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Grateful Dead Pt. 1: Freedom's Just Another Word for… · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis.
0:13
Speaker 2: The stories about The Grateful Dead are insane. Singer guitarist
0:17
Speaker 2: Jerry Garcia dosed unsuspecting film crews with LSD. Drummer Bill
0:22
Speaker 2: Kurtzman reportedly slept with thirteen women in one night. The
0:26
Speaker 2: band was arrested in New Orleans with enough acid and
0:29
Speaker 2: assorted drugs to fuel an alternate moonlanding. The Grateful Dead
0:33
Speaker 2: were born out of the sonic boom of nineteen sixties
0:36
Speaker 2: counterculture and carried the mantle further and longer and with
0:40
Speaker 2: more significance than any of their sixties counterparts. They were
0:44
Speaker 2: also kept under the watchful eye of the CIA, who,
0:47
Speaker 2: along with the indirect help of the Grateful Dead and
0:49
Speaker 2: their patron saint slash soundman Augustus Ousley Stanley the Third,
0:53
Speaker 2: were directly responsible for the mainstreaming of hippie idealism and
0:57
Speaker 2: ethos of tune in, turn on, and drop out freedom.
1:01
Speaker 2: The Grateful Dead believed in freedom to their core and
1:05
Speaker 2: adhere to this belief throughout one of the longest and
1:07
Speaker 2: most successful runs in music history. And they made great
1:11
Speaker 2: music along the way, some of the greatest music ever made.
1:14
Speaker 2: And that music you heard at the top of the show.
1:16
Speaker 2: That wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from
1:19
Speaker 2: my melotron called mellow Flute hodown BK one. I played
1:25
Speaker 2: you that loop because I can't afford the rights to
1:27
Speaker 2: Missus Brown. You get a lovely daughter by Herman's Hermit's
1:32
Speaker 2: And why would I play you that specific slice of
1:34
Speaker 2: adolescent shindig Cheese?
1:36
Speaker 3: Could I afford it?
1:37
Speaker 2: Because that was the number one song in America on
1:40
Speaker 2: May fifth, nineteen sixty five, And that was the day
1:43
Speaker 2: that Mother mccree's Uptown jug Champions walked into Magoo's Pizza
1:47
Speaker 2: to play their first show, a band that would soon
1:50
Speaker 2: change their name to the Warlocks and then to The
1:53
Speaker 2: Grateful Dead and become one of the most influential bands
1:56
Speaker 2: the world has ever known. On this episode, meo hodew
2:00
Speaker 2: adolescent Cheese, way too much LSD.
2:04
Speaker 3: In The Grateful Dead.
2:05
Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. Charles Manson, the
2:22
Speaker 2: psychotic cult leader behind the Tate LaBianca murders, murders so
2:27
Speaker 2: brutal they gripped the nation, once said that giving someone
2:31
Speaker 2: LSD without their knowledge and act known by hippies ays
2:34
Speaker 2: dosing was something that he would never do, not even
2:38
Speaker 2: to his worst enemy. Despite Manson's murderous and manipulative behavior,
2:44
Speaker 2: dosing someone was a bridge too far. Why well, because
2:48
Speaker 2: it was just too fucked up. Unsuspecting individuals suddenly under
2:52
Speaker 2: the influence of insanely powerful psychedelic chemicals. We're in for
2:56
Speaker 2: a terrifying ride, perhaps one they'd never re emerge from
3:00
Speaker 2: the high of being on acid. The trip is so
3:02
Speaker 2: intense that it is life punctuating. You ride a roller
3:06
Speaker 2: coaster of emotions. You see yourself and everything around you differently,
3:10
Speaker 2: and I don't mean figuratively, I mean literally. That's why
3:13
Speaker 2: they call it hallucinating. You're never the same afterward. Those
3:17
Speaker 2: who willingly drop LSD know this already. It's a choice
3:20
Speaker 2: they've made, one that is born, sometimes out of a
3:23
Speaker 2: great notion of self exploration, to open previously unknown doors
3:27
Speaker 2: of perception, to become a more enlightened version of oneself.
3:31
Speaker 2: That's the theory, anyway. The reality is that you trip balls,
3:35
Speaker 2: your mind scrambled like yesterday's eggs. You laugh at nothing
3:39
Speaker 2: in everything. You feel connected to the world, the universe
3:42
Speaker 2: in a strong or more visceral way, and for the
3:44
Speaker 2: first four hours you ascend the great cosmic ladder until
3:47
Speaker 2: you peak midway through the eight hour high, your body
3:51
Speaker 2: and mind literally buzzing in harmony with the entirety of
3:53
Speaker 2: your surroundings. And then the road you're on turns. It's darker, bumpier.
3:59
Speaker 2: You question everything, including yourself. Nothing makes sense, It's all
4:03
Speaker 2: some sick joke. You hate yourself because you're unrecognizable, just
4:07
Speaker 2: like all that surrounds you. You hold on for dear life,
4:10
Speaker 2: white knuckling your way through the remaining hours of your trip,
4:12
Speaker 2: descending down Jacob's ladder, past the horrifying screams of your psyche,
4:17
Speaker 2: praying to God that you land in a place where
4:19
Speaker 2: you can still recognize the person you used to be,
4:21
Speaker 2: swearing to your Lord and Savior the whole way down
4:24
Speaker 2: that you'll never ever touch the stuff again.
4:26
Speaker 3: Then hours later you.
4:28
Speaker 2: Crash, emerging from the trip with the worst hangover you've
4:34
Speaker 2: ever experienced and the feeling that the only thing that
4:37
Speaker 2: will save you from its debilitating grip is strong grass
4:40
Speaker 2: and quite possibly more acid. And thanks to the CIA,
4:45
Speaker 2: Americans have plenty of acid at their disposal. In the
4:49
Speaker 2: nineteen fifties, the Central Intelligence Agency theorized that if LSD
4:54
Speaker 2: was capable of altering one's perception, then it could be
4:57
Speaker 2: used by the military as a form of mind control
4:59
Speaker 2: in the ongoing Cold War with the Soviet Union. So,
5:03
Speaker 2: under a top secret government program known as mk Ultra,
5:07
Speaker 2: the CIA began testing the new drug on military personnel
5:11
Speaker 2: and even civilians to measure its effectiveness and thus calibrate
5:15
Speaker 2: its usefulness as a weapon. Unsuspecting military contractors, mental patients, prisoners,
5:21
Speaker 2: street walking john's, and sex workers were experimented on, dosed, decoded,
5:26
Speaker 2: and disregarded, despite whatever lasting effects the acid had on them.
5:31
Speaker 2: Noted in alleged subjects of mk Ultra experiments included Boston
5:35
Speaker 2: gangster Whitey Bulger, eventual unibomber, Ted Gazinski, future Grateful dead
5:40
Speaker 2: lyricist Robert Hunter and author of the best selling novel
5:44
Speaker 2: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Ken Kesey, one military scientist,
5:49
Speaker 2: unaware he'd been dosed by his CIA colleagues, believed he
5:52
Speaker 2: could fly, and so famously jumped through the glass window
5:56
Speaker 2: of his bedroom on the thirteenth floor of the Statler
5:59
Speaker 2: Hotel in New York, York City. That was in nineteen
6:02
Speaker 2: fifty three. In nineteen sixty nine, Jerry Garcia, guitar player
6:08
Speaker 2: and singer of the world's pre eminent psychedelic band, The
6:10
Speaker 2: Grateful Dead, knew nothing of the Flying Statler scientist. He did, however,
6:15
Speaker 2: know the effects of dosing someone with LSD, but he
6:18
Speaker 2: didn't care. To Garcia, it wasn't about fucking with someone
6:23
Speaker 2: so much as it was about enlightening them, getting them
6:25
Speaker 2: on his level, and Garcia's level was high as fuck.
6:29
Speaker 2: He and his bandmates made sport out of tripping on
6:32
Speaker 2: powerful LSD. The Dead were professionals who used the drug
6:36
Speaker 2: to explore the outer limits of where their music could
6:39
Speaker 2: take both them and their live audiences together further, which
6:43
Speaker 2: is precisely why Garcia, aka Captain Trips, was hunched over
6:47
Speaker 2: the coffee maker on the set of Hugh Hefner's cheesy
6:50
Speaker 2: television Studio, secretly mixing high octane LSD into the hot
6:54
Speaker 2: black java mischievous grin on his mug. He was dosing
6:58
Speaker 2: anyone who'd be on the set or in the made
7:00
Speaker 2: for TV audience that his band was about to perform for.
7:04
Speaker 2: Because if The Grateful Dead were going to perform, Garcia
7:07
Speaker 2: wanted the audience to be on his level, a level
7:10
Speaker 2: that this audience was far from naturally inclined to be on.
7:16
Speaker 2: Playboy After Dark was the brainchild of Hugh Hefner, editor
7:19
Speaker 2: of the men's magazine Playboy, a sort of TV version
7:23
Speaker 2: of the Playboy philosophy, a free flowing, televised salon of
7:26
Speaker 2: sixty zeit guy staged in half small screen bachelor pad,
7:30
Speaker 2: pseudo intellectualism, subverse of sex, as much skin as the
7:34
Speaker 2: sensors would allow, rocks, glasses and stems for days. Hefner
7:38
Speaker 2: positioned himself at the center of mid century masculinity, a
7:42
Speaker 2: reimagining of sexual norms and personal freedom, not unlike the
7:46
Speaker 2: thinking of the Grateful Dead. But where the band and
7:49
Speaker 2: the man differed was in style. The Grateful Dead presented
7:52
Speaker 2: themselves as a ragtag group of music surrealists. Hefner presented himself,
7:57
Speaker 2: his magazine and his television show as sophisticated, far more
8:02
Speaker 2: down draper than Salvador Dali, and that difference in style
8:06
Speaker 2: was seen by the Dead as being square and squares
8:09
Speaker 2: made for shitty audiences.
8:10
Speaker 3: So Garcia dosed them.
8:12
Speaker 2: The result was wild, unhinged freedom, a coming together two
8:16
Speaker 2: seemingly different types of people ascending the cosmos on the
8:20
Speaker 2: sounds of Psychedelia. Pre Dead performance, the set was humming,
8:25
Speaker 2: Garcia tripping, waxing poetic with hef on the Aurora Boris
8:29
Speaker 2: sid Caesar hung back, banged down barbituates in straight vodka,
8:33
Speaker 2: and felt an unknown buzz settle about his brain, and
8:36
Speaker 2: the show's PA searched frantically for that night's guest astrologist,
8:40
Speaker 2: who was last seen circling unknown rabbit holes.
8:42
Speaker 3: Backstage.
8:47
Speaker 2: The rest of the Grateful Dead sat on the Playboy
8:49
Speaker 2: after Dark stage, patiently waiting for their singer, Jerry Garcia,
8:53
Speaker 2: who was now making his way through the manufactured television audience,
8:57
Speaker 2: wearing his familiar shit eating all knowing grit in the
9:00
Speaker 2: one that perfectly matched the green and orange drug rug
9:03
Speaker 2: he was wearing. Cameras rolled the crowd queued into the
9:07
Speaker 2: imminent performance, and their applause grew louder. Someone confused by
9:11
Speaker 2: the acid boot someone else yelled out, you're the Dead.
9:14
Speaker 2: Garcia shouldered as acoustic and slyly responded, right you are, laughs,
9:20
Speaker 2: giddy pitched anticipation, a quick check of the tuning on
9:23
Speaker 2: the sixth string, and straight into mountains of the moon.
9:26
Speaker 2: When the song ended, the audience, having suffered through an
9:30
Speaker 2: uninspired version of the tune, leaned a bit too heavily
9:33
Speaker 2: into their applause, excited more for what they hoped was
9:36
Speaker 2: to come than what they just tolerated, and what was
9:38
Speaker 2: to come was worth the weight. The Grateful Dead fell
9:41
Speaker 2: in soulfully to Saint Stephen. Garcia now swung an electric
9:45
Speaker 2: sg and it sung a wildly psychedelic and different tune
9:48
Speaker 2: than his acoustic Playboy Bunny swayed with abandon on the
9:52
Speaker 2: edge of three four times horny mail bachelors, all black
9:55
Speaker 2: ties and brille cream did their best to keep cool
9:58
Speaker 2: within the staunchy confines, their starched white collars a fundamental
10:02
Speaker 2: lack of understanding for anything that was going on. Reeling
10:05
Speaker 2: from the sting of LSD in the sharp jabs of pheromones,
10:08
Speaker 2: Fournett and pent up sexual aggression.
10:11
Speaker 3: Garcia hit the solo. The band swung.
10:14
Speaker 2: The pocket was big, It sucked in everyone. While the
10:18
Speaker 2: television cameras rolled and speeded for sound.
10:21
Speaker 3: Half lourded over the scene.
10:22
Speaker 2: He created the modern man forever turned on and decidedly
10:26
Speaker 2: tuned into the hipness of the Grateful Dead. Half rocked.
10:30
Speaker 2: Garcia killed one man, gathered with the other man. Spilled
10:33
Speaker 2: America got laid that night to Jerry Garcia and his
10:37
Speaker 2: bandmates Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kurtzman, Mickey hart, Ron,
10:42
Speaker 2: Pigpen McCarran, and Tom Constantin on stage that night.
10:46
Speaker 3: It was magical.
10:47
Speaker 2: It all reminded Garcia of a sort of ready for
10:50
Speaker 2: Primetime version of the Acid Tests from a couple of
10:52
Speaker 2: years back, but not as dark or scary. This was
10:56
Speaker 2: pure freedom, a type of freedom that was impossible all
11:00
Speaker 2: to imagine in the beginning days of the band, when
11:02
Speaker 2: they sweated over regimented bluegrass scales and pitch perfect harmonies.
11:06
Speaker 2: Here in the psychedelic present, they were free, free to
11:10
Speaker 2: take the audience wherever they wanted, and free to let
11:13
Speaker 2: the music they were making take them on a.
11:15
Speaker 4: Very long and a very strange trick, strange.
11:38
Speaker 2: Free will, and Frank was freaking out.
11:42
Speaker 3: Nobody knew who it was.
11:44
Speaker 2: All they could hear was his voice, along with the
11:46
Speaker 2: spectral tape sounds being looped out of a small DIY
11:49
Speaker 2: tower of high fi equipment, something the Head's all called
11:53
Speaker 2: the Nowhere Mind, and it was bleeding out from behind
11:56
Speaker 2: a raggedy army blanket hanging from the ceiling. Frank was
12:00
Speaker 2: behind it too, sitting crosslegged on the floor in front
12:03
Speaker 2: of the psychedelic public address system he'd commandeered, rocking back
12:07
Speaker 2: and forth and repeating his mantra over and over again
12:11
Speaker 2: into a cheap microphone.
12:13
Speaker 3: Fuck God Up with the Devil.
12:15
Speaker 2: Frank was spooked by the square on the scene. His
12:18
Speaker 2: unconscious registered something odd about the dude. His hair was long,
12:22
Speaker 2: well long enough. It was blonde, parted on the side
12:26
Speaker 2: and growing over his ears in that disheveled but still
12:28
Speaker 2: conservative kind of way that Robert Redford was making famous.
12:32
Speaker 2: But his clothes were him kind of, at least raggedy
12:35
Speaker 2: blue jeans in an untucked Oxford standard college kid garb.
12:39
Speaker 2: But his boots, his boots, that was it. Frank thought
12:43
Speaker 2: the boots too black, too shiny. Dude was a nark,
12:46
Speaker 2: had to have been Fuck God Up with the Devil.
12:50
Speaker 2: Frank normally would have confronted the guy. Frank was no
12:53
Speaker 2: shrinking violet. He was a hell's angel, a real outlaw.
12:56
Speaker 2: In another life he was a pirate, and in a
12:58
Speaker 2: life previous to that of king. But here and now
13:01
Speaker 2: he was a stoned paranoid, diminutive version of his otherwise
13:04
Speaker 2: badass self, and the acid was just too strong even
13:08
Speaker 2: for free will and Frank, this Asley dude knew what
13:13
Speaker 2: he was doing. His acid was next level. Literally, He
13:17
Speaker 2: and his old lady, Melissa, a Berkeley chemistry major, formed
13:20
Speaker 2: a quote unquote research group and paid Psyclochemical Corporation for
13:25
Speaker 2: bottled by sergic monohydrate to make professional grade psychedelic drugs,
13:30
Speaker 2: which was all perfectly legal at the time, but the
13:33
Speaker 2: acid Ousley was making was far better than anything being
13:37
Speaker 2: amalgamized in dirty bathtubs by heads scattered about northern California.
13:42
Speaker 2: Ousley's acid was legend the best in the world, and
13:45
Speaker 2: it fueled Ken Kesey's acid tests, a psychedelic social experiment
13:50
Speaker 2: where party goers would gather to blow their minds on
13:52
Speaker 2: acid in large rooms full of strobe lights, sound effects, music,
13:56
Speaker 2: and other sensory delights or terrors, depending on what kind
13:59
Speaker 2: of trip any particular person might be having. And the
14:02
Speaker 2: acid tests were the vanguard of what was becoming the
14:05
Speaker 2: hippie movement, the sonic boom of what we now referred
14:08
Speaker 2: to in shorthand as the sixties, and this movement was
14:12
Speaker 2: fueled by Alsie's powerful LSD, sometimes too powerful for even
14:17
Speaker 2: him to handle.
14:18
Speaker 3: But he had a trick.
14:19
Speaker 2: Whenever the trip would get too heavy, he would lean
14:22
Speaker 2: into the music that the acid test house band was playing.
14:26
Speaker 2: The band was incredible, and that band was the Grateful Dead.
14:30
Speaker 2: Alsie had never heard anything like them before. Their sounds
14:34
Speaker 2: seemed to chase itself around in a circle. Underneath the
14:36
Speaker 2: pulsing strobes and in between the blinking tracers. It was
14:40
Speaker 2: one exhilarating high straight into another, sonic clarity of the
14:44
Speaker 2: highest order. It was grounding and compelling at the same time.
14:49
Speaker 2: But Ken Kesey had no tricks, and there was no
14:52
Speaker 2: such thing as any trip being too heavy for KESI,
14:55
Speaker 2: so there was nothing to trick himself out of other
14:57
Speaker 2: than reality or sanity. Kesey lost cause, honestly thought the
15:01
Speaker 2: CIA got to him early. That early acid they shoveled
15:05
Speaker 2: into him was too strong. It changed him for good.
15:08
Speaker 2: There was no coming back from it. So the acid
15:10
Speaker 2: tests were his way of bringing in as many squares
15:13
Speaker 2: as he could on to his level because the rest
15:15
Speaker 2: of the real world was now closed off to him.
15:18
Speaker 2: The acid tests were Kesey's attempt at bending the world
15:21
Speaker 2: to his Bend reality. But if it weren't for Kezi,
15:25
Speaker 2: Osley never would have met the grateful Dead. So he
15:27
Speaker 2: owed the no neck prankster that much, but other than that,
15:31
Speaker 2: he regretted ever meeting him. He was more trouble than
15:33
Speaker 2: he was worth. A walking cop magnet rolling up and
15:36
Speaker 2: down the pch in a psychedelic school bus detailed with
15:40
Speaker 2: a Daglo hallucinatory mural, with bt icon Neil Cassi at
15:43
Speaker 2: his side, and a group who called themselves the Mary Pranksters,
15:47
Speaker 2: always on road trips and always on acid trips, handing
15:50
Speaker 2: out LSD to civilians like Candy. He might as well
15:52
Speaker 2: have had freew on Frank's prison Buddy tattoo arrest Me
15:55
Speaker 2: across his forehead. It was Kezy who first introduced to Bent,
16:00
Speaker 2: and Bent spooked Owsley out, something about his intense stare
16:04
Speaker 2: in a disregard for all things hip that was so
16:07
Speaker 2: effortless that it was somehow cool. Bent was post hip,
16:10
Speaker 2: and it scared Olsley. Even his name Bent, the hell
16:14
Speaker 2: kind of name was that?
16:15
Speaker 3: So cool?
16:16
Speaker 2: Squares can't be that cool? Something was up with that guy.
16:20
Speaker 2: Bent was death at his door. Olsley knew it, and
16:22
Speaker 2: Alsie could have sworn he saw Bent milling about the
16:25
Speaker 2: crowd of stoneheads earlier, which, if it was true, would
16:28
Speaker 2: have been entirely fucked up. Olesley was paranoid spiraling, so
16:33
Speaker 2: he queued in on Jerry Garcia, who was spiraling himself
16:36
Speaker 2: musically in the best way possible. Through the opening Wrists
16:40
Speaker 2: of Death Don't Have No Mercy or foreboding blues Dirge,
16:43
Speaker 2: originally done by Reverend Gary Davis. The band had emerged
16:47
Speaker 2: from whatever far out plane they were on previously and
16:50
Speaker 2: settled effortlessly under the dark star. Garcia was nearly whispering
16:55
Speaker 2: the lyrics. The rest of the band stirred menacingly beneath him.
17:00
Speaker 2: Garcia's guitar every note pitch perfect and pointed straight at
17:04
Speaker 2: Ousley's temple.
17:05
Speaker 3: Olsie could feel it.
17:06
Speaker 2: Garcia hit the second chorus, gave Death his due, and
17:10
Speaker 2: then exploded into the guitar solo. The band rose up
17:13
Speaker 2: below him like a seaquake, whipping him into a tidal
17:16
Speaker 2: wave of sound. Olesley held on tight, scanned the room
17:19
Speaker 2: for a life preserver, found none. Felt the pull of
17:22
Speaker 2: the acid undertoe tumbled over backward into some deep oceanic void.
17:26
Speaker 2: Passed freewheel in Frank's spectral madness, until he landed flat
17:30
Speaker 2: on his back, so hard that.
17:32
Speaker 3: He get the wind knocked out of him.
17:34
Speaker 2: He gasped for air, his jaw ached like he'd been
17:37
Speaker 2: punched hard by someone who meant it. He could feel
17:40
Speaker 2: the cold floor on his cheek, his chin perched over
17:43
Speaker 2: his left shoulder. He blinked, opened his eyes. There, inches
17:47
Speaker 2: away from his nickel sized pupil's black shiny boots. He
17:51
Speaker 2: turned his head, looked up, and there he was death
17:55
Speaker 2: staring down at him, in the form of Maximus Bentley
17:59
Speaker 2: Scottsdale the aka bent Alesley, closed his eyes and prayed
18:04
Speaker 2: for another tidal wave. We'll be right back after this
18:09
Speaker 2: word word word. The backside of the hill was steep,
18:17
Speaker 2: and there was no doubt about it. The brakes on
18:19
Speaker 2: this Volkswagen shipbox were shot behind the wheel. Ken Kesey
18:23
Speaker 2: stomped on the brake pedal regardless what else was he
18:26
Speaker 2: going to do? The tall Victorians on Ashbury Street were
18:29
Speaker 2: quickly becoming a passing blur as Kesys borrowed VW bug
18:33
Speaker 2: gathered speed, each revolution of its wheels more reckless than
18:37
Speaker 2: the last. Keysy held on and there was only one choice.
18:40
Speaker 2: Crashed this bug into something forgiving before someone, namely himself,
18:44
Speaker 2: got hurt, real hurt.
18:46
Speaker 3: He knew what he had to do.
18:48
Speaker 2: Midway down the hill, he could see them both, both
18:50
Speaker 2: houses coming up quick on one side of the street
18:53
Speaker 2: seven to ten Ashbury on the other seven point fifteen Ashbury.
18:57
Speaker 3: Kesey had a choice.
18:58
Speaker 2: Seven to ten was the home with Grateful Dead and
19:01
Speaker 2: they wouldn't mind a small German economy vehicle in their
19:03
Speaker 2: living room, would they. Kesey hated to do it. He
19:06
Speaker 2: loved Garcia and the boys. The seven point fifteen was
19:09
Speaker 2: the home of the local Hell's Angels. Kesey had soured
19:12
Speaker 2: on the Angels recently free will and Frank was freaking
19:15
Speaker 2: everyone out.
19:16
Speaker 3: Fucking go the bug gathered speed.
19:20
Speaker 2: The Victorian zip by local hippie stood up on their stoops,
19:23
Speaker 2: wondering why and the hell some dude was speed racing
19:25
Speaker 2: through their mellow.
19:27
Speaker 3: Fuck it, Frank had it coming.
19:29
Speaker 2: Kesey cut the wheel to the left the last minute
19:31
Speaker 2: and crashed the car dead into the bay windows of
19:33
Speaker 2: the Hell's Angels rented home in seven point fifteen Ashbury Street,
19:38
Speaker 2: about twenty yards up the street, bent shook his head
19:41
Speaker 2: in disgust, threw his cigarette to the ground, and walked
19:44
Speaker 2: off in anger. It would only be a matter of
19:47
Speaker 2: time before the local cops showed up, and that was
19:49
Speaker 2: all he needed. Some mouth breathing baton, twirling blue Meati
19:52
Speaker 2: stumbling blind through the accident scene and blowing his cover.
19:56
Speaker 2: Inside seven to ten Ashbury, ales Ley and Garcia ran
19:59
Speaker 2: to the window to catch what all the.
20:01
Speaker 3: Commotion was about.
20:02
Speaker 2: Oh shit, Keezy fucked up good this time. They decided
20:06
Speaker 2: to split before the angels got too heavy. They'd seen
20:09
Speaker 2: this movie before, so they bailed for the Hate.
20:13
Speaker 3: Hate.
20:13
Speaker 2: Ashbury in nineteen sixty seven was the epicenter of American counterculture,
20:18
Speaker 2: the effect caused by the sonic boom of Kesey's acid tests.
20:22
Speaker 2: It's where tied i and two fingered peace signs were invented.
20:25
Speaker 2: It's where the first ever head shop opened its doors.
20:28
Speaker 2: In short, it was Plymouth rock for hippies, and they
20:31
Speaker 2: were fueled by Ossli's acid. All of their psychedelic dreams,
20:35
Speaker 2: their idealistic counterculture delusions sprung from the influence of AlSi
20:39
Speaker 2: via his spiritual interpretation of chemistry, and it was all
20:42
Speaker 2: soundtracked by the Grateful Dead, whose presence on the scene
20:46
Speaker 2: was ubiquitous. They played constantly whenever and wherever they could
20:50
Speaker 2: pizza places, acid tests, free public concerts, house parties, the
20:54
Speaker 2: film or the avalon at Winterland At the Human Being
20:58
Speaker 2: and the Dead were in large heart surviving as a
21:01
Speaker 2: band because of Osley. He bankrolled them, paid for their equipment,
21:05
Speaker 2: their sound system, their travel when they needed it, and
21:08
Speaker 2: even their rent from time to time. Therefore, Alsi's influence
21:12
Speaker 2: on what would become known as quote unquote the Sixties,
21:16
Speaker 2: that sprawling catch all phrase used to describe not only
21:19
Speaker 2: the turbulent decade, but also everything the Baby Boomers affected afterward, politics, media,
21:25
Speaker 2: social programming, advertising. In all of that, Alsi's influence is undeniable.
21:31
Speaker 2: The sixties were America's tipping point. In Ousley, through the
21:35
Speaker 2: manufacturing of his illicit LSD and patronage of the heavily
21:38
Speaker 2: influential Grateful Dead, was the one shoving the culture off
21:42
Speaker 2: into the deep end. Authorities were understandably in a panic.
21:47
Speaker 2: Their world was no longer recognizable to them. Men dressing
21:50
Speaker 2: like women, women dressing like men, and children suddenly asking questions.
21:55
Speaker 2: It was all spinning out of control. But authorities had
21:58
Speaker 2: only themselves to blame, because it was a CIA who
22:01
Speaker 2: turned on Kesey, who turned on Osley, who turned on
22:04
Speaker 2: the grateful Dead, who turned on the world, Which was
22:06
Speaker 2: why Bent was there to keep an eye on it
22:09
Speaker 2: all and to report back to his CIA higher ups
22:12
Speaker 2: if and when things started to spin out of control.
22:15
Speaker 2: So Bent made Elsie a pet project. He knew AlSi
22:18
Speaker 2: would trip up bad enough, and when he did, Bent
22:20
Speaker 2: would be there to make sure he didn't get up.
22:23
Speaker 2: Alsie met Bent at one of the first keezy parties
22:25
Speaker 2: he'd attended, at least he thought he did. He remembered
22:28
Speaker 2: his name, Maximus Bentley Scottsdale the third, so similar to
22:32
Speaker 2: his Augustus Alsley Stanley the Third, and he remembered his
22:36
Speaker 2: dress jeans Oxford, also similar to what Osleie wore. The
22:40
Speaker 2: Oxford gave away his blue blooded background, the shiny boots
22:44
Speaker 2: gave away his profession. Bent Red narked Olesley from the
22:47
Speaker 2: second he laid eyes on him, And there he was
22:50
Speaker 2: leaning casually against the lamp post in broad daylight. Right
22:54
Speaker 2: there on the hat, Alsie grabbed Garcia by the shoulder.
22:57
Speaker 2: There Garcia turned to look toward where Ozley was pointing
23:01
Speaker 2: but saw nothing. Bent, if he was there at all,
23:04
Speaker 2: was gone. Garcia was used to this. Bent was Olsie's
23:07
Speaker 2: white whale. Garcia heard a lot about him, but never
23:10
Speaker 2: saw him, though Olsley swore at least two three times
23:13
Speaker 2: a week that he'd encountered this Square joed Nark, who
23:15
Speaker 2: threatened to bring the whole shithouse down. This went on
23:19
Speaker 2: for years, as Bent clocked Osley in the dead, reporting
23:22
Speaker 2: back to Langley any and all transgressions, and trying in
23:25
Speaker 2: vain to keep a lid on the spiraling counterculture to
23:28
Speaker 2: prevent it from spilling out any further into the mainstream.
23:32
Speaker 2: Olesley was eventually arrested for possession of one hundred grams
23:35
Speaker 2: of LSD, but a sympathetic judge led him off easy
23:39
Speaker 2: with probation. Then in New Orleans, Osley was busted down
23:43
Speaker 2: on Bourbon Street with the Grateful Dead. The band got
23:45
Speaker 2: off easy, but Osley, because he was on probation, was
23:48
Speaker 2: sent to federal prison for two years. Bent and his
23:52
Speaker 2: Cia handlers back in Langley were satisfied, but the band
23:56
Speaker 2: played on. Jerry Garcia came down with the rest of
24:20
Speaker 2: the band after the solo. He always loved his song
24:23
Speaker 2: Morning Dew, the post apocalyptic day after stroll through nuclear annihilation.
24:29
Speaker 2: Despite the song subject matter, there was something so peaceful
24:33
Speaker 2: about it. Garcia stabbed his strings lazily and played off
24:37
Speaker 2: with Bobby's open chords. The band kept the song moving
24:40
Speaker 2: behind them, and they were all feeling it. Then Garcia
24:44
Speaker 2: did something he seldom ever did. He walked out from
24:47
Speaker 2: behind his mic to the center of the stage. He
24:50
Speaker 2: took a pass at a lead fill. The crowd, pitched
24:53
Speaker 2: by this slight aberration in form was at full attention.
24:58
Speaker 3: Jerry passed at another lead riff.
25:00
Speaker 2: The crowd responded on masks with a loud but spattered cheer.
25:04
Speaker 2: A conversation had begun between one man and fifty thousand fans.
25:08
Speaker 2: It was a conversation that began some twenty years ago
25:12
Speaker 2: and suffered through fits and starts over the years.
25:15
Speaker 3: More people joined in.
25:17
Speaker 2: However, lately the conversation had grown old and uninspired, but
25:21
Speaker 2: not tonight. Something about tonight's rendition of Morning Dew had
25:25
Speaker 2: Jerry playing on his front foot. He scaled the neck
25:28
Speaker 2: of his guitar again, another beautiful lead riff, this one
25:32
Speaker 2: pulling the rhythm section up underneath him, and when it did,
25:36
Speaker 2: the whole stadium seemed to levitate for a split second.
25:40
Speaker 2: Garcia pulled back. He let Brent have them on the
25:43
Speaker 2: keys and surveyed the crowd as he walked slowly over
25:45
Speaker 2: to stage right. He could see them now, every last
25:49
Speaker 2: one of them, and they were all part of this
25:51
Speaker 2: free counterculture he created, almost by accident, though he'd never
25:54
Speaker 2: take credit, nor did he want it, and there were
25:57
Speaker 2: many to credit for what the Bravefula had grown into
26:00
Speaker 2: or to blame for what the grateful Dead had grown into.
26:02
Speaker 2: It all depended on Garcia's.
26:04
Speaker 3: Point of view. On that particular day, he felt Brent
26:07
Speaker 3: wrapping up his solo.
26:09
Speaker 2: When the band landed, Garcia plucked at his strings playfully.
26:12
Speaker 2: He was teasing them now, and they loved it. It
26:15
Speaker 2: was almost showmanship, but not quite. The connection was too real,
26:20
Speaker 2: the connection between the musician and the crowd, between the
26:23
Speaker 2: crowd and the band, between the band and the culture.
26:26
Speaker 2: They sounded great, and Garcia thought of AlSi, because Elsie
26:30
Speaker 2: deserved a lot of the credit for the greatness of
26:31
Speaker 2: the Dead's live sound.
26:33
Speaker 3: Crazy fucker that he was.
26:35
Speaker 2: After he got out of prison, he applied his alchemy
26:37
Speaker 2: skills to sonic engineering and designed to build the Grateful
26:40
Speaker 2: Dead's famed Wall of Sound, a forty foot high, state
26:44
Speaker 2: of the art stereo sound system comprised of more than
26:46
Speaker 2: six hundred speakers. Technically speaking, the Wall of Sound was
26:50
Speaker 2: years ahead of its time. It was a towering monument
26:53
Speaker 2: to creativity and imagination, and it allowed the Grateful Dead
26:57
Speaker 2: to develop their live sound faster and better than any
27:00
Speaker 2: any of their contemporaries, and to therefore reach and develop
27:03
Speaker 2: a much larger and more impassioned audience through their live
27:06
Speaker 2: shows throughout the seventies and early eighties, even after AlSi
27:10
Speaker 2: had long since departed, split off the grid to live
27:13
Speaker 2: in the rainforests of Australia. The Dead's popularity exploded largely
27:18
Speaker 2: because of the way Olsley helped them envision their on
27:20
Speaker 2: stage sound. First it was his patent at LSD, and
27:24
Speaker 2: in the seventies it was his patented sound system. By
27:28
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five, thanks in part to Augustus Alsley Stanley
27:31
Speaker 2: the Third, the Grateful Dead were bigger and more influential
27:35
Speaker 2: than ever. It drove Bent mad, and with Alsley off
27:39
Speaker 2: the grid, he set his sights on Garcia. By now
27:43
Speaker 2: hard drugs had firmly established themselves in Jerry Garcia's daily routine.
27:48
Speaker 2: Jerry Garcia got Hi a lot when he wasn't on stage.
27:52
Speaker 2: It was just about all he could do. The band's
27:55
Speaker 2: popularity made it so he couldn't leave his hotel when
27:57
Speaker 2: they were on tour, and there were too many fans
28:00
Speaker 2: milling about who wanted something from him in autograph, a,
28:02
Speaker 2: joint tickets, the keys to life's unanswered questions, you name it.
28:06
Speaker 2: He seldom left his property, but when he did, he
28:08
Speaker 2: could be spotted zipping around Marin County or Greater San
28:11
Speaker 2: Francisco in his newish black BMW three series. Bent knew this,
28:18
Speaker 2: and so Garcia was easy to spot. On January eighteenth,
28:22
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five, he rolled into the parking lot at
28:25
Speaker 2: San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, killed the engine, checked the
28:29
Speaker 2: rear view. There was a man at the payphone, dark sunglasses,
28:33
Speaker 2: wayfarers Robert Redford looking quaff, Oxford jeans, black boots. Garcia
28:38
Speaker 2: heard Osley's voice in his head, and in a moment
28:41
Speaker 2: of paranoia, looked down to his stash on the passenger seat,
28:44
Speaker 2: then back to the mirror again, and the dude was gone.
28:48
Speaker 2: He shook it off, probably nothing. Garcia dipped into his
28:51
Speaker 2: briefcase where he kept his drugs. He pulled out a
28:54
Speaker 2: brown paper bindle of heroin, keyed its contents, dipped his
28:58
Speaker 2: nose to the car key, snorted and tilted his head
29:01
Speaker 2: back and let the smack slide down the back of
29:03
Speaker 2: his throat. He then grabbed the tinfoil and tongs he
29:06
Speaker 2: had in the briefcase. He took another bindle, this one
29:09
Speaker 2: made of paper torn out of an old Playboy magazine
29:12
Speaker 2: courtesy of his old friend. Heth and dumped its contents
29:15
Speaker 2: cocaine onto the tinfoil. He took a glass straw, placed
29:18
Speaker 2: it between his lips, fastened the tinfoil with the tongs,
29:22
Speaker 2: held it over his lap, lit the lighter below, and
29:25
Speaker 2: it quickly heated up the coke, turning it into smoke.
29:28
Speaker 2: Garcia proceeded to suck the smoke through the straw perched
29:31
Speaker 2: between his lips. The cocaine hid his bloodstream hard. It
29:35
Speaker 2: tangled immediately with the heroine and his system. Together, the
29:38
Speaker 2: two pushed and pulled at his consciousness, and then a
29:42
Speaker 2: hard fill of knocks on the BMW's passenger side window.
29:46
Speaker 2: Garcia took a second to register what was happening, and
29:49
Speaker 2: then turned his head, expecting to see wayfarers, but instead
29:52
Speaker 2: saw his reflection in a pair of aviators resting on
29:55
Speaker 2: the baby face of some John Ponchorello looking motorcycle cop
29:59
Speaker 2: shouting at him to roll down the window. In his stupor,
30:02
Speaker 2: Garcia made a half assed attempt to hide his stash,
30:05
Speaker 2: but it was no use.
30:07
Speaker 3: He was busted.
30:09
Speaker 2: As he was being cuffed, he looked up and swore
30:11
Speaker 2: he saw the Quift Redford clone grinning at him from
30:14
Speaker 2: the other side of the parking lot. He blinked, refocused
30:17
Speaker 2: his eyes, and the square was gone. Garcia was hauled
30:20
Speaker 2: in and in no time released on seven thousand dollars bail.
30:23
Speaker 2: He received a relative slap on the wrists for possession
30:26
Speaker 2: of heroin and cocaine. The harmonies sounded great, Everything sounded
30:34
Speaker 2: great when the Dead played the song. It was that good,
30:37
Speaker 2: a perfect pop song, five minutes long, but it felt
30:40
Speaker 2: like three A hook to beat the band, any band,
30:43
Speaker 2: a monster riff, and the lyrics that kept on giving.
30:46
Speaker 2: In those harmonies they conjured some of the Dead's best work,
30:50
Speaker 2: Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. But those records were a
30:53
Speaker 2: long time ago seventeen years. In fact, it was now
30:57
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty seven and the Dead were in the middle
31:00
Speaker 2: of five sold out shows at Madison Square Garden. They
31:03
Speaker 2: were bigger than ever thanks to this song, A Touch
31:06
Speaker 2: of Gray. It hit number nine on the Billboard Pop
31:09
Speaker 2: charts and rocketed The album appeared on in the Dark
31:12
Speaker 2: to number six. More importantly, it sold and sold again,
31:16
Speaker 2: eventually going double platinum. The Grateful Dead to this point
31:20
Speaker 2: were massively popular, stadium headlining popular, but with the release
31:25
Speaker 2: of Touch of Gray, they went from being a popular
31:28
Speaker 2: touring band to being one of the world's highest grossing
31:31
Speaker 2: bands and transformed into a cultural institution. Deadheads were no
31:36
Speaker 2: longer survivors of the sixties, holding on to some bygone era.
31:40
Speaker 2: The Dead, now with a top ten hit, appealed to
31:43
Speaker 2: a whole new generation. The size of their crowds swelled immensely.
31:47
Speaker 2: They played the packed stadiums and indirectly presided over massive
31:50
Speaker 2: parking law parties that sprung up around their shows. When
31:54
Speaker 2: the Dead came to town, it was a party unlike any other,
31:57
Speaker 2: and they were drawing almost as many fans to the
31:59
Speaker 2: party outside of their shows. Kids who couldn't get tickets
32:02
Speaker 2: as they were drawing paying customers for the Grateful Dead.
32:06
Speaker 2: They simply didn't make stadiums big enough anymore, and it
32:09
Speaker 2: didn't matter how many nights they performed. From eighty seven
32:12
Speaker 2: to ninety four on, they did five and six night
32:15
Speaker 2: stands at Madison Square Garden in December of nineteen ninety two,
32:19
Speaker 2: continuing through February nineteen ninety three, they completed eleven sold
32:24
Speaker 2: out shows at the massive Oakland Coliseum. And of course,
32:27
Speaker 2: throughout the eighties and nineties, right across the street from
32:30
Speaker 2: Whitey Bulger's Lancaster Street garage, the Grateful Dead invaded Boston
32:35
Speaker 2: for multiple five and six nights sold out stands at
32:37
Speaker 2: the Boston Garden. One can only imagine what was going
32:41
Speaker 2: through the mind of the Boston gangster who, while the
32:44
Speaker 2: prisoner at Alcatraz in the fifties, willingly participated in the
32:47
Speaker 2: government's acid tests as part of the mk Ultra program
32:50
Speaker 2: in exchange for a reduced sentence.
32:52
Speaker 3: But I digress.
32:54
Speaker 2: When it came to the Grateful Dead's power to sell tickets,
32:56
Speaker 2: you get the feeling that if it weren't for city
32:58
Speaker 2: officials crying on enough already with the free love, drugs
33:02
Speaker 2: and sex happening on our city streets. That the Dead
33:05
Speaker 2: could have kept on playing and selling tickets for months
33:07
Speaker 2: at a time in any venue they chose, no matter
33:10
Speaker 2: the size. And here was the result spread out before
33:13
Speaker 2: Jerry Garcia. As he hit the chorus and touched a
33:16
Speaker 2: gray he could see them all, the spinners, the war frats,
33:20
Speaker 2: the frat boys, sticker nippleheads, tapers and bass heads in
33:23
Speaker 2: the fill zone and they were all there, as they
33:25
Speaker 2: were every night, and they were free. That's what it
33:29
Speaker 2: all amounted to. Freedom, and that's all the Dead wanted
33:32
Speaker 2: to be free, and that was the whole point. Jerry
33:36
Speaker 2: Garcia and his bandmates saw the Grateful Dead as being
33:38
Speaker 2: wholly American, and wasn't that what America was all about?
33:42
Speaker 3: Freedom?
33:43
Speaker 2: The freedom to do what you want, to be, who
33:46
Speaker 2: you want, live how you want. For the band, up
33:49
Speaker 2: until this point, it had worked. They'd avoided the straight
33:52
Speaker 2: world their entire adult lives and created something totally unique,
33:55
Speaker 2: and that thing inspired millions to reject the society that
33:58
Speaker 2: they believed infringe upon their freedom. So Deadheads followed the
34:02
Speaker 2: band on tour, lived off the grid, outside of society's
34:06
Speaker 2: clutches and by their own code freedom absolute just that
34:10
Speaker 2: they had seen the band live for their entire career.
34:13
Speaker 2: So the band played on and for most of their
34:16
Speaker 2: time as a band, despite the copious amounts of drugs thereon,
34:19
Speaker 2: they sounded great and achieved a state of musical transcendence
34:23
Speaker 2: through improvisation that no band before or since has ever
34:26
Speaker 2: achieved in rock music.
34:28
Speaker 3: But don't take my word for it.
34:30
Speaker 2: Lenny K, guitar player for the great Patti Smith Group,
34:33
Speaker 2: literally one of the coolest and most influential guitarists ever,
34:36
Speaker 2: said as a grateful dead that their music touches on
34:39
Speaker 2: ground that most other groups don't even know exists. Lenny
34:43
Speaker 2: was right, but that sacred ground was seldom reached by
34:46
Speaker 2: the time their early nineties had rolled around. Musically, despite
34:50
Speaker 2: their success, they were a walking corpse. But the Deadheads
34:54
Speaker 2: it didn't matter. The music wasn't as important as the lifestyle.
34:58
Speaker 2: A roving carnival Mary pranksters.
35:01
Speaker 3: By way of P. T.
35:02
Speaker 2: Burnham, Deadheads were chasing an experience, an idea, something they
35:06
Speaker 2: heard their cooler older brothers and sisters talk about, something
35:09
Speaker 2: they too needed to experience, something they'd never quite be
35:12
Speaker 2: able to grasp and would destroy millions of brain cells,
35:15
Speaker 2: chasing through football stadium, parking lots and European hostels in
35:19
Speaker 2: search of capturing It didn't matter so long as they
35:22
Speaker 2: remained free in their pursuit. But now what the band
35:26
Speaker 2: had created was so big, so encompassing, that it had
35:29
Speaker 2: become a prison of their own making, and Jerry Garcia
35:32
Speaker 2: felt it the most. After all, he was the mayor
35:35
Speaker 2: of crazy Town, the jolly, psychedelic teddy bear that fans
35:38
Speaker 2: looked up to, emulated, it wanted to be, and worshiped.
35:41
Speaker 2: Having literally elevated him to godlike status, it freaked them out.
35:46
Speaker 2: He became even more shut in and descended deeper into
35:49
Speaker 2: hard drug use, which was making it harder to deliver
35:52
Speaker 2: a night after night, it harder to bear the weight
35:54
Speaker 2: of responsibility that he felt for his bandmates who counted
35:57
Speaker 2: on him, for the fans who believed in him, and
36:00
Speaker 2: for the Grateful Dead's expansive crew and their families over
36:03
Speaker 2: fifty in counting, who relied on them. He couldn't just
36:07
Speaker 2: quit and let them all down. He couldn't fuck off
36:09
Speaker 2: at night after a show and walk the city streets
36:12
Speaker 2: to clear his head. He couldn't even go for a
36:14
Speaker 2: ride in his beam or be driven around by his
36:16
Speaker 2: bodyguard and his caddy. He'd be recognized, harassed, arrested, or worse.
36:21
Speaker 2: The only place he was safe was the stage, and
36:24
Speaker 2: that had become a rough slog. The crowds were so
36:27
Speaker 2: massive that making any connection with the audience was near impossible.
36:31
Speaker 2: It was so unlike the Acid tests and a far
36:33
Speaker 2: cry even from Playboy after Dark. And it wasn't like
36:36
Speaker 2: Garcia could doos a stadium of sixty thousand. Besides, Osley
36:41
Speaker 2: was long gone, so there was nothing left but blues
36:44
Speaker 2: and the key of bummed the fuck out. Garcia was trapped,
36:47
Speaker 2: imprisoned by the freedom monster he had created. In early
36:52
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three, he told Bridge Meyer, you know I
36:55
Speaker 2: can do it. I can quit, leave the band. I
36:58
Speaker 2: can I can live off the ice cream. Garcia was
37:01
Speaker 2: referring to the royalties from the popular Ben and Jerry's
37:04
Speaker 2: Cherry Garcia ice cream flavor that was named after him,
37:07
Speaker 2: from which he received and estimated two hundred thousand dollars
37:10
Speaker 2: a year for the rights to his likeness.
37:12
Speaker 3: But it was all talk. He would never quit.
37:15
Speaker 2: He felt too much obligation that or straight up trapped
37:19
Speaker 2: for Garcia.
37:20
Speaker 3: There was no more freedom in playing in the band.
37:22
Speaker 2: It was a cell, and the irony was rich, given
37:25
Speaker 2: that the band's motivation for being a band in the
37:27
Speaker 2: first place was the pursuit of freedom. The Grateful Dead
37:31
Speaker 2: had formed a group mind when they began living together
37:33
Speaker 2: on seven to ten Ashbury, bound by powerful psychedelic trips
37:37
Speaker 2: they'd taken together. Nothing bonds a group of people like
37:40
Speaker 2: shared psychedelic experience, and nothing strips life to its purest goals.
37:45
Speaker 2: In psychedelia, you find out who you truly are and
37:48
Speaker 2: what you truly want. And what the Dead wanted was freedom,
37:51
Speaker 2: freedom through music.
37:53
Speaker 3: And what the Dead.
37:53
Speaker 2: Wanted was to be playing in a band together and
37:55
Speaker 2: not to have to answer to anybody. In pursuing freedom,
37:59
Speaker 2: they created their own sovereign nation of Deadheads, flying a
38:03
Speaker 2: freak flag of red, white and blue, a steelier faced
38:06
Speaker 2: skull with the white lightning dividing the red and blue
38:09
Speaker 2: parts of the brain, a logo which Olsley had originally designed.
38:13
Speaker 2: By the way, the Dead's philosophy of freedom is the
38:16
Speaker 2: type of American beauty that is more closely aligned with
38:19
Speaker 2: what the founding fathers had envisioned than what American reality
38:23
Speaker 2: has become, where we are divided into safe high as
38:26
Speaker 2: a group think rather than freed by the power of
38:28
Speaker 2: our individualism, and Jerry Garcia knew this. In the end,
38:34
Speaker 2: it was all too heavy for him to shoulder the crowds,
38:37
Speaker 2: the fame, the failing musicianship, the paranoia, the man in
38:41
Speaker 2: the mirror, and the man behind the man in wayfarers.
38:44
Speaker 2: Garcia was freaked out, paranoid and hurting, a physical mess
38:48
Speaker 2: from years of heroin, cocaine and LSD use, cigarette smoking,
38:53
Speaker 2: a poor diet, and diabetes, but still quitting the Grateful
38:57
Speaker 2: Dead wasn't an option, so he attempted to quit drugs
39:00
Speaker 2: instead to clean up his act before agreeing to go
39:03
Speaker 2: back out on the road for another tour. He checked
39:06
Speaker 2: himself into the Betty Ford Clinic in nineteen ninety five,
39:10
Speaker 2: and then, motivated and sensing a new beginning, doubled down
39:14
Speaker 2: and checked himself into the Serenity Knowles Rehabilitation Center, but
39:18
Speaker 2: it was too late. On August ninth, nineteen ninety five,
39:22
Speaker 2: eight days after his fifty third birthday, Jerry Garcia's heart
39:26
Speaker 2: gave up and quit everything for alas he was totally
39:31
Speaker 2: free I'm Jake Brennan and miss is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was
39:45
Speaker 2: created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with
39:47
Speaker 2: Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on
39:50
Speaker 2: the show notes page at.
39:51
Speaker 3: Disgracelamdpod dot com.
39:54
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Speaker 2: you for supporting the show.
39:58
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40:00
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Speaker 2: one brand new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes,
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Speaker 2: special audio collections, and early access to merchandise and events.
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Speaker 2: Visit disgracelampod dot com slash Membership for details, Rate and
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Speaker 2: review the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,
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Speaker 2: and Facebook at disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot
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Speaker 2: com slash at disgracelampod Rock a Roller, He then Man