Join us to hear from Len Dell'Amico and Jim Newton who have written two seminal new titles about the Grateful Dead.
Len Dell'Amico's Friend of the Devil is the inside story of Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead from one of the few non-band members allowed in the band's inner circle. From 1980 to 1995, he witnessed brilliance, love, happy chaos, and pot. Lots of pot. Jim Newton will be joining us with Here Beside the Rising Tide, a kaleidoscopic history of the Grateful Dead that explores the American counterculture through the life of iconoclastic frontman Jerry Garcia, and his merry band.
About the Authors
Len Dell’Amico has spent his entire working life in the film and television business, editing, writing, but mainly directing and producing concert films and music videos with such artists as Sarah Vaughan, Herbie Hancock, the Allman Brothers Band, Linda Ronstadt, Ray Charles, Blues Traveler, The Neville Brothers, Carlos Santana, Reuben Blades, and Bonnie Raitt. He met Jerry Garcia in 1980, when he became Grateful Dead’s ‘video and film guy,’ and their friendship lasted for the rest of Garcia’s life. In partnership with Garcia, they produced the historic first national pay-per-view broadcast in the USA, from Radio City Music Hall in New York in 1980, the best-selling award-winning home-video So Far in 1988, a series of ground-breaking live-concert broadcasts from 1987 to 1991, and two classic music videos, “Hell In A Bucket” and “Throwing Stones” to promote the band’s hit album In The Dark. He currently lives in Fairfax, Marin County, California, where he continues to do free-lance screen-writing, producing, and directing, with a special interest in the environment and sustainability issues. His most recent feature film is Welcome To Dopeland, currently streaming.
Jim Newton is a journalist, teacher, and author of Justice for All, Eisenhower, Worthy Fights, and Man of Tomorrow. He was at the Los Angeles Times for twenty-five years as a reporter, bureau chief, editorial page editor, columnist, and editor at large. He lives in Pasadena, California, and teaches at UCLA, where he founded and edits the award-winning public affairs magazine Blueprint.
About the Moderator
David Gans has been curating Grateful Dead music on the radio since 1985 as the producer and host of the nationally syndicated Grateful Dead Hour. Since 2008, he has been a co-host of Tales from the Golden Road, a two-hour weekly talk show on SiriusXM’s Grateful Dead Channel. Gans is the author of five books about the Grateful Dead. He has also produced several boxed sets and compilation albums of Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia music.
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