How Did You Become a Deadhead? Upcoming NPR Feature.

2 nights as a high school freshman  at Radio City hook line and sinker

It's Complicated.

I sure wouldn't want to be the person assigned to listen to all of those voice mails.

^^^Truth!  Especially when so many will be Dead & Co fans who never saw GD live. Wonder if they'll distinguish on that detail. 
I don't think the younger segment listens to NPR anyhow.

was born a...

>I sure wouldn't want to be the person assigned to listen to all of those voice mails.<

(that's hilarious)

>>>Especially when so many will be Dead & Co fans who never saw GD live<<<

Young Dead & Co fans are no different than any other generation of dead heads. Their stories would be more or less the same and more or less as annoying as any other, and maybe not as annoying since the huge, traveling shitstain Shakedown/lot scene that attracted so many late era Grateful Dead heads has in modern times turned into a much smaller, cleaner, more organized scene.

Without the traveling mooch of parasitical wooks who in their last 5 - 8 years overwhelmed the GD there will likely be almost no D$C head story like, "I became a dead head while on lot, when The Fam chose to Pin me after I learned to forage through the garbage for the fat off of chicken sandwiches, which was perfect to add to the communal stew. THAT'S when I truly became part of the community maaaaaan!"

I didn't make that story up BTW, it was once told to me almost verbatim, and that type of tale is what could lead NPR staffers to quit their jobs, or at least hate dead heads.

It's a shame Pole Guy isn't alive. A brief clip from veneta 72 would be worth a thousand words. 

Lance, why not just call in that wook story?    Let's see if it gets featured. ;-)

Reading the line about the fat from chicken sandwiches turned my stomach.  ewww.

Lance that was not an ordinary wook - that was Anthony Bourdain in disguise.

"What if chicken fat was the new liquid gold? What if the deepest flavor of our dishes was hidden in an ingredient relegated to the discard? Not all dishes that shine and have intense flavor are achieved using butter as a fat. The alternative? Schmaltz.

For years, animal fat was viewed with suspicion. Between the demonization of cholesterol and the "light" craze, there was a time when cooking with lard or poultry skin seemed like a thing of the past. But like everything that has flavor and substance, some of those fats are making a comeback. And one of them (almost relegated to oblivion) and now unexpectedly vindicated, is schmaltz, a slow-melted chicken fat that today is making a comeback in kitchens with more substance. It is not new. Nor is it exotic. But it does have something that many oils lack: character."

https://en.petitchef.com/articles/schmaltz-the-secret-of-many-chefs-and-...

A very close friend had good access (in the 70s) to the band and hung out at Millbrook (Leary's place in NY). He was a very intriguing character, and he always seemed to have quality powders of interest to the band. Consequently, the band embraced him. I was already going to other shows at least once a week, sometimes 4x. He offered me backstage access. I passed, saying I'm about the music. To that end, I made sure I was where the sound was sweet. Show me what you got! Eventually I met all but Weir. Jerry and Phil, I found, were the most interesting.  In hindsight, what they created as a group was the REAL GOLD imo. In the early days, the "community" was compelling and felt like my people. So in the end I went based on the urging of a friend. 

So, my sophomore year in college ('72-73) I met a guy from Long Island named Larry who says he's seen the GD 19 times. That's quite intriguing considering he's only 18 years old. I'd heard of them, and "Truckin'" was a minor FM radio hit, kinda' catchy, but surely no LZ "Hearbreaker/Livin' Lovin' Maid." I was seeing most of the hot bands of the day (Stones, Tull, Led Zep, and Alvin Lee was my main guitar hero.) 

Well, Larry pops for 7 tickets (5.50 apiece, and, yes, I paid him back) so a bunch of us head to Buffalo 3/31/73. They blew the roof off the place with energy I'd never seen before. One instant Deadhead. I turn to Larry on the way out and said "THESE are my people". Couldn't wait for my next show...        Watkins Glen!

The next 53 years since have been one long you-know-what.

About ten days after graduating from high school, a classmate of mine had an extra for the 6//20/83 Merriweather Post Pavilion show with the epic thunder, lightning, and rain.   I dosed on LSD for the first time, shared holding a tarp over our heads on the lawn while the rain poured down with a stranger who twisted up a fatty and smoked us out, watched people slide down the lawn through the mud at intermission, saw lightning hit the stage during He's Gone and knock the sound out for a few seconds without the band missing a note, and waded through waist-deep waters after a small creek flooded and washed out a footbridge to get back to our car in the parking lot after the show.  It was a baptism of sorts.  Didn't fully jump on the bus until Summer Tour 1985, but I was hooked and started seeing them whenever the opportunity presented itself.

I like that, but I think of it this way:  1985 Summer Tour™.

Summer 72. Working (as an educational assistant) at a summer camp. The Stones where playing a show in Boston Gardens that I really wanted to see. Stupid camp wouldn't let me take the night off. Meanwhile the kitchen staff (and many others) where really into this band that I knew very little about. They would play two albums over and over (& over) again.  Scull Fuck & Ace. The albums seemed all right, but I had no idea what the hoopla was all about.  The same week of the Stones concert, the kitchen staff bought 44 tickets for this afternoon shoe at Dillon Stadium in Hartford Ct.  They also rented a bus to drive out to Hartford. Still pissed that I couldn't get to the Stones show, I figured what the heck, an outdoor afternoon shoe might just make for a fun day off. There was this rumor going around that the Allman Brothers might show up. (Dickey, Berry & Jaimo did join in the fun). A day later the kitchen staff all wanted to go see this Allman Bros shoe in Gaelic Park in the boogie down Bronx. (Jerry, Bob and Bill returned the favor by sitting in). The camp said the kitchen staff couldn't take the next night off, so they all quit and went anyways. I wasn't quite ready to join them, so I stayed at camp. That afternoon show in Hartford convinced me to catch this band every chance I could (while still going to school and then having various day jobs) which I pretty much did for the next 23 years. I finally got to see the Stones at MSG in 1981. That was a swell shoe but I'm still happy about missing that 72 Stones Boston Garden show & catching that afternoon Dillon Stadium shoe in its place. 
 

It's Complicated

^^same lol

Dave that's badass you've got your stub

((((((Dillon))))))

don't consider myself a "deadhead" like most of you

more of a Grateful Dead enthusiast

 ^ Same here, the GD were just a part of my program. 

Stubs - I have a ton from my first couple years. Later, a friend printed their tickets, so we had poster-size sheets of tickets.  We also had poster size sheets of ALD-52. 

Crazy Days