‘JERRY IS ROLLING IN HIS GRAVE:’ The Deadheads boycotting SF’s anniversary shows.

I was 12,000th in the Dead & Company Ticketmaster queue when I texted my father to see if he wanted to fly to San Francisco from the East Coast for the 60th anniversary shows Aug. 1-3 in Golden Gate Park.

My dad is one of the biggest Deadheads I’ve ever known. In the earliest days of the internet, envelopes stuffed with cassette tapes of Dead shows would arrive on our doorstep, sent from fans all over the country whom my dad had met online. The music was the soundtrack to my childhood, and father-daughter jam-band outings became one of our favorite ways to spend time together. What better way to continue our cherished family tradition than in the city where it all began?

That’s why I was shocked when he replied, “No, I’m good. I really have no interest.”

It was a moot point: By the time I’d advanced to the front of the Ticketmaster queue, three-day passes had sold out. I asked my dad to elaborate on his stance.

“This whole thing is just a big money grab, a real ‘fuck you’ to the fans,” he said. “It totally goes against what the Grateful Dead was all about. Jerry is rolling over in his grave.”

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Tickets cost $635 for three-day general admission; VIP options range from $1,800 to a staggering $6,300 “Golden Road” pass, with which the Champagne crowd can enjoy unlimited dining, expedited entry, and a private viewing deck. All for concerts in a field featuring two out of the six original Grateful Dead members.

Is my father a curmudgeon, or does he have a point?

Yesterday was Ozzy Osbourne’s funeral in Birmingham, England. As more and more elderly rockers like Ozzy head off to the proverbial Great Gig in the Sky, this is it — the future of boomer-era rock, or the lack thereof. Concerts with massively expensive ticket prices to see what were called in the Big Band days “ghost bands” with only one or two original members. (Or the dreaded holographic recreations of ancient bands.) Steven Hyden wrote in his 2018 book, Twilight of the Gods, that for “classic rock” the brand is everything, and increasingly, the brand will be all that survives.