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Grateful Dead tell all books


Mojo Hand

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I was on dead.net today and saw that Bill Kreutzman has a new autobiography coming out. Part of the title is "drumming, dreams, and drugs.....".

I am not pre-judging Billy. This really is not about his book.

I have only read portions of one or two of the grateful dead "insider" books that have come out in the last decade or so......mainly because I find those I have tried to be slightly distasteful. I started to read Phil Lesh's book some years back and couldn't get through it. I don't remember the exacts anymore, but I remember a lot of "tell all" sort of material about Jerry's drug use, as well as plenty of "tell all" about himself and the rest of the band.

I know more about Jerry's drug problems and darkness associated with it than I ever cared to know because of Phil's book, excerpts of Steve Parish's book, and others who felt that the world needed to know about Jerry's personal and drug related issues.

I am guessing that Jerry would have preferred that we did not know about some of his darkness....otherwise he would have shared himself, right? And why did Phil, Steve, et al decide to publish all these stories after Garcia died? Chances are Jerry may have been a little pissed if someone did that too him while he was alive. I know I would be upset if my best friends decided to share my least proud moments with my family, and in Jerry's case....the whole world.

I often share this same rant with friends. They think I am being unreasonable, at which point I remind them that if they die.......I promise I will not share any of their "lesser moments" with their mothers, fathers, children, etc....

Seeing Bill's book reminded me of this and I am just curious if anyone else feels the same way about the many memoirs that have come from the Grateful Dead family in recent years.

I am hoping Bill's book may take on different tone, but the title implies otherwise.

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Lesh talked very fondly of psychedelics and the bands exploration of.

thanks for the heads up, I'm admittedly reading poor, film works better with my brain or more so the live experience..guess I was more meaning biographers and not the autobiographies. Box of Rain sure makes for good reading. Jerry spoke of not labeling psychedelics as a drug...mentioning the fear factor
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I've enjoyed almost every book I've read about the GD, including Phil's ( I got to meet him at a local book signing ;) Drugs are part of the story, folks. I'm not interested in a sanitized version of anything, especially a non-fiction book or movie.

 

I'm currently reading Sam Cutler's book about his days managing the Stones and the Dead (he signed my copy at a recent DSO show ;)

 

I'll probably read BK's book as well. Should be fun.

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Drugs consumed Jerry instead of the other way around - obviously. I don't have any issues with folks recounting these frailties and weaknesses. Yeah it's a little sad but it happened and that was part of who Jerry was.

His choices as a father to his children are 10x more difficult for me to process than his relentless pursuit of the Persian.

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