To mark the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead, the four original members announced they will be playing in the band together for a final performance at Chicago’s Soldier Field. Original members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir will take the stage for three nights July 3 to 5, 2015, nearly 20 years to the day after they played their last shows there with Jerry Garcia, the band’s iconic front man.
Ripples of excitement have spread throughout the jam band community — a fan base largely created by the Dead, who would devotedly follow the band from concert to concert across the country, creating a subculture that still thrives today.
The band will be joined by Trey Anastasio on guitar, Jeff Chimenti on keyboards and Bruce Hornsby on piano. For Anastasio, it will be a chance to capture a missed opportunity. He told the NewsHour in 2013 that his band, Phish, had been asked to be the opening act for the Dead’s last shows with Garcia at Soldiers Field in 1995, but they could not get out of previous commitments. Garcia died a month later.
The announcement of “Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 years of Grateful Dead” was made by Garcia’s daughter in this video:
Eyes of the Deadhead world will surely be on the event.
