Basketball legend Bill Walton vows, with love, to stop Grateful Dead’s farewell

[Esau.]

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/06/04/basketball-legend-bill-walton-vows-with-love-to-stop-grateful-deads-farewell/

 

 

This summer’s toughest concert ticket isn’t Taylor Swift or the Stones. It’s the Grateful Dead — or, depending on how you see things 20 years after the death of Jerry Garcia, four guys from the Grateful Dead.

 

And who better to talk to about the band’s farewell shows – the original members say they’ll never again play live together after two concerts in Santa Clara later this month and three concerts in Chicago the first weekend in July – than basketball legend Bill Walton, a devoted Deadhead since attending his first show in 1967. Walton says he has seen the band play more than 850 times over the years and he’s not about to get wrapped up in the questions (secondary market ticket prices? The same without Jerry?) about these shows. Big Bill is stoked. He’ll also be a special guest on the pay-per-view broadcasts of the shows. He spoke with us by phone.