He has been to Bonnaroo in Manchester, TN every year, but 2016. “I saw the Grateful Dead here,” he told me with a smile. Anxious to tell me more he continued, “I remember the first time I saw them in California, they were nothing like they are now.”
While the original group never performed as a whole at Bonnaroo, a band known as “The Dead” did in 2003. The '03 year marked year number 2 for Bonnaroo.
The group known as The Dead was made up of several former members of the Grateful Dead. The group was formed after Garcia’s death.
The original Grateful Dead group formed in 1965. They lost their lead singer who was a founding member in 1995. Jerry Garcia (Jerome John Garcia) was a lead guitarist and vocalist for the group that came to be known in the counterculture era of the 1960’s.
Drug use was far from hidden in the Grateful Dead. In 1970, the band was known to heavily use cocaine and later heroin. Garcia even had a $700 a day habit, which became widely known in the late 1970’s. The band actually held a heroin intervention for Garcia in 1985.
Garcia died at age 53 in 1995 at a rehabilitation clinic. He died of a heart attack. Approximately 25,000 people attended a memorial for Garcia in California 5 days after his death.
So, who is the guy pictured? Just a dude who loves music and once followed the Grateful Dead.