{"id":488,"date":"2009-01-18T22:44:39","date_gmt":"2009-01-19T03:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.majik.org\/cruxenrose\/?p=488"},"modified":"2009-01-18T22:44:39","modified_gmt":"2009-01-19T03:44:39","slug":"barack-obama-selects-the-dead-for-inaugural-ball-%e2%80%9cit-was-quite-an-honor%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.majik.org\/cruxenrose\/barack-obama-selects-the-dead-for-inaugural-ball-%e2%80%9cit-was-quite-an-honor%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"Barack Obama Selects the Dead for Inaugural Ball: \u201cIt Was Quite an Honor\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/a><\/h1>\n

rolling stone-<\/a> 1\/15\/09, 5:03 pm EST<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Photo: Barnard\/Getty<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Just a week after confirming their first tour in five years, the reunited Dead<\/a> are booked to rock the Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C. on January 20th. \u201cA DJ will open up \u2014 it\u2019s a long, strange trip!,\u201d Mickey Hart jokes to Rolling Stone<\/em> (the DJ in question is celeb spinner DJ Cassidy). \u201c[Barack Obama] picked us specifically,\u201d he adds, \u201cso it was quite an honor. There was a short list and we made the cut.\u201d (For a peek into the President-Elect\u2019s iPod, click here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

As for the most important question \u2014 can the band jam at the ball? \u2014 Hart is dubious: \u201cIt\u2019s pretty tight, about an hour set. When you play these kinds of things you say, \u2018How can I be of service?\u2019 The entertainment committee makes it so that it fits into their huge<\/em> schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another pitfall of political rocking: a background check. \u201cIt gave me pause when I had to get a security clearance to play a gig!\u201d Hart says. So did they get past the security scan? \u201cOh, yeah, we don\u2019t look so bad on paper. It\u2019s not as bad as you might think.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dead partially reunited for a Deadheads for Obama gig in spring 2007, and drummer Bill Kreutzmann rejoined the group for a \u201cChange Rocks\u201d Obama fundraiser<\/a> at Penn State in October. The tour that kicks off April 12th in Greensboro, North Carolina, features founding members Phil Lesh, Bob Weir as well as Hart and Kreutzmann, joined by keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and Allman Brothers Band\/Gov\u2019t Mule guitarist Warren Haynes.<\/p>\n

Related Stories:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Still Truckin\u2019: The Dead Reunite in Pennsylvania<\/a>
\n\u2022 The Dead Reunite for Obama at Scorching Penn State Benefit<\/a>
\n\u2022 The Dead Announce First Tour in Five Years<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

rolling stone- 1\/15\/09, 5:03 pm EST Photo: Barnard\/Getty Just a week after confirming their first tour in five years, the reunited Dead are booked to rock the Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C. on January 20th. \u201cA DJ will open up \u2014 it\u2019s a long, strange trip!,\u201d Mickey Hart jokes to Rolling Stone (the DJ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[357,402],"tags":[454,452,450,203,451,15,278,453,20,362],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eclectic-bits","category-music-related-news-and-features","tag-bill-kreutzman","tag-bob-weir","tag-inaugural-ball","tag-jam","tag-mickey-hart","tag-music","tag-obama","tag-phil-lesh","tag-rock","tag-the-dead"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.majik.org\/cruxenrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.majik.org\/cruxenrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.majik.org\/cruxenrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.majik.org\/cruxenrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.majik.org\/cruxenrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.majik.org\/cruxenrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":489,"href":"https:\/\/www.majik.org\/cruxenrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions\/489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.majik.org\/cruxenrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.majik.org\/cruxenrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.majik.org\/cruxenrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}