With Election Looming, The Dead May Rise Again

From Billboard.com
March 28, 2008, 11:05 AM ET
Gary Graff, Detroit

A Barack Obama presidential candidacy may give Grateful Dead fans reason to rejoice this year.

The Dead's surviving members got together in February to perform at a Deadheads for Obama rally in San Francisco. "It was our first straight-up political event ever," notes guitarist Bob Weir, who's now on the road with his band Ratdog. "We had fun." And, Weir tells Billboard.com, the group, which is largely dormant these days, may want to have a little more fun in the near future.

"I would be surprised if we don't get around to playing again at some point," he says. "But, really, my hot hand right now is Ratdog, and I think that goes for Phil (Lesh) with his group, and Mickey (Hart) has his project and Billy (Kreutzmann) is sort of happily retired over in Hawaii. But we'll get together again. I'm sure of that."

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