You\u2019ve been photographing the Grateful Dead since you were a teenager. Do you remember the first time you saw them live?<\/b><\/p>\n
My first Grateful Dead concert was in 1977. I was 15 years old, and we sat in the front row. The guy that brought me had a camera, which we passed around. And there\u2019s one little print that exists from that concert somewhere. Maybe I took it. Maybe he took it. Nobody really knows. I\u2019m going to say I took it because it\u2019s composed properly \u2014 it\u2019s an OK photo.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s Jerry Garcia?<\/b><\/p>\n
And it\u2019s Jerry. You know, a lot of photographers talk about that moment when they see that first photograph come out of the developer and under the red darkroom lights. And it\u2019s a life-changing moment \u2014 and it\u2019s really fucking true.<\/p>\n
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Source: Jay Blakesberg<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve described Grateful Dead fans as a \u201cmusic-loving circus of freaks and misfits.\u201d What led you to join the circus?<\/b><\/p>\n
In the \u201970s, when I was in high school, we didn\u2019t have the internet to tell us anything. We had FM radio. We had album liner notes. We had books like \u201cOn the Road\u201d and \u201cThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.\u201d We didn\u2019t want three children, a two-car garage, or to live in the suburbs. We were trying to find our place in the life script of birth, school, work, death. Who are we? How weird are we? So all of these things kind of categorized us as misfits.<\/p>\n
And you continued to photograph.<\/b><\/p>\n
My dad had bought me a camera for my 17th birthday. After that, I photographed the Grateful Dead again in Rochester, New York, in 1978. And that was the first time that I got published in print and was paid money for my photographs. I was paid $7.50 for each photo \u2014 $15 total. I was 17 years old, but I was a paid, published photographer. It was one of those sparks early in your life that turns into an inferno.<\/p>\n
Tell me about the Grateful Dead song \u201cEyes of the World.\u201d It made an impact on you as a teen, right?<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s on an album called \u201cWake of the Flood\u201d that came out in 1973. There was a snow day in the winter of late \u201977 or early \u201978, and we dropped acid for the first time. There\u2019s a line in there: \u201cSometimes we live no particular way but our own.\u201d That\u2019s the lyric that really resonated. That was metaphysical. That was religious. That was colorful. That was orgasmic. We were not afraid to tune in, turn on, and drop out. I\u2019m not saying that psychedelics are for everybody. But for the people who tapped into it, the genie was out of the bottle, and we never wanted to put it back in. There was a whole world in front of us. And for me, that world was no longer in suburban New Jersey. I needed to get to San Francisco.<\/p>\n
How would you describe your relationship with Jerry Garcia?<\/b><\/p>\n
Jerry was a very sharp, clever, self-deprecating, funny guy. Very smart.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t like to be photographed, right?<\/b><\/p>\n
You\u2019re correct. Jerry did not like to be photographed. In 1993, I did a portrait of him for the cover of Acoustic Guitar magazine, and I knew that Jerry hated to be in front of the camera for long periods of time. So I gave him a guitar and just let him play. And he sat there for almost 30 or 40 minutes for me.<\/p>\n
Give the man a guitar.<\/b><\/p>\n
Just give the man a guitar and let him play.<\/p>\n
Tell me about \u201cAttics of My Life.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s a song about the end of your life. You want to look back, and you want to say, \u201cI lived a good life. I lived a fulfilling life. Not only for me, but I did good things for other people.\u201d What a beautiful lyric: \u201cfull of tastes no tongue can know.\u201d It\u2019s not just about tasting food or water or drink. It\u2019s tasting life, right? So here\u2019s a song that skims the surface of a whole life and all the experiences you might have. I\u2019m 62 years old, and I\u2019m on the other side, where the clock is ticking faster. I\u2019m hoping I get to have way more experiences, because I\u2019m still having a lot of fun, and I\u2019m not ready to go anywhere. So even though it\u2019s a song about mortality, I\u2019m hoping that I don\u2019t have to deal with that for many years.<\/p>\n
Listen to the full podcast episode with Jay Blakesberg on Spotify<\/a> or Apple Podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n