest release (Dave's Picks 50) and the Pick of the Day have the current discussions.
Cheers