

To celebrate what would have been Jerry Garcia’s 77th birthday, we’re looking back on one of the guitarist’s most infamous stories from the “mid-late-60s.”

In the clip below, Garcia, with a permanent smile on his face, recalls hanging around San Francsico’s Fillmore before a Grateful Dead gig.

“This guy who was sort of a famous freak who ran around the scene in those days, comes in and he’s got this big birthday cake… and I’m looking at it thinking, ‘This thing has got to be dosed.'”

However, the cake looked to decadent, and sure enough Garcia took a taste of the icing. “Then, somebody came in and says, ‘Yeah, we put about 800 hits of acid in that frosting,'” he laughs.

Sure enough, a certain “psychedelic roar” and paranoia came over Garcia, and before he hit the stage, he was convinced the crowd was filled with murderous mafiosos. However, he decided that if he performed well enough the imaginary foes would spare his life.

“Ever since then… When I forget what I’m doing or why I’m doing it,” he says in hindsight. “I play for my life.”

Happy Birthday Jerry!

Watch below: