Grateful Dead

This year's February run includes the first Mardi Gras parade (complete with the Neville Brothers opening). The ever-growing population of Dead Heads leads to a band decision to play stadiums this summer, but in the company of Bob Dylan, who is backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. This leads first to the worst-sounding Dead concert of all time, at the Metrodome in Minneapolis (Dylan's 'home town'), and ends on a stunningly hot and humid weekend in Washington, D.C. Two days after they return home, on July 10th, Garcia collapses into a diabetic coma that will last a week. For the second time, the Dead stops touring. As the fall passes, Garcia recovers his health, and re-learns how to play, the coma having scrambled his neural pathways. He returns to the stage with the Garcia Band on October 4th, and the Dead resume performing on December 15th, playing, of course, 'Touch of Grey.'