Lesh has enough brain cells left to write memoirs

[RonJonSurfer]

Dead Co-Founder Phil Lesh Talks About His New Memoir

Mark Brown - Scripps Howard News Service

The world doesn't need to know more about the Grateful Dead. Definitive books, boxed sets, hours of outtakes, dozens of concert releases, thousands of hours of live material and more makes the Dead easily - easily - the most documented band on the planet.

So it's surprising that "Searching For the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead" actually is essential. While band members have spoken with biographers before, bassist/co-founder Phil Lesh is the first to pen his own memoirs.

"I describe some of the same things that are described elsewhere," Lesh says. "But my point of view is unique. It's also uniquely authoritative, because I'm at the core of the experience."

That's not all that makes it a welcome addition, however. It's Lesh's willingness to address everything. The joy of creating music and seeing the world is well represented, but he's equally comfortable talking about the dark side of the band: the toll drugs and alcohol took and things they could have done differently.

"It needed to be told. The story has its own trajectory. It has a birth, growth, peak, decline and end, just like any organism.

"It does get darker after the peak. But that's what happened. I didn't want to whitewash anything. At the same time, I didn't want to overemphasize any aspect of it. If I was gonna focus on anything, it was how great it really was _ what a transcendental experience it was to play with these guys."

Despite the years of drugs and alcohol (Lesh has been sober for years), his memory for much of the band's life remained clear.

"I started about 18 months ago. I had a dream about one of the acid tests. Everything was so vivid; it was startling how well I remembered everything. I started having flashbacks, literally. I'd be daydreaming or walking along and I'd start remembering these moments. Everything was so clear and so vivid and so detailed, I thought, 'This is interesting. Maybe I should write this down and see how it flows.' Nobody has ever told this story from the inside, from our point of view."

Lesh is also insightful and self-critical about some of the pivotal moments of the band. One was the 1969 festival at Altamont, where fans were beaten by Hell's Angels with pool cues and a man was stabbed to death during the Rolling Stones' set. After Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane was beaten unconscious by Angels earlier in the day, the Grateful Dead refused to go on for safety's sake. Now, Lesh says, that may have been a mistake.

"At the time, we were just chicken. It's not a proud moment in our history. We weren't really willing to stand up for what we really believe in, that music has power to change consciousness and bring harmony. That was the decision we made and we can't go back now."

There's also regret over the endless touring the band did to keep its stable of 60 full-time employees on the payroll, despite band leader Jerry Garcia's declining health and drug addiction.

"I do regret that we never stood up and said, 'Let's stop this. Maybe Jerry can get better.' But again, I quote the minutes of the band meetings in the book. Jerry himself turns right around after we're all complaining about the pressure ... and says, 'But we can't stop. We have responsibilities to the people who work for us.' "

Lesh also writes of his elation with the Deadhead culture, the traveling fans who sprung up around the band, and his later dismay as the scene ended up often being more about drugs than the music.

"In a way, traveling on tours is practically the last great American adventure you can have. People wanna be together, have a sense of community, congregate and feel connected to something outside themselves," he says. "It really is the last chance. You can't hitchhike around anymore. You can't ride the rails. You can't run away with the circus. It's a chance to have an adventure and be connected to like-minded people."

Lesh's book tour has been a revelation. "All these people come up and it's a chance to see them face-to-face. On the stage it's a blur. So it's really wonderful to see these smiling faces, say hi, shake their hands and have them tell me a story. Everybody's got a story."