Iconic rock band the Grateful Dead was named a Kennedy Center Honoree earlier this year, celebrating decades of innovation and success.
Drummer Mickey Hart said, “I think this is a legacy for me and for us.” honor.
Surviving members Bobby Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Hart told “CBS Mornings” that the honor was not just for the band members, but for the fans.
“They kept us going,” Weir said.
Grateful Dead form
The band was formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid-1960s. Weir was 16 when he first heard Jerry Garcia play the banjo outside a music store in Palo Alto.
“It was New Year’s Eve, so he basically invited us over and we had enough fun that night that we decided it was too much fun to leave,” Weir said. Ta.
Kreutzmann recalled watching Garcia and Weir play for the club.
“I was completely blown away by Jerry’s ability to grip the audience. Jerry held a light for everyone,” he said. “He called me that week and said, ‘Do you want to be in the band?’ I said, ‘Sure.’”
Kreutzmann then welcomed Hart into the band in 1967.
“Bill played me and invited me to sit down. When I heard the band play, I thought, ‘Whoa.’ We all got into the Grateful Dead in different ways. , but I really fell in love with it,” Hart said. “I was bitten.”
Garcia also joined Phil Leshis a classically trained musician and plays bass. Lesh, one of the band’s original members, died in October at the age of 84.
Grateful Dead Legacy
In their 30 years as a band, the Grateful Dead had only one Top 40 hit, “Touch of Gray,” and were never nominated for a Grammy.
“Some people came up to us and said, ‘You’re never going to make it. You’re playing too long. You’re playing too loud,'” Kreutzmann recalled.
But over their decades together, they built up a large following known as “Deadheads,” and they began recording and sharing their concerts.
“From the stage, it looked like a forest of microphone trees,” Kreutzmann said of fans recording the concert.
Their record company advised fans not to allow the recording, but the band refused, saying they were not concerned about copyright infringement.
“This was the smartest move we ever made,” Kreutzmann said.
The Grateful Dead performed over 2,300 concerts, most of which were recorded by fans.
“Those cassettes went around the world,” Hart said. “They were also our archivists.”
Upon Garcia’s death in 1995, the band disbanded after 30 years. They weren’t sure if they could find a way to get by without a frontman.
“When Jerry left, it was the end of the Grateful Dead. You can’t replace Jerry Garcia,” Kreutzmann said.
Although the surviving members left to start other projects and bands, the spirit of the Grateful Dead always lived on. Mr. Weir said Mr. Garcia sometimes visits him in dreams, including recently.
“In a dream, Jerry came to me and said, ‘Listen, I’m inviting you to meet this song. I want you to meet this song.’ It solidified in me the concept that, yes, when we play songs, they are living things,” Weir said. “They visit our world and come through us.”
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