The Dead keep on truckin' with new tour
Last Updated: Saturday, January 3, 2009 | 10:37 AM ET
CBC News
Veteran Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir will join his bandmates on a 19-city tour that begins April 12. (Eric Risberg/Associated Press)Surviving members of the Grateful Dead are uniting for a 19-city tour, the first since 2004.
The group, now called the Dead, announced their concert plans this week with a tour that begins April 12 in Greensboro, N.C., and ends May 10 in Mountain View, Calif. No Canadian dates are listed yet.
Band members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann have toured sporadically since the 1995 death of guitarist Jerry Garcia.
They have also admitted having personal differences, but in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in November, they claim to have worked out those problems after a successful October benefit concert in Pennsylvania for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama.
"For me, it's the question mark that's really pulling me in. ... What's gonna happen?" Lesh told Billboard.com.
"When you walk out on the stage, the possibilities are infinite every time."
Warren Haynes joins the Dead on lead guitar and Jeff Chimenti will play keyboards.
Formed in 1965, the Dead — who have a legion of dedicated Deadhead fans —survived the decades with songs such as Truckin', Friend of the Devil and Fire on the Mountain.
