When The Official Home of Unofficial Grateful Dead and Music News was born in January, it was really just a place for me to tell jokes and entertain myself while everyone else argued on message boards. My first couple of satirical articles were copied and pasted on a couple of Grateful Dead Facebook Pages. Someone suggested I start a blog and I had no idea how to go about doing that. One thing lead to another and here we are. I never really had any hopes or expectations for any of it, I just figured I could have some fun and help the time go by while waiting for the shows. In the process I gained quite a few friends and a handful of haters. Neither mattered much really as neither had much of an impact on my daily life.

Fast forward to yesterday when my phone rings and Peter Shapiro is on the other end. When I got the call, I couldn’t help but laugh as I realized the impact of what started as just another avenue to express some creative energy, most of which was comedy, all of it initially a joke… The joke has taken on a life of its own and that’s just as hilarious. Through our brief conversation it became obvious to me that Pete Shapiro cares about all of this more than he’s really required to. I’m not going to divulge any information that was exchanged at the moment but I will say that there’s more to come. The problems that have occurred can and will be settled within our family. It was obvious to me that Shapiro gives a shit about the community and he’s interested in putting on THE BEST show possible as well as doing what he can to satisfy a fan base that has really never been very easily satisfied. I respect him for it. I’d encourage people to give it some time before talking to media outlets outside of our community. I assure you that Peter cares more about what’s going on within our community than some reporter from the Chicago Tribune.

I looked at my phone tonight and there’s a text from Peter asking me if I had a few minutes to chat. Peter’s humility and honesty was incredible. I’m a nobody with a blog and the promoter of the biggest shows in 20 years is on the phone again. I’d like to publicly apologize to Peter for the absence of respect I may have displayed over the past few days, weeks or months. I don’t apologize for bringing up the issue because the issue is absolutely being resolved. It’s being resolved in as Bold and Unprecedented a fashion as I’ve ever seen with all parties involved in complete agreement. It applies to those who purchased their tickets through GDTSTOO only. I’m gonna let Peter’s upcoming letter give you the details but it’s a solution that is much bigger than I expected. If you’re not satisfied once the resolution is offered, or if you have anything shitty to say about the band, the money or Peter Shapiro, you might be an asshole too. Naturally there will be those that find fault in damn near anything, you’ll recognize them when they post…

For now, I hope you can sit tight. A solution is coming…

Dead To The Core,

Dean Sottile (pronounced So Tilly)