With each gathering of the Dead, there’s a different impetus.
That is to say, each time Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart tour as the Dead, there’s a different reason. Sure, Dead tours are communal gatherings focused on the music. They are also easy money-makers for all parties involved.
But what inspired the venerable jam band’s most recent outing, which stops at the Pepsi Center on Thursday?
“In a very real sense,” said Phil Lesh, the band’s longtime bass player, “Barack brought us together just like he’s bringing the whole country together.”
Lesh met the president back when Obama was a senator. In September 2007, Lesh’s son, Brian, was volunteering for the Obama campaign when the family flew out to a “Daily Show” taping that would feature the candidate. They met some folks with the Obama camp at the taping and ended up at a speech in Brooklyn, and when they finally met Obama, Lesh’s wife, Jill, had a special message for him.
“My wife said, ‘We’ll bring you the hippie vote,’ ” Lesh remembered. “And it wasn’t much later that (the Dead) got back together to do the Get Out the Vote rally for Obama in San Francisco. I was going to do it with my band (Phil Lesh & Friends), but my son Brian said, ‘No, dad, you have to get the Dead together for this.’ ”
The Dead played a memorable show that night, and the campaign came back to them a few months later requesting they play a similar show at Penn State University before the general election. Lesh remembers the band’s second 2008 show being an unusually good concert — even by his high standards. And that show inspired the tour that is bringing the quartet, augmented by singer-guitarist Warren Haynes and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, to Denver.
“We didn’t think about doing anything professionally until after the second event,” Lesh said. “I guess you could attribute it to the feeling you get, the joy of being reunited with your brothers, really. These guys are family. And like any family, we have our ups and downs. Right now it’s great to be on an up cycle.”
Last we saw the Dead — on the 2004 tour — they were on a down cycle. The band’s infighting has been well documented, and by the end of their last tour they were barely talking. The bandmates are getting along much better now, according to Lesh. And the legendary Bay Area band started this most recent slate of shows by going back to its roots — only on the East Coast.
The Grateful Dead used to be famous for supplementing its regular slate of shows with free gigs in the park — played on flatbed trucks with equipment that was plugged into an extension cord that ran across the street into a friend’s apartment. A month ago, the band played three free shows in New York City, in venues — the Angel Orensanz, the Blender Theatre at Gramercy and the Roseland Ballroom — rather than parks.
“We used to play in parks all the time before the ballrooms opened up,” said Lesh. “That was practically built into our DNA. But unfortunately it’s not the ’60s anymore, and a lot of places — New York City included — won’t let you do free shows in the park anymore. But playing those three shows in New York was something we really wanted to do. It felt good to give back to the fans.”
Speaking of the fans, some Deadheads have followed these musicians for nearly 45 years now. Lesh is nearly speechless when asked about their loyalty and support.
“God bless ’em,” Lesh said. “They’re hungry to have us again. I hadn’t thought about it in a while, but we were all doing our own things — Bob has his thing, and I have mine, and Mickey and Bill both have several things going on. We all kept in contact with the fans, because we’re going out there and playing music for them.
“But this — getting back together and playing again — wasn’t something we were thinking about.”
The Grateful Dead came to an end in 1995, when singer-guitarist-visionary Jerry Garcia died of a heart attack. In 1998, Lesh, Weir, Hart and Bruce Hornsby toured as the Other Ones — and they collected Kreutzmann a few years later, losing Hornsby, and became the Dead, utilizing a collective of musicians along the way.
Chimenti plays keys in Weir’s band, Ratdog. And as a longtime Allman Brothers Band member and the founder of Gov’t Mule, Haynes is a busy guy — especially since he has become a fixture on Dead tours. Lesh first played with Haynes when Lesh lost a guitarist in the middle of a 2000 tour. Warren came in as a replacement, and “it was a great experience,” Lesh said.
“Warren is a very special guy, a consummate pro, and his mind works in the same kind of way that our collective mind works,” he continued.
“He might be happiest when he’s in full flight outside of his comfort zone, and that’s what we ask from him — play what you don’t normally play. We never play the same thing twice, hopefully, and he gets it.”
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com
The Dead
Jam band. Pepsi Center, 1000 Chopper Circle. Thursday. 8 p.m. $55.50-$90.50. 303-830-8497 or
