The Strangest of Places?

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May 29, 2007 - 9:51am

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marye

Joined:
May 26, 2007

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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March 9, 2009 - 1:41am

#61

Jim Vaughn

Joined:
June 19, 2007

Robert Hunter,et. al.

We used to run into Hunter in Safeway in Guerneville, usually wandering around looking for some late night snacks. Terrance McKenna used to frequent the general store in Occidental as well. He liked "Cherry Garcia" (tm). His license plate on his old blue Ford said "NNDMT"! We have a picture from the paper in Sebastopol of Mickey with my wife & our (then) baby daughter Cassady Rose at the bookstore. I got to say hello to Jerry at the last Grateful Dead show I attended in Eugene in 1993. Last song he sang that day was "Liberty"...
January 19, 2009 - 3:06pm

#62

spindancer

Joined:
January 18, 2009

don't be a dick

The only time I met Jerry was very brieflly at the Aladin Casino in Vegas. The whole band was checking in and I just said Hi and thanks and good to see you and left them alone. After the show at maybe four in the morning, though, I was trying to get a beer at the casino when Bill the drummer showed up and stood right next to me. A guy on the other side of him asked what he wanted and he said something about Jack (I think), so I said, "You shouldn't be drinking whiskey at this hour; you need to play tomorrow." He gave me a dirty look and walked away. It was a struggle the next night at some amphitheater south of LA - what was that place called? Anyway, I couldn't tell if it was the band or just me or both, but it seemed a slow show, and I damn near slept through it. Here's another don't be a dick story. I was outside Oakland Aud. the year they started playing Althea and Sailor/Saint, etc. Weir drives up and a small group are standing around talking with him when some guy yells, "Hey, Bobby, don't play Lost Sailor tonight!" It was NYE and I think they had already played it two or three times in the last four shows. They played it again that night.
January 1, 2009 - 7:36am

#63

blackknife

Joined:
January 1, 2009

I used to work security back

I used to work security back in the day. the first show I ever worked was the boys at the Providence Civic Center early 80's. I worked the pit, right in front of Bobby. After the show I ran into Micky backstage, and that was it. At a Bobby & the Midnites show at The Living Room in Providence I worked the dressing room door after the show. I ended up sneaking in after things calmed down and hanging out with the 2 Bobbys, and partying with Kenny Gradney for most of the night. Prolly a year later at Lupos Kingfish played, and Billy was drumming for them. It was early, and he was just standing there outside the dressing room door, so I went up & shook his hand. We talked for about a minute and that was that. I never got to meet Jerry, Phil, or Brent unfortunately
December 14, 2008 - 2:16am

#64

laughing jap

Joined:
December 13, 2008

I became friends with the

I became friends with the band and Ramrod so they informed me about which shows were the good ones to attend while the band was on the road. Ramrod would give me his employee pass to use. About the only thing they actually liked about playing shows in the bay area was they were easy to get to for the most part. They liked NYC and Red Rocks the best. So knowing not to go to the first few shows or the last few shows of a tour was something I had learned. I'd go to Chicago because they always would have a couple nights off without travel and they liked staying at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Once when I was checking in there this guy wearing chrome reflective sun glasses, a Cubs baseball hat, and a Grateful Dead tee shirt bumps into me in the lobby but I ignored him for the most part and looked at the girl that was with him. Next thing this guy bumps into me again and somewhat harder than the first time, I probably said something to him but don't remember what. Then this guy bumps me again and says "It's me Weir, I'm just testing out my disguise" and tells me he's going to go jogging with his girlfriend and hang out in a nearby park where a bunch of Deadheads are chilling on a summer afternoon before the show that evening. Another time I went to the US Festival and got up early Sunday morning to try and hitch a ride to the show from the hotel. As I was walking down the hall Garcia came out of his room, the two of us nodded at each other, didn't say much if anything and we just walked out the backdoor together not knowing what to really expect around 7:30 AM. Some guy neither one of us have ever seen before comes rushing over and says "everybody else has left, you two are the last ones and there are only 4 seats in the last helicopter leaving this morning, 1 for the pilot, 1 for the copilot, and 2 seats for you guys in the back" This guy probably though I was Jerry's manager or something. Jerry knew exactly what was going down and went right along with the program as we both climbed in the back of the helicopter. Neither one of us said one word to the flight crew or each other the whole flight. Jerry didn't like being up at 7:30 am and having to go for a helicopter ride one bit and I wasn't going to piss him off even more by saying something lame. Later after the show I hung out for a while and then caught a ride back in a hotel shuttle van. The van driver was a young kid and there were two women wearing white dresses, white gloves, and white summer hats and myself riding back to the hotel together. I think U2 was playing at that point but I'd never heard of them. About half way back to the hotel the kid runs the van out of gas, says he's very very sorry and tells us he will go and try and get some gas if we don't mind staying and watching the hotel's van. This kid was really freaked out and I hadn't flashed on the whole situation as to why he was so nervous. The girls tell him that's fine we don't mind at all. Don't worry, we're cool here and besides we don't have to be back to perform until much later tonight. Oh ya, Fleetwood Mac is the closing act and now I realize I'm sitting in a van that's out of gas with Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie somewhere near Ontario, Ca through no fault of my own. luckily no drummers were there. I wasn't sure if they both hated the Grateful Dead or not so I never mentioned anything on that level. They told me they hadn't wanted to hang out at the hotel all afternoon with the rest of Fleetwood Mac so they had come out to the show site just to check it out and kill some time. When we got back to the hotel in Ontario, Bear is in the parking lot doing something to his MG that he was trying to sell to Mick Fleetwood and I just troted right past him with Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie on our way to the lounge. Of course on other occasions things didn't go exactly like that day, like the time security kicked Brent and myself out at the Oakland Auditorium between the 2nd and 3rd sets on New Years eve once. Brent wanted to walk down the street to the nearest bar that time but I convinced him we should try and sneak back in which wasn't easy to do on New Years Eve! 10-4
December 3, 2008 - 10:29am

#65

starsleeper

Joined:
March 12, 2008

not really an encounter...

but it was the closest interaction I ever had with a band member. Was at a Bobby & The Midnites show at a bar in Reseda, Ca., 1984 I think, and I was packed up against the front of the stage and Billy K. was doing the drumming. I don't remember who the leadguitarist was but he was quite good and during the last song he played a lead that just started tears running down my face. After the song Billy looked at me and threw me one of his drum-sticks and that just made me feel on top of the world. Sadly, I don't have the stick anymore but I've always thought highly of Billy for that one kind act.
November 5, 2008 - 10:20pm

#66

Mr.Skjellyfetti

Joined:
October 8, 2007

Jerry & the moped!!

Ok kidz I got a few stories of meeting different band members:Met up with Jer in San Rafael, I think it was around 1992, he was riding a moped about 3 blocks from Club Le Front. We followed him to an ice cream store( I think it was Baskin & Robins) Pulled in the spot next to him and waved, he smiled and waved back than proceeded to get his treat. We waited and snapped a picture as he rode off smilin' and eating his cone. Same year, Jer literally knocked me down as he was leaving the rear of the wharfield after the JGB gigs. It was dark, and I had my back to the door as I was tryin' to light a bowl. He said,"sorry man", and hopped into his beemer. Had drinks with Brent in Hamilton Ontario at the Hilton Hotel Bar ( he was smashed and told us he loved us). Saw Billy at the grace slick art opening in SF, chatted w/him for about 5 min about her artwork. Talked with Bobby after the x-mas benefit @ New Georges Nightclub in San Rafael w/sammy hagar, He was trashed and I helped him into his ride! He said afterward,"don't I know you?" The list goes on... You gotta figure that after all those years and shows you're gonna bump into them sometime. LOL... Boy life was crazy back then
June 9, 2008 - 10:46pm

#67

Dan Weaver

Joined:
June 26, 2007

T.C. likes Phish

I got to meet Tom Constanten at a Phish show at the Cow Palace, November of '96. He was sitting a few rows behind me. I said hello during the set break and he gave me an autographed promo card for his Dose Hermanos CD! Nice guy.
April 24, 2008 - 1:39am

#68

Tom Mittemeyer

Joined:
April 13, 2008

Philly Spectrum 9/8/88 with Billy on the loading dock...

There's a bit of intro here before I get to the story..... I met my friend Stuart Kaplan (now Dr. Stuart Kaplan) in line for tickets in early 1986 in Northern Virginia (outside of D.C.). We chatted it up good and he told me about his thousands of hours of soundboards, etc. Sooo, I finally had one of the best tape sources going. Lucky me! ; ) Stu and I became good friends, and his wife Stacy became good friends with my wife Kristen (now ex wife). We did a lot of things together, went to shows together, etc. Even our first born children were born less than a month apart. Stacy worked for Four Seasons Hotels and when the Dead would play DC they stayed there. She was "in charge" of making sure that they were all well accomodated. During the 86 RFK run, Stacy and Stu befriended Stacy Kreutzmann and her dad, Bill the drummer. ; ) They also got to know Dennis McNally, Candice Brightman and a few others. From then on they were pretty much "on the list." Stu invited me to go with him and one of his other friends (can't recall his name) to the Friday night show at the Spectrum, which was a little over 2 hours by car from DC. He said that all was set up for tickets and backstage passes. I'm like, "YES!" So we get to the Spectrum and go to will call and sure enough, tickets and passes are there for us, and FREE to boot. I was all smiles. At will call they told us to enter the arena from the loading dock area, so we walked around the place and got there, and it was roped off and secured by a couple of Spectrum henchmen. Stu is talking to these guys and it is becoming rather heated as they are refusing us even though we have backstage patches stuck to our shirts. After a few minutes of getting nowhere (Specturm security always were as_holes) there is a voice coming from down at the bottom of the loading dock, and the voice say's, "let those guys in, i'm in the band." It was Billy. ; ) We walk down and Billy is like, "hey Stu, good to see you man." And we thanked him for showing up, and he sat and talked with the 3 of us for about 15 minutes. Stu's buddy asked him if he wanted to smoke a doob with us and Bill said, "oh no, I can't go onstage stoned, I don't do that anymore." We laughed about that one considering they were at one time the "acid test house band." Anyway, Bill was a great guy, treated us all as equals, and during the set break, we all hung out in the reception room having some grub and beverages and I got to actually chat with him one on one for awhile. The only other band member who was in there at the time was Bob, who was leaning against a wall looking like a complete space cadet, not talking to anybody. I was fortunate to go backstage many times thanks to Stuart, and aside from this particular instance, getting a massage backstage during drums at Compton Terrace in 1990 was pretty bomb indeed. ; ) Thanks for reading. Go Grateful Dead! Go Bill Kreutzmann, thanks for being cool and down to earth. ~Tom ( The AllTomMitt Drawing Machine)
March 31, 2008 - 9:52am

#69

TriciaPaLynn

Joined:
June 5, 2007

of all places

I love all of these stories! Here is mine: While working at The Nature Company in 1992 I volunteered to work a book signing of "Panther Dream" with Bobby and Wendy Weir. I tried to talk to them at the table, Bobby was fairly unresponsive but Wendy was super cool. I managed to steal all the promotional signs from the store that was announcing the event and had Bobby and Wendy sign them all (even thought is said that they were signing copies of the book only). As the event was wrapping up I went to go get my purse out of the bathroom/storage closet. The door was slightly ajar, I knocked, and pushed the door open. There was Bobby!!!!! Yeah, he was peeing. No, I didn't get to see anything. But dang! Was I embarrassed. That was a day I'll never forget!!! T
February 7, 2008 - 7:42am

#70

chuckieluv

Joined:
February 7, 2008

a brush w/ Phil; a miss w/ all the boys

i was working at the National Gallery of Art in DC in september 1988 and i sold a book to Phil on the off day (sunday) of a 4show stop at the Cap center. the saturday show was the famous "Ripple" show. me: "hey phil i can't believe you guys played ripple last night" phil: "yeah it kinda surprised me too" i proceeded to ring up his sale (a book of a renaissance muralist whose name i can't recall, Tiepolo maybe) and asked him to play "Bertha" for me and he said "i'll see what i can do". alas it was not to be. they played "touch of grey" and my friend Joe and I freaked out after the first few notes b/c they sorta sound like the opening to "bertha"(to us anyway) till we quickly realized it wasn't. this was when "touch" was top40 material and we were embarrased to seem like a coupla of noobs screaming for the "popular" song. anyway when i got back to work later that week my co-workers informed me that the whole band came in that monday morning. oh well i was where any self respecting Head would be: the parking lot getting hassled by cops for an open container.

John Perry Barlow

John Perry Barlow

Forums

Encounters

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!

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.

Interviews With Dead Heads

Would be happy to chat and share..

Re: Interviews With Dead Heads

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.

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.

re:Interviews with Dead Heads

Would be happy to chat and share; although, I was somewhat late getting on board, with first show Sept '72.

We interrupt this program,

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

*

interview with dead heads

I would love to do an interview with you. What is the best way I can reach you? I'm not too sure how to use this website lol

Outside The Stone late 80's

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.

lol

happy 4/20

Phil on the F train!

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 :)

funny

This made me laugh. Thanks!

I smoked Jerry's Weed

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.

Interviews

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?