The Grateful Dead began life as kings of the 1960s West Coast psychedelic scene, yet they were untouched by glamour. Long after bad vibes and commercialism soured the hippy dream, their heady mix of lengthy improvised guitar jams and communal celebration remained defiantly unchanged, until the 1995 death of leader Jerry Garcia in rehab at the age of 53. While contemporaries such as the Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane adapted to shifting trends, the Dead remained essentially the same.
It was hardly a recipe for superstardom, yet when Forbes magazine listed the world’s 40 highest-paid entertainers in 1990–91, the Grateful Dead ranked 20th, with an estimated $33 million – putting them within touching distance of pop sensation MC Hammer. What a long, strange trip it had been for a band who started out three decades earlier playing in San Francisco’s Victorian ballrooms to soundtrack hallucinogenic drug experiments.