When the FBI investigated the Grateful Dead
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has a long and controversial past. While the name might conjure up images of sharply dressed men in trilby hats investigating crimes, the reality is much darker. Over the years, the FBI has had a hand in countless coups in South America, along with a well-documented period of harassment of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr and orchestrating countless other controversies and cover-ups. However, some of their lesser-known activities involve keeping tabs on celebrities and musicians like the Grateful Dead.
Famed for their ability to seamlessly blend elements of jazz, folk and bluegrass into a blues-rock sound, the Grateful Dead are one of the most iconic bands of the 1960s. Although the group has not been active since the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, over the years, the Dead amassed one of the most dedicated fan bases in all of rock music. In addition to their eclectic lineup of musicians, another massive influence on the band was the use of LSD.
Known for its ability to expand the mind, LSD became synonymous with the counterculture movement in the 1960s. Before then, acid had mainly been used for scientific and psychiatric experiments. In fact, famed Grateful Dead sound engineer Owsley Stanley was said to have supplied most of the LSD for Ken Kesey’s infamous ‘acid tests’ in the mid-1960s. While the drug was rife throughout the entire counterculture movement, it was synonymous with the Grateful Dead.
Much like how ecstasy made acid house ‘make sense’ in the late 1980s, fans of the Dead have attested to the fact that the influence of LSD is what made the band’s shows so great. It was enough to raise alarm bells for authorities.
During the latter part of the 1960s, the FBI had its targets set on this countercultural movement. Seeing hippies, drugs, and anti-war protests as un-American and, in some cases, communist, the Bureau was determined to infiltrate the scene. Theorising that the Grateful Dead might not only be taking LSD but distributing it, the FBI launched a Title III investigation into the group – meaning that wiretaps and electronic surveillance were permitted.
Whatever your thoughts on the FBI, their hypothesis that the Grateful Dead might be involved in distributing LSD is not completely off-the-wall. The band were closely aligned with the drug, and copious amounts of acid could be found at any given show. In fact, the aforementioned sound engineer, Owsley Stanley, was arrested in 1967 for distributing acid, so you can see how the Bureau may have landed upon the idea that the Dead were involved.
In the following years, the band repeatedly found themselves targets of police and the FBI. At one such run-in in New Orleans, a total of 19 members of the Dead’s touring party ended up being arrested for possession of LSD. Meanwhile, frontman Jerry Garcia was arrested in 1973 for the possession of cannabis and cocaine. It has been speculated that the FBI’s interest in the band’s drug habits were instead a thinly veiled cover-up for their worries that the marauding musicians, and the counterculture movement generally, were instilling dangerous ideas into the minds of America’s youth.
No organisation attracts as many conspiracy theories as the FBI. From the deaths of John Lennon to JFK, the FBI’s involvement has been theorised countless times. Although granted, the Bureau did not help themselves by encouraging the likes of Martin Luther King and Jean Seberg to commit suicide. One such conspiracy theory relating to the FBI’s investigation of the Dead is that they, along with the CIA, orchestrated the death of frontman Garcia. However, it seems unlikely that Garcia, who died in a rehab clinic of a heart attack, remained high on the FBI’s list of priorities well into the 1990s.
