Blues for Salvador

One of my many other musical passions is the Grateful Dead. At the age of 22, I moved out to Santa Cruz, California to do the Dead thang, which basically meant the same thing as what I was already doing with the 'Q' but on a nation wide crusade;-) By this time, I had seen the 'Q' mostly in the Northeast. In fact, I'll never forget the time my pal Stefan and I and two of his buddies packed it into one of their little sub-compact cars and drove to Bloomington, Indiana from Chicago to see the band on a last-minute whim. Donn Adams' eyes got real wide when he saw me and then he started to laugh! By now the guys are used to us crazy folk who drop whatever it is we are doing and catch an unexpected, out-of-the-way gig at the drop of a hat!! Spontaneity kids. . .ya gotta love it!! It's the backbone of what both the 'Q' and the Dead are about, God bless 'em all!

In February of 1988, I was living in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco with my ex and a friend. I was seeing the Dead all over the place, working, checking out any and all John Cippolina band formations in the City, entertaining a lot of folks in the neighborhood at my most excellent, enormous flat over the Holey Bagel on Masonic St. For those of you not familiar, the Haight is (or was ) a happening place. Lot's of cool, interesting, colorful people open to just about anything:-)

The 'Q' was in town doing a bunch of gigs, one of them being Carlos Santana's benefit Blues For Salvador concert. At long last, my dream concert fantasy prayer had been answered. . . Bobby Weir and Jerry Garcia were on the bill!! Not only was I finally going to get a double dose of that amazing Leo 'Terry & Jerry' energy, but the rest of the line-up was nothing shy of amazing! Bonnie Raitt, Carlos, Tower of Power horns, Boz Scaggs. . .I couldn't wait!

The night finally rolled around. Jack Rich (then 'Q' road manager) said my name would be on the 'will-call' list. How perfect! I could hardly wait. When I got to the 'will-call' box, there was a sign that said "If you are picking up passes at the 'will-call' box, we will need a first and last name and a picture I.D." Uh-oh. . . Jack didn't know my last name. . .there just wasn't need for such formalities in the 'Q' zone. I tried to get the passes with just my first name, nicely explaining to the scouring woman that "Really, I'm on the guest list. . .blah, blah, blah. I could have said anything and without that last name, I was a woman sent to the streets looking to scalp a ticket. . .OH NO!!!

BRAINSTORM!!!!. . . . CALL JACK!!!

When I reached Jack at the hotel, he was already waiting for my call, as he knew I would have a hard time picking up those passes. He said "I didn't know your last name so I put them under 'Stacey Q'. . .and the rest is history:-)

p.s. The show was indeed a dream come true!! All that Leo fire. . .Jerry, Terry, Joey, Al. . . amazing night.

Terry and Jerry, Blues for Salvador benefit concert, 1988

Now, some 11 years later, I recently got to hear Joey tell a story about that night. It seems that during the encore, Johnny B. Goode, Joey stepped up to the mic to sing. The way he tells it, Bob Weir shot him a look like "What do you think you're doing?" For anyone not familiar with the Grateful Dead, Johnny B. Goode is a typical Weir encore ditty:-) Guess ol' Bobby felt like his toes were getting scrunched on his own turf. . .nah, relax, Bob, Joey's not that kind of musician.



Back to the Ramblings page