The exhibition “Grateful Dead: The Long, Strange Trip” opens April 12 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in time for the 2012 artist inductions.
Highlights are to include five Jerry Garcia guitars, “finished and working manuscripts” for classic Dead songs, gear from the Owsley “Wall of Sound” PA system, and artworks such as Fillmore posters and album graphics.
The Grateful Dead Archive at the University of California-Santa Cruz “loaned a significant number of items” from its collection, the Rock Hall said. Rock Hall curator Howard Kramer said he had full access to the Dead’s warehouse.
Longtime Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart will perform at the exhibit opening. One of his psychedelic custom-painted drum kits will among the museum offerings.
The first major showing of the Grateful Dead archives at the University of California Santa Cruz was at the New-York Historical Museum in early 2010.
The Rock Hall said “The Long, Strange Trip” exhibit “explores the band from a non-linear point of view. Individual sections within the exhibit will be devoted to Grateful Dead as a recording group and a touring band, the fans who devotedly followed them, tapers and fellow travelers.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exhibition “Grateful Dead: The Long, Strange Trip” runs through December at the Cleveland, Ohio, museum.
The Dead and partner Rhino Entertainment will offer “an exclusive line of merchandise around the exhibit.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Grateful Dead in 1994.