Music goes way back before language does. And music is like the key to a whole spiritual existence which this society doesn't even talk about. We know it's there. The Grateful Dead plays at religious services essentially. We play at the religious services of the new age. Everybody gets high, and that's what it's all about really. Getting high is a lot more real than listening to a politician. You can think that getting high actually did happen - that you danced, and got sweaty, and carried on. It really did happen. I know when it happens. I know it when it happens every time.
'Europe '72' came out right around the time that I started going to see the Dead, and it had a huge impression on me.
I don't really have a favorite bass player. I listen to a lot of bluegrass. But then again, I'm not a typical bluegrass bass player. I was really into the Grateful Dead, and I still am - I don't listen to them too much, but for me they are a big influence.
By the time Sonic Youth formed in 1981, my musical tastes had left the Dead behind, but I was always very proud of the fact that we had three different singers singing individually from different points of view, like the Dead.
I used to be into the Grateful Dead, so I understand the Phish thing.
I know about Woodstock probably as much as your average person who is over 30, where I'd know Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead.
I'm a fan and a friend, I met them in 1974 when I first joined the NBA and my life has never been he same since. I became the basketball player I was because of the Grateful Dead.
When I grew up and went to school, all the cool kids were in Carhartts and Mudd boots, and they were listening to the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers and driving Volkswagens.
My relationship, my friendships with Grateful Dead, has shaped me. Our house is a shrine to all our musical heroes.
'Europe '72' was a super influential record full of fantastic songs and amazing experimental musicianship. I always valued both of those aspects in what Sonic Youth has done through the years - being able to get very abstract and very concrete within the same song.
Back in the days, the groups and the bands that we listened to were like Earth, Wind and Fire, Santana and Grateful Dead. We don't have a lot of those bands anymore.
During the course of my life, Grateful Dead played all the time. There were constantly concerts you could go to.
I remember the last time the Grateful Dead played in Seattle, at the Seattle Center. I was living there, and after the show, I was walking to work near there, and I'd never seen so much debris. There were mountains of garbage.
Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead did as much for mankind as any president.
I love the Dead. As far as Jerry Garcia, Jerry Garcia could walk on water. He could do anything any man could ever do. He's a prince.
I like a lot of other music and listen to a lot of other music, but one of the greatest things about the Grateful Dead is they played all the time.
When you strip it all away, Jerry Garcia (former Grateful Dead guitarist) destroyed his life on drugs. And yet hes being honored, like some godlike figure. Our priorities are out of whack, folks.
Head's all empty, I don't care,' he'd sing to me, quoting the Grateful Dead, and I'd force a smile, thinking that my head was never empty and that if it ever was, you could be darn sure I'd care.
I saw the Dead in '73 at Nassau Coliseum, and that same year, I saw them at the crazy, big Watkins Glen festival. It was just outrageous. It was amazing to see the reciprocity between them and their audience.
I had this fantastic collection of Grateful Dead T-shirts and live concert music the band had give me over all these years, decades of material, and when our boys became teenagers they started going through everything and wearing the shirts and listening to the music and that's what the Grateful Dead is all about.
There was always so much encouragement, to just really take it and run with it, from Deadheads.
Jerry Garcia was a great American master and the Grateful Dead are not just a genuine piece of musical history, but also an important part of American history.
There are all kind of corners of the musical world that are deeply influenced by the Dead that one wouldn't expect. Lee Ranaldo is a crazy Deadhead.
When I heard Grateful Dead music, I knew that it was the most powerful force on the planet.
I always hated the Grateful Dead. Never even bought a Led Zeppelin album.
