Concluding our first week bonanza of extra material that didn't make the Jerry Garcia feature in our current issue, here is Grateful Dead guitarist/vocalist/founder Bob Weir on the Cult of Jerry. Be sure to check back on Monday for even more Garcia-related heat.
The way to remember Jerry is to listen to his music, and to some degree to read his interviews. He was a pretty aware individual, pretty bright. He had stuff to say other than just music, but for the most part I would say just listen to his music. That’s the way to remember him.
[The biggest misconception about him was] that he was some sort of guru. He was not. He was outspoken and often times fairly illuminating, but he could be wrong about stuff like pretty much any human, and he violently disliked the notion that people developed about him that he was some sort of demigod or something like that. The fact that people were worshipful bugged him to no end. It made him hide, turn to drugs. People were looking for a leader. It was thrust upon him and it was not something he was ever comfortable with or ever came to terms with.
I think that Jerry would want to emphasize that the Grateful Dead was not all about him. It was intensely democratic in its approach to music and everything else and we endeavored to be as open as we could possibly be in order to gather influences and new sources of inspiration. That was our process. We all trusted each other, we all loved each other and worked together.