Following Garcia’s death in 95, I stepped away from the entire scene for nearly a decade. I began to pull away, beginning in 93, when my habits started taking more from me than they could ever give me. I got clean in May of 1993 and life began to change a lot for me. After more than a decade of being largely absent from the scene that shaped me, I began listening to many of my favorite moments all over again. All of a sudden, this mind that had been mostly absent from the environment, began to reference the files from my times on the road in incredibly lucid detail. As I began writing and sharing about them I was constantly encouraged by many of those in our community to write a book.
I’m in the process of writing and really hope to produce something that is as unique as possible while sharing the same things we ALL experienced, often being previously beyond description. In writing, I’ve found a way to truly reconnect in a way I didn’t think possible with the most treasured and formative years of my life.
I hope to be able to pass the things we all have felt and perhaps forgot about, back into the lives of those people that hold the memories so dear. I’m not a full time writer so it may take a little bit longer than I’d like but I look forward to presenting the community with something we can all use to bring the experience intimately back and awaken lost tracks in our neurology with the same kind of emotion we experienced on those Magical Nights in Grateful Dead Land.
Stay tuned…
I am looking forward to your book. i too had to step away from the scene as my addiction had me hung. and when I got clean, the music brought me back , triggers, love, loss… I now can listen to the music hear those words and they enter my soul… a relatonship I do not believe can happen as close as this.. Thank you GD and all the family who showed me a aweseom community of love, richness, and life….. Peace…
Good job getting clean!!! 22 Years completely drug and alcohol free for me!
Awesome…22 years is an absolute miracle! I too lost my music through my addiction…as ultimately, addiction stole my soul and spirituality and to me…music and specifically the Grateful Dead’s music was my spirituality. I got into recovery in 2000 and started seeing shows again with a clean eye….all of was pure magic. But I look forward to your book because you have been given a gift. I truly have not laughed as much since finding your blog…and you’re also on heck of dancer! Thank you for your contribution!
Looking forward to enjoying more of your writing. You have a great gift for expressing the IT of the grateful dead experience in print.
Sober head here, never got to see Garcia in my sobriety. Wouldn’t change a thing.
Gratefully yours,
Josh
Hey, I would love to see this book produced. Our stories are very much parallel and Weir not alone. I started overplaying my part in ’02 through the love of my family (you) I was asked to ask for help then as I found that to be very difficult. I was giving ultimatum by my traveling musician friends boss’s yellow jackets, etc. I had a lot of learning to do about everything. After doing the entire year with (WSP) I knew I was still unhappy not high. So I dropped of the face of jam band and my family. Only the music stayed with me. I came home summer ’14. Educated with room to grow. Where one time it was ego with room to fall. Amazing how beautiful the feeling of twirling to tunes I’d missed live sooo.
Love, Stanlee Mouse
When I was 28 back in 1965,I used to go to a downtown upstairs gay bar called the Rendezvous at 567 Sutter St. in San Francisco. The manager of the bar was looking for ways to attract a younger crowd from Berkeley and Stanford on Sundays and wanted to change their Sunday Sing-a-long. So he hired a couple of local bands to alternate for a month. One of the bands was the “Neighborhood Children” and the other was “The Grateful Dead”. There was no cover charge and beer in a bottle cost 25 cents. Hank, the manger was content when about 40+ showed up. A short time later I was able to see the “Dead” at free concerts in Golden Gate Park and on Haight Street. The cost of an one ounce lid of grass was $7.! I recall going to see them at the Oakland Coliseum’s Day on the Green and all tickets were $8. and there were 60,000 in the house. I moved back to Chicago in the late 1980s and became a fixture at Wrigley Field. I met a lot of Dead Heads in the bleachers. In 1995, the last time the Dead played there, the cheapest seat was $55. however they sold out in hours and to buy one from a scalper, you almost had to file for bankruptcy! However I am grateful that in the beginning the better things in life were FREE!
How did i not know of this blog before? Your story mirrors mine. I got away from the scene after I got sober 1/2/1990 went to a few shows in the early 90’s but Brent dying a few months after I got sober had me basically off the bus until The Other Ones convened. (2001 ish). Since then I have enjoyed the music of The Dead, Ratdog, Phil & Friends, Rhythm Devils, 7 Walkers and Furthur. Of my heavy touring years 1984-1988 I wished I had documented my tours and experiences, held onto ticket stubs, etc. I don’t remember all the shows I attended. Things like Pfantasy tour didn’t exist. Thankfully there exists the Dead Listening Blog and the social media groups that allow me to remember those trips down the rabbit hole into face melting bliss. I have now seen PHISH more then I saw the Grateful Dead with Jerry I have contributed to a Phish Blog and the Upstate Music Blog. But of my GD tour years there are still a lot of Blank Spaces where my mind should be (to quote a phish song).
I cannot wait. I LOVE your writing. I have not read one thing you have written that didn’t bring a smile to my face.
Deadtrip
Grateful Dean,
You helped shape the 2nd gen’ers, imo and being one ) I would not have approached you, or longed to be backstage, etc; in the late 80’s or early 90’s. Just shakin’ my bones, without much cares except where my crew is meeting up and next round of gas. Causes were grassroots, not INC. Life was somewhat different.
I, like you, took the path of dropping out of tuning in and turning on A few Jerry band and varieties of dead, like Further along the way, til the Dead starting comin’ around again. Now, they have woke the sleeping heads. Like you, the memories rush, the excitement of life again fills the mind, and the body is yearning to get on the road again. It is not the same path. We have grown, changed and been changed. Many of our brothers and sisters sit in prisons, or gone from this timeline. I could easily write a book, but glad to see you are on it! Much Love~ “good vibes”~
My Love to you!
This is a great idea. I get the same vibe occasionally, and a lot of the stories maybe things that could have happened even with out the band being the soundtrack, while others couldn’t. For ever they will be part of us, and for the most part, people who hang around this scene get better with time. They get insight into things most people never think of. Its like when you go to AA and really start thinking about what Grateful or Gratitude means or is. Life gets better with time and being alcohol free helps too. As we learned from South Park, drugs are bad.
When I was in high school or so I put a tape label on my speaker that said “Kaiser NYE 1999.” At that time it seemed like such a long way away, it was just a weird fantasy I’d be with the band at NYE 1999,and Jerry too. Anyways here we are, having fun planning to go to shows that don’t exist, spilling water on new heads and watching Bob mellow with age and survive the demise of his best friend.
Its great to know that something like this is and was possible. This is what life is all about.
Thanks, and remember there are 1000 hits in a book.
-Shaun
Any updates on your book?