Grateful Dead

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i was raised going to church every sunday and am very grateful for this for it put in motion this whole journey. Music is special in my family, we have a really nice stereo that was custom made, only two in the world and my aunt and uncle have the other one! now someone handed me a joint when i was 14 and then LSD at 15 and things got very interesting, this was in the late 60's when the cost of a concert ticket was under 5 dollars, well, i saw them all,cream, hendrix,doors, yes, dylan n the band, small faces, you name it, well, my friends and i began dosing once a week and sometimes going places and times staying home and sharing records, listening while flying and we all came to the same conclusion that the Grateful Dead were the best music to trip with...very comfortable and way high, i mean... the dead took us on journeys you would not believe. After spending a few years in big sur i started traveling to the california shows to see the shows and be with all the beautiful people, and you are all so beautiful, my spirit took a big jump in 89, i went down to the riverchurch in big sur... well... went in to have a word with the lord and he told me to get out of that building and come down to the river. this had never happened before though i stopped going to church when i was 15, i felt ok in a "house " of the lord, but this day,i sat down in what turned out to be stickers... and i had lots of them in my hands and looked up and cried to God whats it all about and this light appeared, Way brighter than the sun and the stickers just fell out of my hands and i heard a childs voice across the river in the redwoods say Jesus. When word got out, before i new it i was at shoreline and these two angels came to me with this crystal, now i was two feet off the ground for the river experience, these fellows let me hold this crystar and i first felt like a flag on a windy day, but made sure of my footing came another foot higher! The Grateful Dead to me is, was, and always will be Gods House Band, they are the Only Band That i know of and at 56...i know i'm a youngster and i feel like one too and i am just learning but there is alot more going on than what society is willing to deal with but guess what.. Hey Now, i say its time for alittle changing of the guards as it were, Love With All Your Hearts EveryLiving Thing in Gods Creation, Help Save this Earth from the poisoning of our air and water and help clean this counties karma by shuting down the war machine, one planet, spinning around the sun, loving all,all loving, Remember... Love Is IT. this is why the Dead is Gods house band and i know i Love Everyone of you, so the next furthur show buy an extra ticket so evryone gets in and God Bless You All, see you at the shows... my church!

When I was 22 years old I flew to Richmond, Indiana to visit my girlfriend for Valentine's day. It was a nice trip, filled with fun and love, (You don't know how easy it is to love you!) But I was ill for all of the three days I was there. Upon returning home to Palo Alto I went from bad to worse. I was very fatigued, I couldn't eat and turned a very ugly yellow-grey color. After a misdiagnosis of hepatitis and collapsing in a blackout at my mom's home I was taken by ambulance to Stanford Hospital and then to Valley Medical in San Jose. I had no medical insurance ( The people might know, but the people don't care that a man can be as poor as me.) It was four days with a failing liver, five blood transfusions, dozens of blood draws and top doctors not knowing what was wrong with me. "Did you eat any mushrooms?" "Well, not any poisonous ones lately!" Even though I was fading fast, I kept some faith that I wouldn't die ( . . . I will get by, I will survive). Day five in the hospital - I'm now a sickly yellow-green-grey and down 25 pounds to 118. That day an intern saw copper ring deposits on my cornea and made the diagnosis: Wilson's Disease! A very rare genetic disorder where you don't metabolize copper and it stores in your liver causing neurological problems and death. Without a new liver I'd be brain dead in 48 hours. And all this time my mom thought brain death was CAUSED by the Dead! I was transferred up to California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, where one of the top transplant teams in the nation awaited me and hoped for a miracle matching liver. As I was lying in the back of the ambulance for the drive from San Jose to San Francisco I thought ". . . I'll just take a little rest." (To lay me down, one last time, to lay me down). I awoke two days later in the ICU at California Pacific sore as I've ever been with tubes coming out of everywhere and hallucinating like crazy due to the lack of liver function and ammonia build up in my blood. I saw monkeys coming out of the ceiling and demon heads staring at me from shelves. "Good thing I took all that acid or I'd be pretty freaked out right now!" A woman in Modesto crashed her car two days earlier. She happened to be 22 years old, she happened to have A- blood (1 in 16 chance) and she happened to have Spanish heritage. She was a perfect match and I now have her liver (There she goes and now here he starts - hear him cry!) My girlfriend came to San Francisco to bury me or heal me (When I had no wings to fly, you flew to me, you flew to me, to me). I had the same doctors who gave Stanley Mouse his new liver. My friend, Kathy, brought me my walkman and the first music I heard was Live Dead from Shoreline 8-18-91. First song: Samson and Delilah. One of my favorites because it's a great story about a man being made weak and then gaining strenth and rising up again. Check out this show - it's a great one from the Welnick/Hornsby days. I had not bathed in three weeks and the first shower I took was incredible (Will not speak, but stand inside the rain and listen to the thunder shout: I am, I am, I am . . . I AM!) I can't put into words the gratitude I have for her and for all organ donors (. . . Statements just seem vain, at last - some rise, some fall, some climb to get to Terrapin) (I love you more than words can tell) so I just share my life and my story with those I love and with strangers I meet, knowing it wouldn't be possible without her donation of love and hoping it will help to create more organ donations and save more lives. And consider we wouldn't have Phil, Mouse or David Crosby without organ donations! I now have a wonderful wife (whom I met seven years reborn), two young daughters (. . . Where does the time go?) and a beautiful scar on by belly that reminds me how lucky I am and how prescious life is. So fill out those donation cards! Don't leave this world without giving your body to those who need it. (Everybody's playing in the heart of gold band). You can LITERALLY create life with your death (One man gathers what another man spills). Personally, when my time comes (When you hear that song - comes crying like the wind) I plan to give this liver to someone who really needs it and s/he can live and love one more day and feel the gratitude I do (Here comes sunshine!) Much love to you all!

my first and best memories of lisening to the dead we`re with my uncle joe. He started me at the age of 5 , from playing dead music with his band in the garage in my back yard to bringing me to concerts in jersey. He would send me postcards from the many places he had been following the band around and telling me he wishes i was there but my mom would`nt let me go he was many things to me a father that i really never had , a first friend , one day he had called me on christmas telling me how much he missed me a could`nt wait to tell me all about he adventures with the band but it never happened becaues on january 19, 1993 they found him dead of an overdose he was only 40 yrs. old i am 44 now i still miss him alot but when i hear the dead it does`nt make me sad well maybe a little it brings a smile to my face because i know he`s there next to me dancing his dacnce keeping an eye on me, i have a tattoo on my back a tribute to him and the greatful dead your band made a great person very happy and i could never repay you for that thank you from the bottom of my heart.