Grateful Dead and Junior Walker, 1969

Jerry admitted once in an interview that he was late to a Fillmore West show and found the Grateful Dead on stage (during their 6th song, Lovelight) with Wayne Ceballos of Aum on lead guitar. Garcia was often late to shows, and June 6, 1969 was the night that Bill Graham got fed up and simply put on stage with whatever player was in the house.

One of the shows in this run contained an episode where everyone got dosed – heavily – and could barely play, an event best and very colorfully described by Phil Lesh in his book, Searching for the Sound, from pages 146-150.

Junior Walker was born in 1931 in Arkansas and grew up in South Bend Indiana. He began playing the saxophone in high school and his saxophone style was the anchor for the bands he played in. He and his “All Stars” recorded for Motown beginning in 1964 and had a few hits including, “Shotgun,” “(I’m a) Road Runner,” “Shake and Fingerpop,” and a remake of, “How Sweet it is (to be Loved by You).”