for me, I need it every week. It’s a special thing we know
we have and it goes beyond the music. The music is the
medium in which we can bring people together.”
Steinhorn says the band pays close attention to its
Eugene shows, because of the people and history here.
“Eugene does have its own quality of Heads down there
that’s different than a lot of places,” Steinhorn says. “It is
a deep-rooted Grateful Dead community. The expectations
are higher in playing Eugene than other places.”
THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED
THE CROWD AT THE
GRATEFUL DEAD’S
AUTZEN STADIUM
SHOW IN 1993
THE GRATEFUL
DEAD PERFORM AT
MCARTHUR COURT
AUG. 16, 1981
While the Fare Thee Well concerts have been wildly
popular with Grateful Dead fans, some have mixed feelings.
Sunshine Kesey will be attending the shows in Chicago,
but has expressed some qualms.
“What would it be like if somebody has been divorced
for the past 20 years, and they decide to get together for
one final thing because it will make some good money and
it will be a fun party?” Sunshine Kesey says. “But they’re
not going to stay together after that. It’s kind of odd.”
Despite her reservations, Kesey says she is excited to
attend the shows and reconnect with her Grateful Dead
family.
“I’m sure Jerry would be thrilled that they’re still
making music. It’s what he lived for, you know?” Kesey
says. “I’m proud of everybody for pulling it together.”
Eugene businessman Jason Johnson is the former
executive director of Eugene’s Furthur Down The Road
Foundation, an organization dedicated to restoring Ken
Kesey’s Furthur bus and educating kids about the author.
Johnson is also an army officer turned Deadhead who, like
many before him, migrated from a fast-paced life in California
to a simpler one in Oregon. Johnson speaks with a Tennessee
drawl and can’t stop smiling when talking about the Dead and
scoring tickets to the Soldier Field shows.
“The ripples from the Grateful Dead and from Kesey
and from Eugene have really permeated every corner of
the world and the Deadheads that I’m friends with that I’m
going to see in July are from all walks of life,” he says.
“There’s consultants and politicians and military guys …
and they all come together to speak this one common
language, and they know it as the Grateful Dead.”
With dedicated fans like Johnson, it seems the legacy of
Grateful Dead will live on forever.
“It has grown beyond everybody’s wildest dreams, and
this whole selling tickets to the Fare Thee Well was a huge
eye-opener for everybody,” Sunshine Kesey says. “This is
not a dwindling thing.”
In a way, the music of the Grateful Dead has already
proven its temporal resilience through the decades. The
same band that formed when my mom was 6 became the
one that led her to meet her husband. And though the band
hasn’t released any new music for 25 years, they still
received 400,000 paper requests for tickets in 2015.
“As long as Deadheads keep having kids, it’s all good,”
the Garcia Birthday Band’s Steinhorn says. “I see good
things ahead for many generations.”
Even when the Grateful Dead are silenced, the community
doesn’t die. Eugene has seen this borne out: The Dead were
temporarily banned from playing Autzen Stadium in 1990
because the UO didn’t want to be seen as promoting drugs.
Deadheads responded by protesting at the Wayne Morse
Free Speech Plaza near the old Federal Courthouse.
By letting people record their shows and post them
online, fans will forever be able to relive the music. Just
think, on the UO campus, people can put on some
headphones and jam out to a recording of the 1969 Dead
show at Mac Court as they walk by it.
“There’s an enduring spirit,” says Trist of Dead Air.
“It’s indescribable. When you hit the music, it’s the
soundtrack of people’s lives.”
The Grateful Dead are the reason I am alive, and
millions more have been given spiritual life through their
music. My parents eventually divorced, which for me,
makes the Grateful Dead even more meaningful: They are
the one thing besides my brother and me that will always
connect my parents. My dad, following a Dead tour in
1987, is just a microcosm for what millions of fan’s
relationship with the Dead is — in his words, “the
adventure of a lifetime.” ■
PHOTOS BY STEVESCHNEIDERPHOTO.COM.
eugeneweekly.com • July 2, 2015
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