Grateful Dead\u2019s legacy shines at MusiCares concert with Zac Brown, Norah Jones and others<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nAlas, Weir\u2019s proposed musical at San Diego\u2019s Old Globe Theatre never came to pass. He unveiled his plans for it in a 1999 Union-Tribune interview and spoke excitedly about how the musical \u2014 inspired by pioneering African-American baseball legend Satchel Paige \u2014 would team him with roots-music great Taj Mahal and jazz saxophone dynamo avid Murray.<\/p>\n
\u201cSatchel was an amazing American who truly belonged in the American pantheon with Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Thomas Jefferson,\u201d Weir said. \u201cThere aren\u2019t enough black folks in that pantheon, and there should be.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our writing, David, Taj and I are trying to (musically) quote a lot of the old greats \u2014 Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan. We\u2019ve steeped ourselves in those traditions for a couple of years, and wrote a bunch of music in those traditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that era, a lot of ballplayers went to clubs to hear music at night, and a lot of musicians went to the ballpark during the day. There was a really well-developed culture. I got giddy when I first realized it would make a great musical.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, it would have. Sadly, Weir, Mahal and Murray never got around to finishing their Paige-inspired musical.<\/p>\n
Their failure to do so had absolutely nothing to do with Weir\u2019s 1980 arrest at the San Diego Sports Arena, which is documented here in full in this 1993 Union-Tribune article.<\/p>\n
Avoidance of San Diego a mythBy George Varga, December 12, 1993 | San Diego Union-Tribune<\/p>\n
For the generations-spanning fans of the Grateful Dead, the mythology surrounding the legendary San Francisco rock band is almost as strong as its music.<\/p>\n
These myths, regarded as virtually indisputable facts among many of the fans commonly referred to as Deadheads, are too numerous to list here. But they include the contention that the Dead has never performed a concert that was less than memorable.<\/p>\n
For local fans one of the biggest myths is that the Dead, which performs sold-out concerts tonight and tomorrow at the\u00a0Sports Arena, have deliberately avoided playing in San Diego since July 1, 1980.<\/p>\n
It was then, only moments after the six-man band had completed its\u00a0Sports Arena\u00a0show here before a crowd of 6,100, that singer-guitarist\u00a0Bob Weir, drummer Mickey Hart and road manager Daniel Rifkin were\u00a0arrested\u00a0backstage.<\/p>\n
All three had voiced objections to what they charged was the unnecessarily rough arrest of a young San Diego man suspected of engaging in a backstage drug transaction with a woman who worked for the concert\u2019s promoter. According to a police spokesman at the time, the young man in question was shouting obscenities \u201cand other such statements likely to cause a riot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, had the arrest occurred just five minutes earlier, Weir, Hart and Rifkin most likely would not have become involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened was, the police were making the arrest (of the couple) quite vigorously at the exact moment the band was walking from the stage to their dressing rooms,\u201d a backstage observer, who requested anonymity, recalled recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeir made a comment, which a police officer took offense to, that he thought they were putting too much enthusiasm into the act.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hart and Rifkin had already been\u00a0arrested\u00a0when Weir made his comment to police, according to an interview with Weir published in The San Diego Union two days after the concert.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were busy working over this kid,\u201d Weir said at the time. \u201cI thought they were going to kill him . . . I got about three words out of my mouth before a cop came up from behind and put a choke hold on me. I blacked out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weir was\u00a0arrested\u00a0on suspicion of assault on a police officer, a charge he vehemently denied. \u201cI offered no resistance other than to fight for air,\u201d he said in the 1980 Union interview.<\/p>\n
Hart was\u00a0arrested\u00a0for allegedly inciting a riot, disturbing the peace and interfering with a police officer. Rifkin was\u00a0arrested\u00a0for allegedly trying to strike a police officer. Weir, Hart and Rifkin quickly posted bail and were released. Weir subsequently pleaded no contest and was fined $150, while no charges were filed against Hart. Records do not indicate what happened to Rifkin, but a Dead spokesman indicated charges against him had also been dropped.<\/p>\n
The Dead returned to San Diego for shows at Golden Hall in early 1982 and at Southwestern College\u2019s Devore Stadium in Chula Vista in late 1985. Regardless, the myth persists among some fans that the band vowed not to play here again as a result of the 1980\u00a0Sports Arena\u00a0incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cGolden Hall in \u201982? No way, man. The Dead haven\u2019t played (in) San Diego since the bust at the arena in 1980,\u201d insisted a local Deadhead, who calls himself Mr. Greenleaf. \u201cThe \u201985 show doesn\u2019t count because it was in Chula Vista, which is outside (San Diego) city limits.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only grain of truth to the myth is that the Dead have not performed at the\u00a0Sports Arena\u00a0since 1980. But that is purely coincidental, according to Dennis McNally, the band\u2019s longtime spokesman and publicist.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scheduling of rock concerts is an arcane process due largely to availability (of venues),\u201d McNally said, speaking from his Bay Area office. \u201cDeadheads are constantly making the assumption the band hates a place because they never play there. It just works out that way . . . .<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have wanted to go back to Orlando (Florida), where we played three years ago, and haven\u2019t \u2014 despite our best efforts \u2014 because the Orlando Nets (basketball team) play in the same hall and we need it for three days. We\u2019re spending $10,000 to $15,000 on hotels for the band and crew, and you can\u2019t have open (nonconcert) days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a long way of saying we haven\u2019t played in San Diego because it hasn\u2019t worked out. . . . What happened at the\u00a0Sports Arena\u00a0was 13 years ago. I absolutely anticipate no problems of any sort (this time), and I\u2019m sure the San Diego Police Department feels the same.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The death Saturday of Grateful Dead singer, guitarist and co-founder Bob Weir came 36 years after the fabled…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":509357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,171,1370,5424,3549,7264,1072,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-509356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-music-and-concerts","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-things-to-do","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115878616355410353","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}