Witnesses saw a youth fitting Wichmann's description fleeing the scene, and the police started a file on him. Grateful Dead photographer offers intimate look in new book I felt like Todor the bear, drowning in a sea of broken notes. The power vampires are easier to recognize as time goes by. I run up the stairs and theres this business partner who shoots me." Barbara Meier: I remember you practicing the guitar twelve hours a day. He married her in 1994, a year before his death. Garcia passed away in August 1995, eight days after celebrating his 53rd birthday. "Its an ethos. Thirty years later, he rekindled their romance, calling her the love of my life. In the film, she talks about how he took her SCUBA diving in Hawaii, one of his great passions, and asked her to marry him. Birgit Meier was a 40 year old woman who went missing from her apartment in the small town of Breitling, Lower Saxony. In it, a bear named Todor sits in front of his computer listening to "Touch of Grey" on repeat. Hovering near the middle, slightly tilted, a parenthetical that reads "(the sound of eight confused men getting paid, then).". She says that she and Garcia were high school sweethearts in 1960, and that she loaned him money for living expenses for 2-1/4 years when he was just starting out. According to The SetList Program, a searchable database of Grateful Dead shows covering 1965 to Garcias death in 1995, the band played "Black Peter" live 343 times, among the top 20 in their repertoire. Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh selling Marin County home for $10.35M When I think of the Grateful Dead I think of the man standing behind the stage at the Veneta, Oregon, show in August 1972, naked and sunburned, shaking his head as though trying to get a better signal. Thats totally baffling. See Photos. His fortune was valued at $15 million at the time of his death, and he was earning more than $2 million a year at the time of his death. Jerry Garcia, a great guitarist and cultural icon, passed away at the age of 53. She says she bought him his first 12-string guitar. Tour This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love, which helped put Haight Ashbury on the map, and continues to draw people to San Francisco. Later he set a record at the local scuba shop, Jacks Diving Locker, by staying under for 109 minutes on one tank of air. Jerry Garcia: You dont deal with it; thats how you deal with it. "The search of a suspect's house brings some gruesome things to light. from Oberlin College in 1964. My own introduction to the band was through a guy I grew up with. According to Meier, she and Garcia reconnected after McNally pressed her to interview Garcia for the Buddhist magazine Tricycle. Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart says he and other members of the band never really understood the forces that turned them into a 30-year cultural phenomenon. Garcia coughs and wails. The way everything tilted toward chaos. The police are going to do what they want. Then theres the next thing: whats everybody else doing? The truck, known as "The Dred" and used by the Grateful Dead to haul concert equipment in the 1960's, will hit the auction block November 6. Transitions Rehabilitation - Wellness Across The Lifespan 2023 Garcia was living with her in a hilltop mansion in Nicasio and creating art on his computer that would be licensed for a line of mens ties. What follows is the visual articulation of what I imagine is a common response to the bands music. He admitted the name was creepy, but he was attracted to what he called its striking combination of words., Young Jerry, a post beatnik proto hippie banjo player-turned guitar hero, saw the Dead as a way to experience a sense of adventure and freedom that was inspired by his idol Jack Kerouacs life-changing novel On the Road., I want to be concerned with things that are weird, he says in the film. Barbara Meier: But theres this other thing happening. In fact, if anything, youll catch a lot of shit. The request by Barbara Meier of Taos, N.M., is among $7.3 million in claims that have been filed against Garcia's estate in the last several weeks, court records show. The third broadly applicable was that the true Dead Heads help keep the phonies in line. Eight persons linked to this address. Spotlights in every direction. After all, he went to his grave refusing to tell anyone else what to do. Even after the Deads 1987 hit, Touch of Grey, attracted more new fans than even their huge stadium concerts could handle, he would not sign off on pleas from the band for these unruly novice Deadheads to stay away from their shows if they didnt have a ticket. Find your friends on Facebook. A string of musical notes, some grinning, one vomiting. The crash saw the four men imprisoned - which director Roberto Hernandez . Waukesha suspect Darrell Brooks claimed to be homeless and begged homeowner to order him an Uber after he 'killed 5', Horrified student finds chilling 'secret tunnel' in school's toilets and its freaking everyone out. In his will, Garcia left one-third of his estate and nearly all his possessions to his wife. After many years of being out of touch with each other, Barbara and Jerry had this conversation in June of 1991 when the Dead played in Denver. However, the "love of his life" sentiment was not reserved for Meier, as . By continuing, you agree to Tricycles Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. They change shape and form as your consciousness expands. Jerry Garcia: Not really. The sum is a report from the void: haggard, luminous, undead. Menu. Headyversion, a community site ranking fans favorite live versions of Grateful Dead songs, currently puts a performance from October 29, 1977, at the top. Jerry Garcia: It is and it isnt. She went. That episode gives the impression that Garcia chose dope over a meaningful relationship. We learn that Senator. In a perverted, Shakespearean way, this is how things had to go down. Jerry Garcia: Only because of the feedback, because of the endless reportage. It was as if he could look into his future, foreseeing the fanatical adulation that would eventually become so toxic that he would feel the need to escape through heroin, an addiction he was trying to kick when he died of a heart attack in 1995 in a Forest Knolls drug treatment facility. This is no music festival. 2. I called Brigid a former Suzuki and Trungpa student and she corrected me, writing, --I am not a "former" student of either Roshi or Trungpa--I still am their student!" Click here for Shunryu Suzuki Photo Archive images and links to all cuke.com pages on Brigid Meier. Required fields are marked *. Subscribe for access to video teachings, monthly films, e-books, and our 30-year archive. Three months after a member of the Hells Angels stabbed a concertgoer to death at the Altamont Speedway, Garcia told an interviewer that the Hells Angels "happened because of freedom. But the documentary fails to mention that when he split from Meier, he was already seeing another woman, Mill Valley filmmaker Deborah Koons. For a long time I dragged my feet over total commitment (to the Grateful Dead), he told me in an interview I did with him in 1989. It seemed a new. Jerry battled heroin addiction (which he did via smoking, not by shooting) from approximately 1982 until his death in 1995, according to his family. If the band has something to protect, its the integrity of the experience, which remains shapeless and formless. Broken up into six acts, the film is all fun and hippie games in the beginning. A year after that 1973 interview, the Dead were so burned out from a European tour, the grind of playing 80 shows a year, the toll of hard drugs and the strain of lugging around their gargantuan Wall of Sound PA system, that they decided to take an extended hiatus. Take an online Buddhism course at your own pace. At four hours, the movie is probably more exposure than many people have ever had or wanted to the Grateful Dead. To understand how big the Grateful Dead had become by the time of Garcias death, how grossly saturated in the culture, look here. Please check your email to confirm your subscription. We came to know Barbara "Brigid" Meier as we were told about the infamous never before heard recording of Jerry and Bob playing at her sixteenth birthday party, which opens this releaseYet none of this prepares us for the coalescing dimension that arises in the actual hearing of the characters live, overflowing with personality, chatting up the She worked as a photographer and was married to a man named Harald, a successful entrepreneur. "I get it," he says. Barbara Brigid Meier, who was Garcia's girlfriend in the early '60s and again in the early '90s, speaks with devastating candor about their long, strange relationship. Its also a sad story, and a beautiful one, told with the reverence youd expect and some poetry you might not. In 1970, "Black Peter" was a dream; in 1990 it was a diary. Birgit Meier was a 40 year old woman who went missing from her apartment in the small town of Breitling, Lower Saxony. The additional $2,820 would include food, clothing and other basics, plus $600 for dance and music lessons and $200 for dog food and care. Theyre free to happen, you know, and theyre a manifestation of what freedom is" the idea being that freedom isnt good or bad, just free, while rules remain the currency of parents and cops. Select this result to view Barbara Ann Meier's phone number, address, and more. Die that often and its no wonder you feel weird about permanence. They had just returned to Marin after playing with the Band and the Allman Brothers for a massive crowd of 600,000 at Watkins Glen, a racetrack in upstate New York. . But now I recognize what theyre talking about. "The reason we chose Marin is simple, really," said Dennis McNally, longtime publicist for the Grateful Dead, the rock and roll pioneers who have maintained a creative and commercial presence in Marin for a quarter century. Jerry Garcia: Theres no such thing as improvisation. It gets to be more complex as it goes along, full of all kinds of complex ethical questions. Its in these late groupings of "run and see" the way the song gathers into a wave but never breaks, the way Brent Mydlands organ melts from solid into liquid and solidifies again that I glimpse what I always imagined this band was: the good time that isnt, the night you get so far out youre not sure if youre still there. Theyre merciless. The first interview I ever did with the Grateful Dead was in the summer of 1973. (Best solution), In A Long Way Gone, How Many Years Did Ishmael Fight Before He Was Brought To The Rehab Center? Garcia glides through the water like he belongs there. Please try again. 6. I run up the stairs theres a woman with a knife who stabs me in the back. "I cant jog," he went on. Select this result to view Barbara A Meier's phone number, address, and more. By the 1970s, Garcia had become severely involved with cocaine, as well as the addiction that would eventually consume him: heroin. All the surviving band members Lesh, Weir and drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart were interviewed for the film. Theres only composition. Its like utopia: It doesnt work in reality, but on paper it looks great." In court papers filed Tuesday, Keelin Garcia's guardian, Margaret Boyden, says she is seeking $2,820 a month in additional payments for the girl to match what Garcia was paying before he died. She married Garcia in 1981, and the two separated in 1990, although they didn't live together after the marriage except for a few months in 1986, the court papers said. He first saw it when he was 6, about a year after his father had died from drowning. (Solved). My finest moments have been as part of an audience in a musical situation, or as a performer, when things are unfolding in a graceful way. And yet here stands a four-hour-long documentary made from film and magnetic tape telling the story of a band whose reluctant leader claimed no goal other than to ride the transience of a beautiful moment but kept returning to Frankenstein, to the idea of the Watts Towers, to the ocean. Its a simple thing, the feeling of a job well done. Flip, then, to the magazines cover, a picture of Garcia looking into the camera with his sunglasses lowered, lit from behind so as to create a halo at the edges of his hair. He couldnt figure out why anyone would want to make anything so permanent. He was a sinister kid, spoiled and mixed up, said awful things about girls and talked constantly about how much he hated his "old man." Garcia was married three times and had several other romantic relationships, but the films sole love interest is Barbara Brigid Meier. He admitted the name was creepy, but he was attracted to what he called its striking combination of words., Young Jerry, a post beatnik proto hippie banjo player-turned guitar hero, saw the Dead as a way to experience a sense of adventure and freedom that was inspired by his idol Jack Kerouacs life-changing novel On the Road., I want to be concerned with things that are weird, he says in the film. Garcia was married three times and had several other romantic relationships, but the sole love interest in the film is Barbara Brigid Meier, an erstwhile teenage model who was his girlfriend in the early 60s, buying him his first guitar. View Barbara Meier results in Hermosa Beach, CA including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. Entertainment | Not that any of this was the bands fault, of course. Micky Hart, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Bob Weir the remaining members of the venerable classic-rock band have scheduled their farewell shows together at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 3, 4, and 5. Thank you for subscribing to Tricycle! Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. One fan in Long Strange Trip protests that theyre only doing what the Dead taught them. All rights reserved.Design by Point Five. "Dude," he says. She worked as a photographer and was married to a man named Harald, a successful entrepreneur. Barbara Meier: I got the sense that your real pleasure is getting to the space jam part of the show. The biggest request comes. The film's sole love interest is Barbara "Brigid" Meier, a former teenage model who was Garcia's girlfriend in the early 1960s and was responsible for purchasing his first guitar. SAN RAFAEL - An ex-fiancee of Jerry Garcia wants his estate to make good on the late Grateful Dead guitarist's alleged promise to pay her $3,000 a month, a commitment she says he made after reneging on a marriage proposal, according to court papers. That has to happen to each individual, and then you can start addressing each other. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group), A banner notes the Grateful Dead concert at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Saturday, June 27, 2015. The other members of the Grateful Dead, the bands crew, office staff and extended family were depending on him for their livelihood. Mark and I met on the tennis team, where we were briefly doubles partners. Who is Serena and Venus Williams' father Richard Williams and what is his net worth? Jerry Garcia was known by the stage moniker Captain Trips, and he was labeled as such on the Grateful Deads debut album in 1970. Original members of the Grateful Dead, clockwise from left, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir, Ron Pigpen McKernan and Jerry Garcia, circa 1960s. Entertainment | Thich Nhat Hanh He was introduced to the sport by Vicki Jensen, a friend and former ranch hand of Garcias bandmate, Mickey Hart. What they care about is that we take a chance. Another issue concerns the safety of the fans and their exposure, because a lot of people still come to our shows thinking its kind of a hole in reality where its okay to take drugs. It hits theaters May 26 and streams on Amazon Prime on June 2. That is exactly why fans, followers and some of those who were in the inner circle of the Grateful Dead plan to travel to the University of Massachusetts for three days in November. The film features newly conducted interviews with living band members and friends including Bob Weir and his wife Natascha, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, John Perry Barlow, Donna Godchaux, Dennis McNally, Barbara "Brigid" Meier, Nick Paumgarten, Steve Silberman, and Alan Trist. It was painful to watch. play Tasha shines spotlight on police killings, After a long delay, De La Souls music arrives on streaming services, Review: Rock and genocide intersect at gripping new Berkeley Rep production, Paul Liberatore, Marin Independent Journal, Dear Abby: I love my wife but I think I better get divorced, Dear Abby: My wife said she doesn't like it, but it's part of my life, Harriette Cole: She has gone too far with the remote work option, Bobcat seen using Highway 17 wildlife crossing hours after it opens, Authorities: Man bombed PG&E transformers in South San Jose, Ask Amy: I feel guilty for not speaking up about my co-worker's activities, William backed Harry and Meghan's eviction, prefers brother never 'set foot in England again', Ask Amy: I didn't ask for what I wanted, and I'm sad they couldn't guess, Map in Murdaugh murder case: 5 deaths and a mysterious shooting, Miss Manners: I felt bad that they all skipped her baby shower -- and then I found out why, As Adderall shortage continues, DEA plans to limit some telemedicine prescriptions, House where JonBenet Ramsey was found dead listed for sale for almost $7M, Columbia University permanently drops SAT, ACT admissions requirement, The Waterbed Doctor: California retailer lays claim to retro bed with nearly 40 years of service, sales, Felonious Florida podcast: Missing teenage girl leads to several cases of child sex trafficking, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. He passed away on August 9, 1995, after suffering a heart attack while staying at a residential drug-treatment center in Forest Knolls, California, after a lengthy and odd journey. The Dalai Lama Entertainment | Like all good stories about art or about entrepreneurs, for that matter Long Strange Trip becomes a parable about people who succeed in part by doing it wrong. The truck, used by the Grateful Dead to haul concert equipment in the 1960's, will hit the auction block November 6. Subscribe now to read this article and get immediate access to everything else. That festival was bigger than Woodstock, and the young musicians were still awestruck by the size of it and their growing Deadhead fan base. You can see footage of the man in the water in The Other One, a documentary about the bands cofrontman Bob Weir. In a panic, she contacted her father, Harald (Birgit's husband), and her uncle, Wolfgang Sielaff (Birgit's brother). Hes pretty sure hes going to die, but he doesnt. She mentions briefly that he was living with another woman at the time and had a small child, but there is nothing else in the film about Manasha Matheson, who helped nurse him back to health after he nearly died from a diabetic coma in 1986. Biography. The best result we found for your search is Barbara A Meier age 70s in San Leandro, CA in the Bonaire neighborhood. They put out records that with the exception of the folksy, atypically simple American Beauty and Workingmans Dead most people didnt buy, and instead focused on live shows, seeding an audience that by the late 1970s and early 1980s had become so complex and multifaceted as to warrant anthropological study. ", 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP, The Netflix documentary follows Birgit Meier's disappearance. The third result is Barbara A Meier age 50s in Corvallis, OR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. It had no urgency, no imperative. One was with the Watts Towers, a cluster of sculptures in South Los Angeles built by a local using scrap metal and rebar. The rewards of the exploration of consciousness are immense, but the scare is intense. The other members of the Grateful Dead, the bands crew, office staff and extended family were depending on him for their livelihood. In fact, they were on the verge of breaking up, which would have been OK with Garcia. Long Strange Trip turns the Frankenstein fixation into a motif, cutting footage from the movie into the narrative at moments of synchronistic resonance, the idea being that the monster was on Garcias mind even when it wasnt. Then, after discovering that an East Coast band (later the Velvet Underground) was already calling itself that, they christened themselves the Grateful Dead, a name Garcia picked randomly from a dictionary. The relationship in the telling, at least is one of irreconcilable innocence, the point from which our best selves spring and to which we can never safely return. An epic new documentary examines the legacy of the Grateful Dead, more than 50 years after the band was born. They wanted to destroy them. The pair were in the middle of a divorce, and during the evening of her disappearance her husband was meant to make an appearance to clarify the details about their separation. The girl lives in Marinwood with her mother, Manasha Matheson. In the past, Barbara has also been known as Brigid Meier, Barbara Brig Meier, Barbara Brigid Meier, Barbara C Meier and Bridgette Mier. Copyright 2023. To date, five of their members have died. But, in 50 years, it will be the version people are most familiar with, McNally says. The parentheses, the ellipses, the word "then" all of it nauseatingly inconclusive, signs that nobody really knows whats going on but whatever it is, its going to go on forever. The situation with psychedelics is so highly charged that you never know whats leaking in. Poisoned boy, 6, cries 'no one loves me' as he calls out for food before dad & stepmum tortured him to death. Kreutzmann said the band sometimes stretched the music out so far that he had to be reminded what song they were playing. Would you like to sign up for our other mailing lists? Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. The laughing gas. By then, he took psychedelics only once in awhile to, in his words, "blow out the tubes." (Solved). The way Long Strange Trip tells it, the impact of the drug on the bands creativity was seismic. The crime against Birgit Meier was only brought back to life after 28 years after the request of her brother, policeman Wolfgang Sielaff, began his own private search. Mark, I learned, was not unique. Tricycle. Toward the end of Garcias life, the bands shows got so chaotically overattended that the members issued an open letter. And if you dont catch it from the band, youll get it from the roadies. You see why Garcia went under in the first place. "The County of Los Angeles couldnt pull the towers down," he told an interviewer. Get Morning Report and other email newsletters, Original members of the Grateful Dead, clockwise from left, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir, Ron Pigpen McKernan and Jerry Garcia, circa 1960s. As long as it stays that way, everythings okay. So when he was healthy enough, he returned to life on the road and his old ways. . Garcia took classes, bought gear, outfitted his goggles with prescription lenses. Consisting of four episodes, the German series explores the case of Birgit Meier, who vanished in 1989. "It's paradise." Luckily its okay with the audience if we fail. Continuous new writings from leading Buddhist teachers and New York Times bestselling authors, including: Sharon Salzberg The year before, he had rekindled a relationship with Barbara "Brigid" Meier, a woman he'd known when he was 19 and she perhaps 16, back in sweeter, simpler days in Palo Alto. Todor struggling with a musical note wrapped around his neck, either choking himself or being choked. Jerry Garcia: My reaction was instinctive. Its hard to explain, because unless people have some contact with other levels of consciousness they dont believe that any of this is real. They soon morph into an electrified blues/rock outfit called the Warlocks. Theres the moment when the band becomes too big for its members to handle and the moment when the drugs stop being fun. Those omissions prevent Long Strange Trip from being the complete cinematic story of a musician whose fans revered him as a kind of messianic figure, a deification he loathed. The truck, used by the Grateful Dead to haul concert equipment in the 1960's, will hit the auction block November 6. Your email address will not be published. I dont mind doing it in the music, because thats where I divest myself of ego. In the film, Meier says that when she confronted him about his drug use, he broke up with her, thanking her for all she had done for him before asking her to leave. He preferred heroin. For 20 years, they were primarily an underground concern. By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. That seems like fun., The documentary traces the Deads history from Ken Keseys Acid Tests where they first experimented with rock improvisation to their Summer of Love sojourn in the Haight Ashbury and their escape from gawking tourists and media hype about hippies into the pastoral Marin County countryside, becoming psychedelic cowboys., Bar-Lev includes fascinating, never-before-seen footage that even amazed Bob Weir, including a thin, beardless Garcia teaching him and Lesh how to sing harmony on Candyman, a tune from their 1970 masterwork American Beauty.. Phil desired to be closer to Bill in order to better hear him. From my point of view, its all a bead game. Garcia, who died of a heart attack Aug. 9 at a drug treatment center in Forest Knolls at age 53, left a wife and four daughters. For a long time I vacillated.. Jerry Garcia: Hes very kind, but I dont deserve that. Other claims filed against Garcia's estate by creditors include $188,744 to Ice Nine Publishing Co. Inc. of San Rafael; $42,302 to Westamerica Bank for a loan to D.B. Grateful Dead icon Jerry Garcias former Stinson Beach home up for sale So did longtime soundman Dan Healy, one of the architects of the Wall of Sound. . Her husband, Harald was soon ruled out as a possible suspect. In her claim filed Nov. 20 in Marin County Superior Court, Meier says Garcia still owes her $21,000 of the $108,000 he promised her in 1993. Barbara Meier: You mean that theres a cotangent universe of spirits and energies, demons and goddesses? The shape and volume of the space is unclear it literally has no form. He was well known for his distinctive guitar playing, and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone ' s "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" cover story in 2003. The biggest request comes from Garcia's ex-wife, Carolyn Adams Garcia, who wants $5 million in cash. She mentions briefly that he was living with another woman at the time and had a small child, but there is nothing else in the film about Manasha Matheson, who helped nurse him back to health after he nearly died from a diabetic coma in 1986. In front are Brent Mydland, left, and Bob Weir. The way Long Strange Trip tells it, two encounters haunted Garcia for most of his life. Barbara Meier and Jerry Garcia were friends in the early sixties when they were part of a community of poets, pacifists, and folksingers in Menlo Park, California. My favorite Grateful Dead song is "Black Peter," from Workingmans Dead. Not scripted but improvised. 2. The saddest story in Long Strange Trip is about Garcias late-in-life reconnection with Barbara Meier, a girlfriend Garcia had not seen since before the Grateful Dead were even called the Warlocks. Theresa and Keelin Garcia's shares are to be placed in trust until they turn 21. Compared with his music with the Grateful Dead, Garcias interviews were refreshingly frank. So what is the Grateful Dead all about? If they ever felt angry, or trapped, or like throwing a brick through a window, youd never know it from their music. A soundtrack album was released on May 26, 2017. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group), "The Dred," a 1949 Studebaker one-ton pickup truck owned by Steve Cabela of San Anselmo, is seen at Michaan's Auctions in Alameda, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014. Even when the band adapted to the times the hillbilly jazz of the early 70s, the disco Dead of a few years later they seemed happily out of step, a talisman against business, fashion, and other methods of control. No wonder people come out of hearing things like the Cornell 1977 performance of "Scarlet Begonias" into "Fire on the Mountain" thinking the band are gods: The music dramatized evolution. I dont remember him smiling when he joked that his face was becoming a household word. Brigitte Meier. Barbara Meier: You dont impose any political message. Garcia, for example, was outspoken about drugs being a matter of personal choice, a convenient position for a heroin addict. It was Meier, a beautiful teenager making a pre-inflation-$100-a-day modeling for catalogs, who bought Garcia his first guitar. Garcia had recently come out of a diabetic coma and was so fat that he had to carry extra weight to help achieve buoyancy, but he loved the water and the water asked nothing in return. The skulls split by lightning bolts. She originally presided over the Municipal Court beginning in 1981. Its egoless, something I trust. (As Neurotribes author Steve Silberman puts it in Long Strange Trip, Dead shows were like a mandala a Hindu or Buddhist diagram of the cosmos with the band at the center.). That was the last time I saw him, she says, near tears. Its still shocking to remember that he was just 53 when he died, but looked 20 years older. A year after that 1973 interview, the Dead were so burned out from a European tour, the grind of playing 80 shows a year, the toll of hard drugs and the strain of lugging around their gargantuan Wall of Sound PA system, that they decided to take an extended hiatus.