Grateful Dead

dead.net the official site

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....

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?

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..."

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!

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!

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"

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.

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...

Let me tell you my story about an 'encounter', but first grab a cup of coffe (or your preferred beverage) and get comfy, because this will take a little while. Brevity is not my forte', so bear with me on this. The background/ back story is information that will help this all make sense. Back in 1977, my girlfriend (now wife), myself, and two buddies decided to roadtrip from Nebraska to the old Winterland for the New Year's Eve shows in SanFran. I toted along with us a clay scupture that I had made the prior year. It was a one and 1/2 foot (in circumference) dragon that was biting/consuming it's own tail. I had 'scraffitto' (carved designs) into the entire beast's 'hide' and then it was fired and stained. It was the biggest piece of clay sculpture that I have ever made. And I thought it would be fun to give it to the band on New Years. So away we go, get to the venue and secured tickets for the run (12/27-29-30-31-77). The shows were unbefuckinliveable (see DP # 10) and Winterland was a great hall (but I'll save that for another time and thread). But on the 31st, we were sitting on the sidewalk waiting for the doors to open, talking and watching the circus, ready to hurry and get in for the 'activities' ie. freak volleyball and Bill Graham was going to show us movies (Ray Bradbury's Illustrated Man and the original Beatles Magical Mystery tour) before that evening's show. I thought "I better try to unload the dragon aka 'oroboros' now, it's heavy and I don't want to try to talk my way though the front gate with it." I spied a door that said 'Backstage' and began knocking on the door. No answer. The line of people on the side walk started getting up and moving toward the enterance. Banged even harder thinking "I've got to get this dragon in there so I can go in the front and join in before the show", and as I pounded harder, the door yanks open so hard that it yanks me into the doorway. This doorway is immediately filled with a gigantic black man in a red event t-shirt, who puts his hand on my chest and leans forward and bellows "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" Startled, I held out the dragon with both hands and stuttered "to give this to the band". The giant took it in his immense hand and his face curls into a grin as he held it closer to inspect it and I watched my dragon shrink to the size of a key chain. He exclaimed "Wow, what is this, I'd like one" and I explained "it's an oroboros and that is the only one there is." He grinned and said "Cool, who do you want me to give it to?" and I said "to Garcia, give it to Jerry Garcia." The giant disapeared as quickly as he appeared and the door slammed shut like the the first time Dorothy tried to get into the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz. So, I happily gain entrance to the show and needless to say, it was something, volleyball followed by the movies, the colorful/wonderful crowd, 'rainbow' Rose with an eyedropper of liquid party favor "just one dollar per drop. On your tongue or for the adventurous, a drop in your eye" (I could go on and on, but gotta stick to the background story). Oh and when each person walked through the entrance the staff handed us a piece of paper that had a message about a "surprise at midnight". The New Riders of the Purple Sage started the show and rocked the house. Anticipation was high and the Dead came out for the first set. Awesome, and then I noticed when the house lights went down, and the stage lights went dark inbetween songs, I saw it. On top of a monitor, inbetween Billy and Mickey, there was a flame, it was a white candle sitting in front of a dragon consuming it's tail. It was oroboros, ON STAGE WITH THE DEAD! I watched as Jerry walked over and lit a cig off the candle. They took a break and the surprise for the second half was Uncle BoBo (as Bobby liked to call Graham) dressed up as Uncle Sam on a motorcycle sliding down on a cable suspended high from the back of the hall to the stage. They put spotlights on him as he approached the stage and it ws hilarious as he came to the stage, the weight of the bike and BoBo was too much and the stage hands had to drag him onstage and then the explosion of Sugar Mag, complete with dropping ballons and baby New Years (male and female). I was 'sittin' on top of the world (Dead reference intended). What a night!! We walked out into the cool San Francisco early morning and drove through the fog (!) back to Nebraska. This is not the end of the tale. Fast forward to another road trip to Madison, Wisc. on 2-3-78. The Dead were on a roll (see DP # 18) and it was a killer show. The next morning before I left the hotel, I got a wild hair and called the front desk and asked "Could I have Jerry Garcia's room please?" and the phone rang and Jerry answered! I said "Hey, I'm the guy that brought the dragon to the New Year's show" and Garcia said "Meet you in the coffee shop in 20 minutes". I couldn't believe what was happening but stumbled into the coffee shop at the appointed time and looked around and saw Jerry Garcia seated at a table with a ravishingly beautiful raven-haired gypsy woman. I walked over and introduced myself, and 'shook the hand, that shook the hand, of PT Barnum and Charlie Chan'. Jerry beamed that smile and gestured and said "sit down, man". He asked me "How did you fire that dragon so that it didn't expode in the kiln?" and I explained how I had cut it in half and hollowed it and joined it back together. I told him how I had used a guitar string to 'halve it" and we locked eyes at that moment and he burst into laughter and I said "Ironic, huh?" and Jerry quiped "No, man that makes perfect sense." And then we laughed some more. Then the gypsy/beauty said "where are you from?" and I replied Nebraska. And she shot Garcia a glance and stated "he came all the way up here from Nebraska to see the band!" To which Jerry shrugged his shoulders and retorted "we didn't ask him to come" and looked at me and we both howled with laughter again. No deadhead was she. We talked more about art and the dragon and I didn't know at that time of Garcia's interest and practice in art (this kind anyway). He was completely engaged in the topic of art, but quick witted with 'turn on a dime' twists, turns, and little commentaries on a variety of topics. Jerry was also focused on listening, not acting like he was the important one, giving me time and locked in on our discussion and talking about our shared intersets. The gypsy woman frowned in disbelief as she asked me "You went out to San Francisco for New Years and then came to Wisconson" and I said yes and then I turned to Garcia and asked him "Why don't you come back to Lincoln, Nebraska?" He said "You mean to Perishing Auditorium?" and I corrected him "No, it is Pershing Auditorium, after the army general" and he quickly retorted "No man, it was perishing really!" And we burst out laughing again. At that Lincoln, Ne. Dead show on 2-26-73, there were a bunch of drunk frat boys yelling 'boogie, boogie" at the top of their lungs, but that show is topnotch! ( a DP, really great show) Anyway, I asked Garcia "could you bring the Dead back to Nebraska" and Jerry grinned that chesire cat grin and said "who knows?" I took my leave (their breakfast arrived) and drove home. Then that summer the Dead came back to Omaha, Ne. on 7-5-78, and I taped them with my NAK 550 in FOB, and followed them to their/my first Red Rocks shows. So that is my story, Jerry Garcia was totally gracious, engaging, enthusiastic, and kind to a deadhead who approached him at one moment in time. The truth is realized in an instant, the Act is practiced step by step.

I met Brent after a New Orleans show in '88 (the Bangles had done two encores with the boys that night). I was right behind him entering a bar on Bourbon St. and sat next to him. I first asked him if he'd gotten into the show that night, to which he got a chuckle out of. He was with a buddy (on the other side of him) and I enjoyed some light conversation with him over a few drinks. The other 'heads in there were real respectful of his space. He actually borrowed a couple bucks for a drink and I called him on it pre-show the next show in Houston (I think it was Houston). He turned into the stands from the stage smiled a friendly smile. Vince used to play around Denver often in my friend's bars and would usually hang out for a few drinks in the afternoon before the shows. Very personable and blended right in with the rest of us freaks. T.C. played once too at one of the bars. A bit aloof. I've met Phil a few times at blood drives around Denver, too. Always gracious, as well. Had the pleasure of light and brief conversation with Mickey a bunch of years ago when he was promoting one of his Planet Drum books.