Grateful Dead

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Phil Lesh's Bass Anchored, Stretched the Grateful Dead

Trained in other instruments, he joined the band not knowing how to play bass

(Newser) - Phil Lesh, a founding member of the Grateful Dead and an innovative musician whose bass playing exemplified psychedelic San Francisco sound, died Friday. He was 84. A post on his Instagram account said he died surrounded by family members but provided no other information. "I was awakened to the...

Grateful Dead Milestone Falls to George Strait

Country star plays the largest ticketed show ever in the US

(Newser) - A musical milestone that stood for nearly five decades has just fallen: Country star George Strait drew 110,905 to a concert in Texas over the weekend, the largest ticketed show in US history, reports CNN . The previous record was held by the Grateful Dead, who played in front of...

Fed Chair: 'What Can I Say?' I'm a Deadhead

At House hearing, Jerome Powell raves about recent Dead & Company show

(Newser) - A blurry photo taken at a Dead & Company concert in Virginia earlier this month caused quite a stir on social media. Viewed 2.8 million times as of this writing, it shows a gray-haired man in a collared shirt and baseball cap among the crowd of fans watching the...

Scorsese Finds His Jerry Garcia
Scorsese
Finds His
Jerry Garcia
Nov 19, 2021 1:46 AM CST

Scorsese Finds His Jerry Garcia

Jonah Hill will play him in 'Grateful Dead' film

(Newser) - Meet your "Jerry Garcia": Jonah Hill will play the musician in Martin Scorsese's upcoming Grateful Dead film, which he's making for Apple. The band and its management are involved in the untitled biopic, and Apple has rights to the Grateful Dead catalog for the movie's soundtrack,...

Grateful Dead's 'Visionary' Lyricist Dead at 78
Grateful Dead's
'Visionary' Lyricist
Dead at 78
OBITUARY
Sep 25, 2019 5:03 AM CDT

Grateful Dead's 'Visionary' Lyricist Dead at 78

'There was nobody like Bob Hunter and there never will be'

(Newser) - Robert Hunter, the man behind the poetic and mystical words for many of the Grateful Dead's finest songs, has died at age 78. Hunter died Monday at his northern California home with his wife, Maureen, at his side, former Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally tells the AP . The family...

Deadhead Sells Jerry Garcia's 'Wolf' for $1.9M

'The time is right for Wolf to do some good'

(Newser) - A guitar that Jerry Garcia played everywhere from San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom to Egypt's Great Pyramids fetched over $1.9 million at an auction Wednesday night. The Grateful Dead frontman's guitar—named Wolf—was sold at the Brooklyn Bowl, a bowling alley, restaurant, and music venue. The...

The Grateful Dead Is Ruining John Mayer's Face

'I'm worried about falling off the bike'

(Newser) - Put off by John Mayer's "gnarly guitar face?" Blame the complex songs of the Grateful Dead. Bob Weir, of the Grateful Dead, and Mayer, of that one Taylor Swift song, appeared on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live on Tuesday. During the show, an audience member asked Mayer...

Top 7 Earners in Music for 2015

Not surprisingly, Taylor Swift tops the list by a long shot

(Newser) - Which musicians are raking in the most dough? Billboard looked at 2015 revenue from music sales, streaming, publishing, and revenue (so, not counting money made from merchandising or sponsorships) to come up with the 40 highest-paid musicians of that year. The top seven:
  1. Taylor Swift: $73.5 million, $61.7
...

Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh Has Cancer

75-year-old diagnosed with bladder cancer this month

(Newser) - Troubling news for Deadheads: Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh has been diagnosed with bladder cancer and is being treated in Arizona. The 75-year-old bassist announced his illness Friday on the Facebook page of his California restaurant and concert hall, Terrapin Crossroads. Lesh, diagnosed early this month, has been undergoing tests...

Did the Grateful Dead Conjure Up a Rainbow?

Some suspect moving sight at farewell gig was man-made

(Newser) - Even without Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead's power to put on an amazing show isn't in doubt—but the group's ability to conjure up rainbows is being hotly debated. As the band played "Viola Lee Blues" on Saturday to end the first of two sets, a...

Game of Thrones Author: Yep, I'm a Deadhead

George RR Martin says the band has influenced his writing

(Newser) - There have long been rumblings that Game of Thrones author George RR Martin must be a Deadhead, thanks to numerous apparent references to the Grateful Dead in his books, and in a recent 92Y interview he acknowledged as much, Business Insider reports. "I'm certainly a fan of the...

Grateful Dead Tickets: Yours for Up to $116K

Farewell/reunion show sold out

(Newser) - The "core four" original members of the Grateful Dead are reuniting for a three-day 50th anniversary show in Chicago, and let's just say people really, really want to see it. The farewell show, appropriately titled Fare Thee Well, sold out, but tickets are being sold on the secondary...

Cops Get Report on Missing Deadhead Son—From 1995
Mom Reports Her Deadhead Son Went Missing—in 1995
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jan 18, 2015 12:40 PM CST

Mom Reports Her Deadhead Son Went Missing—in 1995

It's complicated, but this might be answer to 'Grateful Doe' mystery

(Newser) - A woman in Myrtle Beach, SC, filed a missing person report this week over a teenage son who left 20 years ago, reports the Smoking Gun . Strange? Yes, but this might be the answer to the mystery of "Grateful Doe," an unidentified car-crash victim from 1995. Start here:...

Grateful Dead Reuniting for 3 Final Shows

For the four surviving originals, this is it

(Newser) - "Bittersweet" is how Rolling Stone describes it: The four surviving members of the original Grateful Dead are getting together to play three shows in Chicago this summer, but there's a catch: "These will be the last shows with the four of us together," Bob Weir tells...

How 4/20 Became 'National Weed Day'
How 4/20 Became
'National Weed Day'
Apr 20, 2013 3:02 PM CDT

How 4/20 Became 'National Weed Day'

It all started as a high school in-joke in 1971

(Newser) - It's April 20, the day on which marijuana enthusiasts around the country celebrate their favorite smokable green herb at events like the Cannabis Cup in Denver and Snoop Lion's (nee-Dogg's) 420 Festival in LA. But why April 20? The tradition can be traced back to a group...

Among 25 Newly Honored US Sounds: 'Purple Rain'

Only-known audio of ex-slaves also joins National Recording Registry

(Newser) - America's archived history just got a little noisier: 25 sounds that shaped the American cultural landscape are being inducted into the National Recording Registry. The additions are being announced today by the Library of Congress. Among them:
  • A handful of pop/rock songs: Donna Summer's 1977 hit "I
...

Get Ready for Grateful Dead Skateboards

Wine, snowboards also among new merchandising deals

(Newser) - The Dead are looking for new ways to live on, and they’ve settled on skateboards. In a new business deal, remaining members of the Grateful Dead have agreed to put their logos on a range of new items, including Wines That Rock, Dregs skateboards, and Burton snowboards. But they’...

LSD King Owsley Stanley Dead at 76

Counterculture pioneer takes final trip

(Newser) - Owsley Stanley, LSD cook, sound engineer, sculptor, and one of the most influential figures in '60s counterculture, has been killed in a car accident in Australia at the age of 76. Nicknamed "Bear," Stanley manufactured millions of doses of high quality "Owsley Acid" at his San Francisco...

11 Surprising One-Hit Wonders
 11 Surprising One-Hit Wonders 
May 9, 2010 8:42 AM CDT

11 Surprising One-Hit Wonders

We all love Norah Jones, but she's still on this list

(Newser) - You would never guess, but Jimi Hendrix was technically a one-hit wonder. Yep, the definition of the term is “an artist or band who only has one song make the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart,” regardless of album sales or performance on other charts,...

The Business Genius of the Grateful Dead

Biz school studies the power of passion, early social networking

(Newser) - Barry Barnes saw the Grateful Dead 194 times during the band's 30-year-long run, which ended when Jerry Garcia died, in 1995. But his passion hasn't died, and Barnes, now a business school professor, uses the Dead as a case study in what he calls "strategic improvisation" and very early...

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