Linda Kelly experienced her first concert when she was 15 -- the Sex Pistols' very last show at the notorious Winterland -- and has been a great lover of music ever since.

She majored in journalism at San Francisco State University and has been a writer/editor for the likes of Spin Magazine, Mix Magazine, Quokka Sports, Lucasfilm, Astrology.com/NBC Universal, and even penned lyrics for the Spin Doctors. After seven years in New York City, she now lives back in her native Bay Area in the Haight-Ashbury district -- just blocks away from the Grateful Dead's home in the '60s -- where she's busy collecting more experiences and stories to share.

Through sweet synchronicity, she had the divine, beautiful, weird, hilarious pleasure of hanging and grooving and dancing and laughing with Jerry and Bobby and a few of their colorful cohorts for a good spell in New York and California. The time spent being in that wildly unique mix of fine folks is the fodder and inspiration for this book -- and for which she is infinitely grateful.

As Bob Dylan once told her while on tour in 1989, "You gotta do something!"

BACK COVER TEXT:
Just what was it about the Grateful Dead that made them rock and roll’s most beloved band? In Deadheads, those with the read story, who were there and are still listening the music explain it all.

Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow talks about his lifelong friendship with Dead guitarist Bob Weir. Cajun chef Rick Begneaud shares his memories of feeding the Dead, John Popper of Blues Traveler recalls playing with the Dead at Bill Graham’s memorial tribute, while publicist Dennis McNally shares some wild adventures of working with the band for more than thirty years. Author Linda Kelly recalls being dragged to her very first Dead show, hanging with Jerry in New York City, and more.

First-show revelations, backstage adventure, parking lot hoopla, how-to-live-life philosophies, strange tangential experiences stemming from being tin that certain place at that certain time — these intriguing anecdotes evoke wonderful images, lots of smiles, and a close look into a fascinating phenomenon in the history of music.

This twentieth-anniversary edition of Deadheads celebrates fifty years of music and includes the best stories from the original 1995 edition, two new chapters, as well as new interviews with various friends, artists, and following of the Grateful Dead.