NPR Music - The Ripple Effect: Deadheads share their stories

Episode Date: August 9, 2026

At the outset of The Ripple Effect, NPR Music’s series on the Grateful Dead, we asked fans to share stories about how they fell in love with the band. The response was overwhelming: wry, emotional and personal. It was overflowing with shared experiences that underline exactly how crucial the community that surrounds the Dead is to the band’s legacy.Now that we’ve reached the end of Days Between, we’re closing The Ripple Effect by listening to voice memos from you: Deadheads and people who love Deadheads, lifelong fans and late converts. We’ll hear about first shows, encounters with the musicians and multiple cross-country road trips.Check out all of our coverage from The Ripple Effect: The Grateful Dead's long, strange trip might keep going foreverHosts: Felix Contreras, Isabella Gomez SarmientoAudio Producer: Noah CaldwellEditors: Jacob Ganz, Hazel CillsVisuals: Jackie LayExecutive Producer: Suraya MohamedExecutive Director: Sonali MehtaSupport public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

From NPR music, I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Isabella Gomez, Armiento. I was dreaming about the Grateful Dead the other night. And I have been more than usual lately. What was the dream? It was sort of work-related. It was around getting some audio for this project that we're doing. And it wasn't working.

And some guy, random guy, just gave me a solution. It was like, it could have been a Grateful Dead song if everybody had names and characters. It was a little weird. Like a taper came to your rescue. He was like, no worries, dude. I have recording equipment you can use. He was sort of like that. He was like a wise, sage guy who'd come by.

He's like, I know the answer. If you do this and you fix this. And then I'm like, oh, cool. And then he just, like, he disappeared. That's amazing. I have also been having a lot of dreams related to the dead, but mostly about being in the parking lot and, like, trying to find someone

or trying to get to my car or trying to, like, do something. And everyone around me is just like, chilling and selling tie-dye socks and doing all their other stuff and I can't figure out where I'm supposed to go. And then I just kind of give up and hang out and have the greatest time. There's the lesson in life right there. Yeah. And I think the reason why all of this stuff is even in our dreams these days is because we're on the tail end of working on this amazing series, the ripple effect, the Grateful Dead's long, strange trip might keep going forever. We're also

the tail end of Days Between. That's right. And, you know, Days Between is something we celebrate every year. It marks, you know, from August 1st, the celebration of Dario Garcia's birth, all the way to August 9th, the anniversary of when he died. But this summer has been a little bit different. It's the first one in decades where there hasn't been an original member of the Grateful Dead on the road. And we knew that people would still be looking for ways to get together. We knew people would still be wanting to listen to the music. So we decided to go out, different parts of the country, talk to fans, talk to musicians, talk to archivists, and understand how the Grateful Dead built this massive legacy and where it goes from here.

So we put together some podcasts. We wrote some pieces. There's a wonderful photo show online. You can find at npr.org slash grateful dead, all in the purpose of trying to figure out what happens next with Grateful Dead and music and the fans. But we also knew that there were so many pockets of dead communities that we weren't going to be able to get into in our reporting. So that's why we put out a call out, asking Deadheads to let us know what they love about the Grateful Dead's music, how they connect to the culture and what they might say to people who are trying to dip their toes into the Grateful Dead Extended Universe and haven't quite been able to.

So today we're going to listen to some of those responses, which I think Felix has been a really, really fun experience to dig into some of these voice memos we received. Yeah, you said there were hundreds that we split up and divided between ourselves. I think we both came away with the same impression. It's just being overwhelmed with the love of various things, the music, the fans, each other, the stories. Let's just get right into it because there's some really good stuff. So the first one that I want to play is from a woman named Alexis Taylor. Hi, my name is Alexis Taylor, and I live in Park City, Utah. In 1992, I went to visit my sister

at American University in Washington, D.C. And we got in her car with her boyfriend and a good friend of theirs, who was a taper, and drove to Charlotte, North Carolina to see two shows. I was 15 years old, and it changed my life. And my sister and I continued to see shows together whenever we could. Up until Jerry died in 1995, we were both devastated and we weren't sure what was going to happen. But by that time she was living in San Francisco, and I was visiting her, and we went up to Mill Valley. We had heard that Bob Weir was going to play at the Sweetwater Bar in Mill Valley, where he lived. And after we saw him play there, we just knew.

that the music would go on and the band would continue to play together however they could and we were just so grateful that they did in 2023 we got together again my sister and I to see dead in company in Los Angeles and we were able to bring our kids back to see them which was just such a special moment for us bringing my 15 year old daughter to see her first show when she was the same age as I was when I saw mine. And then during the show, my son turned to me, he was 10, and he said, this is the best concert ever, and it just made my heart. I mean, you know, so happy.

So, you know, we're so grateful that John Mayer joined them, and hopefully he continues their legacy. He is such a special person and a special musician. We have hope for the future and that the music will never stop. Lots of multi-generational stories. I love that. much. I know. And talk about like just moving across the country, right? She starts out on Utah. She goes to Washington, D.C. They go to North Carolina. They're in San Francisco. They're in Los Angeles. Like,

the way that travel and movement is baked into the Grateful Dead experience and seeing the country is baked into the Grateful Dead experience is just so special. Okay, I want to play one now that really caught me off guard. It was very, like, I didn't even expect it. So let's check it up. Hi, my name's Adam. I'm calling from Salt Lake City, Utah. My first introduction to The Grateful Dead was the album Not for Kids Only, a folk album by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman that my parents played for me when I was a kid. I continued listening to the duo in albums like Shady Grove and the Pizza Tapes and eventually made my way over to The Grateful Dead as a teenager with the album Blues for Allah.

When I really got into The Dead, though, was in my 20s when I started listening to live shows while working on organic farms. Farming can be monotonous work, and listening to dead shows provided me with an engrossing journey to accompany my long hours of driving tractors or weeding and harvesting vegetables. It turns out many of my fellow farmers

shared my love for the music, and so when we worked together, we would chat about which years we liked most and why, what keyboardists played in which era, or the numerous musical connections we could draw between the dead and folk country or Americana music. This is the heart of why I like,

the dead, and what I would tell people who have not yet discovered their inner deadhead. The grateful dead are alive. They play incredibly rich and playful music, accompanied by engrossing lore and a strong community, culminating in endless possibilities for discussion. After years of banter around the dead, I have come to discover the core of why their music hits my soul so strongly. While the music of the dead is firmly rooted in a longstanding folk tradition, they are not afraid to take their fellowship on a quest into the unknown, into places of discomfort that are almost too much to handle. Yet, they are always coming home to the familiar, warm, flannel-line nostalgia evoked by music rooted in folk tradition. I hope that you too can listen to the dead, go on an incredible journey,

and return home feeling warm. Again a journey. Oh my God. Right? Yeah, and this idea of like being outside, being one with the land, you know, during the series, we went to Moni Rio and California, which is like a small little rural town to cover a performance by Phil Lush's son, Graham Lush. And I feel like a lot of the people that we talked to out there was a pretty rural area. And a lot of people talked about homesteading and farming and connecting that with the music and with the stories. I mean, it's just really, it does evoke like a lore, like he said. And he also mentioned the idea of a journey. And in his case, an inner journey going to wherever it is that he wants to get to, as a lot of people do with the music.

Yeah. Okay, I'm going to take us back a little bit. This is an older story. And it's from a name some people might recognize. My name is Alan Arkish, and I'm in Los Angeles, California. The first time I saw The Grateful Dead was in New York City at the Cafe O'Gogo in 1967, in June of 1967. Two years later, I was working at the Fillmore East. I was a member of the stage crew, and it was a Saturday afternoon, and my job was to bring the beer and soda up into the empty dressing rooms before the bands got there. It was about 5 o'clock, and I walked into the Grateful Dead's dressing room, and sitting there was Jerry Garcia, all by himself, just playing guitar in the late afternoon backlight.

I'm talking about the young Jerry Garcia, read and smoke. So, I apologize. I said, Jerry, I have to fill the coolers. And he said, man, do what you got to do in the nicest possible way. Now, I'm feeling like I got to make some small talk. I said to him, you know, I really like that album you just put out oxymoxa, especially the song, Mountains of the Moon. And I said, Jerry, do you ever play Mountains of the Moon live?

You think you'll be playing it tonight? And he said, no, man, I love the song, but it's just not on our set list. And I said, all right, okay. And I went back to filling up the cooler. And all of a sudden, I heard his guitar play the intro to Mountains of the Moon. and he sang the whole song to me there in the dressing room as I sat at his feet. Oh, my God. I said, thank you, Jerry.

And he said, later, man. And that started a friendship that continued until he passed away. That was beautiful. The Jade Merchants started. Mountains of the moon, Electra Bell, and bend to me. That was beautiful. Yeah, and I don't know, Felix, if you're familiar with Alan Arcush. I knew that name sounded familiar, so I looked him up.

He's a film director. He did have a very long friendship with Jerry Garcia. He was working at the Film War East in New York City while he was in film school, NYU. And then he went on to make the film Rock and Roll High School with the Ramones. Have you ever seen that movie? Oh, my God, yes. Wow. Yeah, and I saw that movie for the first time during the pandemic,

because a guy that I met into the parking lot of a dead-and-company concert was like, You have to see this movie. The Ramones are the other great American rock band. Wow. That's full circle, man. I know. All roads lead back to the Grateful Dead. And it's so lovely to hear from someone who had that kind of relationship with Jerry.

So thank you, Alan, for sending us that beautiful story. Okay, I want to play a clip from a woman named Deb Trest. She is a member of the Grateful Dead family and a member of a family that you and I are part of, Issa. Listen to this. In 1972, I was a woman. I was working at the New Yorker magazine, and I met Bear Augustus Stanley at a repair store. He was the Dead's sound engineer at the time and invited me to three shows they were performing in Jersey City. I met the band, and a month later, drove across country to California.

I ended up working for the dead in their office, met my husband, who was one of their managers at the time. It was a life-changing experience, and I now do a show called Dead Air on public radio in Eugene, Oregon. I was on KLCC NPR station for 35 years. and now am on K-R-V-M public radio music-oriented also in Eugene. There's nothing like a Grateful Dead concert. Oh, my God. How cool is that? That's really incredible.

I love how so many of these stories start with someone being like, and then I just got in my car and drove across the country to go see this band. You know, it's funny how life could have ended up. ended up completely different. I've had a full-time job since I was 19. So I couldn't just, like, take off, right? Which may have saved me, maybe it prevented me from having other great adventures, but it landed me where we are now. But that's the whole idea. It's like, I was never able to take one of those journeys. And looking back and hearing some of these stories, like, well, I wish I've been able to do it at least once. But you have, like,

you always tell me about driving to Vegas with your buddies for The Dead Show. You went to the sphere. You saw them at Madison Square Garden. Yeah, I guess I... I feel like you did your share of cross-country dead in your own way. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Thank you for pointing that out. Yeah. I wasn't driving in a VW van, but it was on the Amtrak to MSG.

So that worked. That counts. That counts for something. During the series, we've talked a lot about how this fandom is so multigenerational, how, you know, you could have people who first listened to the dead in the 1960s, people who are encountering the dead for the first time today, and just how impressive it is. to watch music that so many different people can relate to from so many different walks of life.

So I'm going to play us a little something from someone named Carrie Carpenter. So NPR wants to know how you became a deadhead. First of all, tell me your name and how old you are and where you live. My name's Amelia. I live in Asheville, North Carolina, and I'm 10. So tell me how you became a deadhead. Well, my parents love Grateful Dead a lot, and Asheville is like one of the last hippie places on Earth, I feel like. And, like, everywhere in Asheville has, like, a lot of hippie shops.

And, like, I really like Grateful Dead. When did you first hear a Grateful Dead song that you really loved? Do you remember that? Probably when I was, like, one or two. What was the first one that you... Friend of the Devil. What do you like about Friend of the Devil? It's like, well, my dad always used to sing it to me.

It was like a lullaby for me kind of. I was like, I don't know. I really like Rick the Bed. I lit out from, you know, I was trailed by 20 hounds. Didn't get to sleep that night till the morning came around. Sit out one, but I take my time. My time, a friend of the devil is a friend of my hide. I get home before daylight.

Just might get some sleep tonight. That is a wise 10-year-old, man. I know. I know. And you know, thank you to Carrie for asking Amelia those questions on our behalf. I just love hearing them go back and forth. I think it's so sweet. You're a dad.

Yes. Did you ever play The Grateful Dead for the Boys? Yes, I used to sing. Funny, she mentioned that, because I used to sing Friend of the Devil to both of the boys. I was pushing them around in the stroller when they were different ages. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that was one of the songs I used to sing around in the neighborhood when I was pushing them around.

And I just talked to my youngest son, Joaquin, he's going to be 23 this year. And I asked him, you never really got into the dead. He says, well, I'm not ready for it yet. He said, okay, take your time. So he thinks eventually, eventually he might be. He's very musical. He listens to a lot of stuff. He listens to all the stuff that they listen to, the jazz, the blues, the folk.

He just hasn't come around. Just like you said, you just got to. When you find that place in the river that's flowing and you want to dip into it, then you'll find it. Absolutely. Okay, so my experience with the Grateful Dead, my partners have never been into the Grateful Dead at all. At one point, at one point we were banned from listening to it in the car because it was just like not compatibility. And sometimes that happens. That's kind of a common story for a lot of people.

You mean she didn't want to listen to 40 minutes of Dark Star in the car with you? Imagine that. What kind of personality flaws is that? And it happens sometimes. And I heard a testimonial from a guy I just had to play. And I think to protect his wife's identity, this guy only identified himself as just the letters DNA. Check this one out.

I was lucky enough to grow up in the Northeast during the 1970s in the New York Station, WNEW, would play entire Grateful Dead shows live from Englishtown from Capitol Theater. And then I got hooked immediately. I just felt like this was my music. I never felt that before. And saw my first show in 78 at Giant Stadium with 80,000 other people and never stopped going. Saw a jury about 500 times.

And my wife doesn't understand the band, really. One time I played a song for her that had a really long jam. And at the end, she goes, oh, I finally understand the Grateful Dead. I was like, what is it? She goes, when they stop playing, it feels good. Oh, my gosh. I could just imagine a smirk on her face. You know, that's valid, though.

I think the Dead is not for everyone. And something I really appreciated while we've been talking to Deadheads this summer is a lot of times we'll ask them this question of like, what do you say to people who can't get into the dead? Or what do you say to people who don't appreciate the music? Right, right. And I think a lot of times people have been like, that's okay, man. You just can't force people into it. Like, you know, this really laid back approach of like you can try, you can share your favorite songs.

But it's not, we're not evangelizing here, you know? Like, you kind of got to just let people find it in their own time. Okay, so just as the dead always had a break in the middle of their shows, we need to take a break right now. We'll be right back. And we're back. All the people in the back take one step back. And another step back.

And another step back. Because your friends up front are getting crushed. If you know, you know. It's a Bob Weir announcement for the shows that people are getting crushed in the audience. Okay. We've been going through all of these incredible responses that we've gotten from deadheads over the last few weeks. We've gotten hundreds and hundreds of voice memos of people telling us what they love about the Grateful Dead, how they stay connected to the culture, what they tell

people who are maybe trying to find their footing into the Deadhead world and haven't been able to. And I want to play us something from a guy named David Polo. My name is David Polo from Marsville, Vermont. Well, I first saw the Dead at Woodstock. My first real Grateful Dead concert wasn't until March 20. 20th of 1970 at the Capitol Theater in Portchester. However, I became a deadhead in November of 69 after live dead came out. At the time, I declared St. Stephen to be the heaviest song of all time, and it still is. That's very specific.

Honestly, it stood out to me because it was so short. I feel like a lot of the voice memos have been these long stories, and I like the punctuality of like, these are the dates, these are the shows. And this is my song. St. Stephen with a rose in and out of the garden, he goes. Country garden in the wind and the rain. Wherever he goes, the people all complain. Okay, I have one.

This is Jim LaBrie. This was funny. I grew up in Phoenix where a high school friend and I saw my first dead show in 1980. I spent most of that night watching the crowd, paying very little attention to the music. Afterwards, I remember telling my friend that I didn't really understand what we had just seen, but I thought it was pretty cool. My second show was the following year, and I finally started to pay attention to the band, with some pointers from a deadhead seated next to me.

During the second set, after a fantastic estimated profit, the dead began playing He's Gone. But I was confused by the song being played at a much slower tempo than the version that's on Europe's 7th. I quickly asked my new friend, why are they playing it so slowly? He sort of half smiled and looked at me and said, are you in a hurry? Right then, I was hooked. Do you have a song, Felix, that like there's a particular show or a particular performance of it that really stands out for you in that way.

It just sounds different or something about it really calls to you? Not really. It's mostly like moments, right? Like I was able to see Dead and Co. At a Halloween show at Madison Square Garden. And a bunch of stuff happened. And people were dressed. It was just this amazing, amazing scenario, just getting into the building. And then while we're sitting there, the lights went down, like the show was going to start.

And then a single spotlight focused right in the middle of the floor. and there was this really tall dude standing there and it was Bill Walton, the basketball, the pro basketball guy who was famously a very, very big, big, literally big, tall deadhead. And the crowd went crazy. They just erupted, and he just sort of waved his hand.

It was so nice, man. And then about 20 minutes later, the band came out and killed. But that was, moments like that were just really, really special. Well, you know what I remember about that show is that that show was like a couple of weeks after I had first met you. And we were, and then I remember I ran into, we had talked about the Grateful Dead in the office. That was how we were getting to know each other.

And then I ran into you on a Friday, on a Thursday or a Friday, I ran into you in the office. And you were like, I'm thinking of going to see Deaden Company at Madison Square Garden. And I was like, Felix, you should totally do it. You should go. And you were like, you think so? I had to like take the train up and then you had something else going on that weekend. You're like, then I have to come back right away. And I was like, just go.

You should so go. And then you did. I did. I took the train up and I went to the show and had another like 2 a.m. bus on the way back. I slept on the bus because of you're right, something else was happening that week. I remember that show because of that Bill Walton incident and because of the horrendous ride to and from, the most uncomfortable bus ride ever. But it was definitely worth it. You were on the bus, literally.

You know who I also saw it at Dead & Company show one time was Susan Sarandon, like standing right. It was like she was right behind John Mayer like off stage, but I could see her the whole time. She was so locked in. I was at a dead and company show here in D.C. And I was with a friend of mine and somebody told us, yeah, we just saw Nancy Pelosi walking through the lobby. She was a huge deadhead. It is a huge deadhead. Wow.

Yeah. And, you know, it's not just Bill Walton, Susan Saran. Brandon, Chloe 7-Ye, all these famous people that hang out at shows. I think another one that became very pervasive over the years at the Dutting Company shows was Andy Cohen. Felix, how familiar are you with Andy Cohen's work? You know what? Not very much at all, man. You got to get on the Housewives, you got to get on the Housewives, grind.

If he's a deadhead, I got to acknowledge his work, man. Exactly. So he's like a reality TV mogul. He hosts a show on Bravo, watch what happens live with Andy Cohen. He does the New Year's Eve specials with Anderson Cooper. and he is executive producer of the Real Housewives franchise. And for years, there would be these videos of him, especially at the sphere shows. People would, you know, take videos of him sort of dancing around, wearing his Grateful Dead shirts, having a time of his life.

And we got to talk to him about his relationship to the Grateful Dead. I found it really moving that Andy Cohen had a lot of, like, really sweet little anecdotes to tell us about his time following the dead through different parts of his life. And for anybody that wants to read more about his journey, that interview is on our series at NPR.org. as I said, I'm embarrassed to admit that I wasn't familiar, even though he's all over popular culture. But, you know, Felix, that's not the first time. Felix was ignorant of popular culture in my entire life. But after the conversation with him, you know, obviously I'd like to know more about his work, but also about how the band just impacted everyone from across all strata, like just different.

We heard from a farmer. We heard from this guy that, you know, the TV professional, like just regular people. the conversation with him really impressed me about how everybody has a different way into the band, but the reaction is all more or less the same, very loving, very accepting, and you feel like you have a place. That's what I got out of the conversation. Yeah, and I think everybody talks about that community, like being together, experiencing the music in a group.

I feel like we haven't really talked to many people who didn't bring that up organically as we were talking about what the dead means to them. I feel like the word community is something that just came up again and again. And on that note, I'm going to play you my last clip. This is from someone named Autumn Marie. My name is Autumn Marie, and I'm calling from New Samarina Beach, Florida. I did not grow up a deadhead. I was exposed to Grateful Dead music, but I was young and graduated high school the year that Jerry Garcia died.

So I was certainly impacted by that, but not like some of my friends who were just really into it. I listened enough that when I married my husband, we included a quote from Pigpin, two souls in communion, body and mind in our wedding imitation. And Ripple was one of our dance songs, so it definitely moved me. But just as a listener, and I definitely had an appreciation for the skillful tunes. And of course, I loved the covers. And my mom was a huge fan of the blues, so I recognized a lot of those. I experienced a lot of losses beginning in 2020 with COVID and everything that

followed and my mom and mother-in-law both died within a year of each other and way too young and unexpectedly. My husband and I were experiencing a really profound grief and just felt like our lives were falling apart. We both went to some really good therapy and made some really good goals and one of those was being to go out and see music locally once a month just to get out there and enjoy ourselves and meet some people, people who didn't know our sad stories and to maybe make some new stories. and it turns out there is a huge and tremendous dead scene where we live. What started as music once a month has grown to be a community of people who really love each other and who really enjoy dancing, and now it's more like once a weekend.

I would call myself a deadhead now because I have grown and healed immeasurably by the joy in the music and the love that the listeners have and the anticipation of waiting for the next song that will be played and how excited everybody is about anticipating the next song. I believe that the dead community in my town saved my life. And I feel a little teary when I say that, but it is very true. I started over with them with trust and hope that this small thing, which started is just a couple of hours of music a month, could inspire some energy and curiosity and make some new connections,

and it has done so much more. Last weekend, I met this community three nights in a row, And we couldn't wait to say we're looking forward to seeing each other next weekend for the beginning of the days between. Thank you, NPR, for inspiring these beautiful memories and sharing these beautiful stories. You know, that's what I get paid to talk about this stuff. And sometimes just, especially when it comes to this band, it's very difficult. And what I get out of listening from all the clips last night and the last couple nights, And then today is just like we all have the same.

People who are into the band, we all have the same reaction all the way across. And it's very difficult to describe. I think everybody's words give us a hint. But it's just the tip of the iceberg because that connection to the music, to the crowd, to the community, it's so profound. And it's like a secret handshake. you see a bumper sticker on a car or something, and you just, again, you can't describe it to someone else and then have them appreciate it.

They have to experience themselves if they're going to experience it. But I think that one of the things I learned from doing this series and talking people and talking musicians and everybody else is that it's, you just know. That doesn't describe anything in particular, but you just know. It's like there's a shared communication, spiritual, You know, connection, you just know.

And that's what I'm getting out of these stories. Yeah, it's a really deep kinship. And I like that you say communication, because I think so often when we talk about the Grateful Dead as a band, as the people on stage, and the jamming and the improvisation, so much of it is led by how they're able to communicate with one another. But I think the way that that's something that's really happening

between the people and the audience and the people in the community. I love this story so much because it's not even about being. at an official dead show or necessarily about, like it is about listening to the songs, but it's really in what you find with the people around you and having that shared experience and how meaningful that can be, especially at a time of loss. I mean, we talked about this a little bit, Felix, when we were reporting the series, but I lost someone very close to me right before we started reporting on this. And it was someone, it was my deadhead buddy.

It was the person I used to go to shows with. And I knew it was probably going to be really difficult to spend the time. summer, like, listening to this music and engaging with that again. But it was so healing. Like, I had so many moments at shows where, like, a song just spoke to me differently or a song reminded me of him in a different way. And I think that, like, feeling like you're being held by everyone around you as you're all kind of working through what you need to work through is really, really powerful. And I'm so grateful for all of the people who shared stories about those experiences, because going through them over the last couple of days, there were a lot that had to do with

this idea of loss and grief and like healing and finding a new beginning. And I think that that says more than we ever could, I think, about the power of the music. With that in mind, I think I want to wrap this up. I'm going to play two clips that reflect both an end and then a beginning on this journey with Grateful Dead music. The first is from Tracy Schroeder. This is Tracy calling from Durham, New Hampshire. The first time I heard the Grateful Dead. it was at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City in the late 70s.

I had gone to see Whel and Willie with friends, and there was this warm-up band. I didn't know them. They took forever, played drums forever, and then it started to rain, further delaying Whelan and Willie. I was not a fan. Years later, when I married my husband,

a serious deadhead, my friends reminded me of that performance. I realized I might have to change my opinion or at least come to some sort of acceptance. In our almost 32 years of marriage, I went to 32 Grateful Dead concerts, many dead cover bands, and several Dead and company shows. Our first dance at our wedding was to Sugar Magnolia. We traveled with good friends to the West Coast, Canada, Paris, and London to see them.

When the band would do six-night runs in Boston, my husband and his best friend, both doctors would drive the hour to see them all six nights, never missing a day of work. I didn't have that kind of energy, nor did our friend's wife. We called ourselves the deadettes, following our men from show to show. Somewhere along the way, I came to more acceptance. I came to really like them and look forward to their concerts, though maybe not to the extent of a true deadhead. My husband had the best smile, and nothing made him light up more than a dead concert.

Even if I hadn't come to enjoy the music, I would have loved the band just for that smile. Our daughter's first exposure to the dead was at a concert in San Francisco while I was pregnant with her. She was incredibly active during drums and space. As she grew up, we took her to many concerts dead related. My husband loved sharing the music and his passion with her. My husband passed away six years ago. When he was sick, he asked that four songs be played at his memorial service. Broke down palace, ripple, addicts of my life, and Franklin's Tower.

At a service, Grateful Dead music played as people walked in, many of them at our request, wearing tie-dye. During her eulogy, our daughter shared how watching, everyone walk in, reminded her of a Grateful Dead concert. Now, every time I hear a Grateful Dead song, I think of my husband. I think of the joy the music brought him and the joy it brought our marriage, our family and the life we built together. I may always think of myself as just a deadette rather than a true dead head, but the Grateful Dead will forever hold a special place in my heart. And now I'll play a clip that was just so that I don't cry on the mic. But now I want to play a clip that's on the other end of that, the beginning, from Jordan Jacobovitz.

Hi, this is Jordan from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Because my parents controlled the radio in the car, the Grateful Dead were the soundtrack of my childhood. I remember lying across the backseat of our Chrysler town and country, falling asleep to American Beauty on the drive's home from my grandparents' house. Now I'm a dad, and my kids won't go to bed without a song. Most nights, they request track six from American Beauty, Ripple. A few decades later, and the dead are still tucking us in.

Oh my gosh. It always comes back to ripple. In the series and in life, you know. If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine and my tunes were played on the heart of strung, would you hear my voice come through the music? Would you hold it near? As it were your own, it's a handmaid down. Felix, we spent the summer going to different dead shows, different kinds of gatherings,

different parts of the country. I'm curious if there was a moment that stands out to you from those reporting trips. Just anything that you remember seeing or anything that's really stuck with you from that time out on the road talking to Deadhead. It was early on when we started doing the reporting, I was outside of a venue in Baltimore for an O-Till Burbridge show. And, you know, of course, he's a bass player, and he played with Dead and Company. And this guy, older guy, seen him in the 60s.

And he's like, yeah, this is the first summer in 60 years when an original member hasn't been out on the road. And we framed this whole series about what happens next. But the way he put it, like these consecutive summers that he'd been out of the road. And it just, that's when it hit me. 60 years is a very, very long time. And these are a lot of fans who have been,

at some point, either the whole time or off and on, stopping to be a parent and coming back later on. Again, the way that people interact with the music and the musicians and the scene, it's left a very deep impression on me, to be honest. It's a very different appreciation

for the people you're standing next to at a show. And as somebody said, at some point, it says, yeah, it's the happiest crowd she's ever been in. Lots of smiles. Everybody's having a good time. You'll bump into somebody and it's like, oh, my God, I'm so sorry. You know, it was like, it's a different thing than any other, any other musical experience that I've had for any other band. Totally.

I think something that really stuck out to me was how much everybody kept referencing the 300 years. Yeah. You know, Bob Weir's vision that these songs were going to last 300 years. And it was something he had said to us in an interview a few years ago, but. I think at every single show, at least five people must have mentioned that every time I want to talk to somebody. And the way that everybody seems to feel like they play some kind of role, they have some kind of collective responsibility in fulfilling that vision. And in the 300 years, like, it just really speaks volumes to how expansive the music and the culture is and how much people want to see it paved forward. You know, it was just incredible every single time.

Someone would be like, well, you know, Bobby said 300 years, so we're here, we're doing our part, we're going to keep going. I wonder where he got 300 years from. Is there some kind of spiritual, cosmic reference? I'll have to ask him whenever I run into him in the next life. In the next one. I'm sure he'll tell you. I'm sure he'll have a lot of stories to tell you. Gone this rope down the palace on my hands and my knees.

I will roll myself This I'm in my time. That brings us to the end of our series, The Ripple Effect. If you want to check out the stories, you can go to npr.org slash grateful dead. Thank you so, so much to everybody

who submitted voice memo's written stories, everyone who took their time to let us know what they love about this band and this culture. Also thank you to the wonderfully talented people here at NPR who help put this together. Our audio editor is Noah Caldwell,

Our editors on this series are Hazel Seals and Jacob Gantz. Nicole Warbeck is the director of NPR visuals. She was in charge of the wonderful visuals from the photographers all over the country. Jackie Lay made the wonderful artwork for this series. So nice, I wish I could put it on a T-shirt. Soraya Mohamed is executive producer for NPR music, and Sinalimeta is executive director of NPR music. And finally, we just want to say a huge thank you to all of the musicians, fans,

archivists, everyone we interviewed for this series, we're so, so grateful for you. Grateful, I get it. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Isabella Gomez-Armiento. Thank you for listening.