I was at the July 2nd Deer Creek show, where several hundred idiots stormed the back fence and forced their way in, injuring people in the process. In my opinion, the most distressing part of this ugly display was the roar of approval from what seemed to be the majority of us inside the show.

Since my first show in 1973, I've never seen such abhorrent behavior. We're at a dramatic crossroads. If we don't play our cards right the band will stop touring. Here it is, straight from the horse's mouth:

7/5/95

This Darkness Got To Give

Dear Dead Heads:

This is the way it looks to us from the stage:

Your justly-renowned tolerance and compassion have set you up to be used. At Deer Creek, we watched many of you cheer on and help a thousand fools kick down the fence and break into the show. We can't play music and watch plywood flying around endangering people. The security and police whom those people endangered represent us, work for us -- think of them as us. You can't expect mellow security if you're throwing things at them. The saboteurs who did this can only do it if all Dead Heads allow them to. Your reputation is at stake.

Don't you get it?

Over the past thirty years we've come up with the fewest possible rules to make the difficult act of bringing tons of people together work well -- and a few thousand so-called Dead Heads ignore those simple rules and screw it up for you, us and everybody. We've never before had to cancel a show because of you. Think about it.

If you don't have a ticket, don't come. This is real. This is first a music concert, not a free-for-all party. Secondly, don't vend. Vending attracts people without tickets. Many of the people without tickets have no responsibility or obligation to our scene. They don't give a shit. They act like idiots. They think it's just a party to get as trahed as possible at. We're all supposed to be about higher consciousness, not drunken stupidity.

It's up to you as Dead Heads to educate these people, and to pressure them into acting like Dead Heads instead of maniacs. They can only get away with this crap if you let them. The old slogan is true: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

Want to end the touring life of the Grateful Dead? Allow bottle-throwing gate crashers to keep on thinking they're cool anarchists instead of the creeps they are.

Want to continue it? Listen to the rules, and pressure others to do so. A few more scenes like Sunday night, and we'll quite simply be unable to play. The spirit of the Grateful Dead is at stake, and we'll do what we have to do to protect it. And when you hear somebody say "Fuck you, we'll do what we want," remember something.

That applies to us, too.

Phil, Jerry, Bobby, Mickey, Billy and Vince

Here Comes Sunshine

Walking Blues

Dire Wolf

It's All Over Now

Broken Arrow

Desolation Row*

Tennessee Jed

Let It Grow

Scarlet Begonias ->

Fire on the Mountain

Victim or the Crime

It's All Too Much

New Speedway Boogie ->

Drums ->

Space ->

Attics of my Life ->

Sugar Magnolia



E: The Mighty Quinn



*Weir on acoustic guitar, during disgusting mob scene.



JGB Tapes

Dead Tapes

Deer Creek Photos

In Memoriam - Jerry Garcia