You know it. While my Substack is mostly jazz focused, I work the Dead in pretty regularly. I did a whole post on jazz and the Dead yesterday, which inspired at least one jazz fan to take the Dead plunge…
I met Phil Lesh and his wife Jill in 1987 when I adopted a Rottweiler they owned. They gave it away because it had become too protective of their new baby. They were afraid it would chew up any Deadheads who might try an uninvited visit to their San Rafael home.
I didn't know who he was, and the dog trainer who facilitated the handoff warned me not to be too assertive managing my own dog in front of them because, "these people are wimps." I'd been yelling at my rambunctious Giant Schnauzer before they arrived, which is why the trainer had given me that warning about not commanding my dog in such a loud voice.
Her warning set the stage for me to wonder what kind of wimps were going to give me their thousand-dollar dog. When they arrived in their new Jeep Cherokee with an infant and a Rottweiler inside, it was obvious that theirs was something of a May-December relationship.
I told the man, Phil, that I liked to wrestle with big dogs. I already owned one myself, the schnauzer which I had brought along to make sure it could accept his Rottweiler. Phil said, "I can't do that," and I wondered why. One of the trainer's employees asked him deferentially, "Because of your hands?"
So I asked this rather large wimp man, thinking that he might be a surgeon or something, "What do you do?"
"I'm a bass player," he said.
Well that gave me pause to think. A bass player with a nice vehicle, a much younger wife and baby, giving away a thousand-dollar dog...well who could that be?
"I play for the Grateful Dead," he said, "with the band from the beginning."
Whoa...I'm so glad you shared this story. Thank you. So many questions arise, but let's start with the obvious: What was the dog's name when you received it?
Siegmund. He was part of a pair of siblings, Siegmund and Delia, a female. Lesh named them after characters in a Wagner opera. They kept Delia and I never saw her. I have a photo of a painting of Siegmund that my sister-in-law did, but I don't believe I can attach it here. I also have photos of Siegmund himself.
Great piece!
Thanks a lot for checking it out, Syd. Keep waving that flag.
You know it. While my Substack is mostly jazz focused, I work the Dead in pretty regularly. I did a whole post on jazz and the Dead yesterday, which inspired at least one jazz fan to take the Dead plunge…
You may like this then.
Mangrove Valley introduced this to me last week, if you haven't heard it before:
https://youtu.be/VsJI6DaLNJg?si=OXTUYkvf1ODySO3r
I met Phil Lesh and his wife Jill in 1987 when I adopted a Rottweiler they owned. They gave it away because it had become too protective of their new baby. They were afraid it would chew up any Deadheads who might try an uninvited visit to their San Rafael home.
I didn't know who he was, and the dog trainer who facilitated the handoff warned me not to be too assertive managing my own dog in front of them because, "these people are wimps." I'd been yelling at my rambunctious Giant Schnauzer before they arrived, which is why the trainer had given me that warning about not commanding my dog in such a loud voice.
Her warning set the stage for me to wonder what kind of wimps were going to give me their thousand-dollar dog. When they arrived in their new Jeep Cherokee with an infant and a Rottweiler inside, it was obvious that theirs was something of a May-December relationship.
I told the man, Phil, that I liked to wrestle with big dogs. I already owned one myself, the schnauzer which I had brought along to make sure it could accept his Rottweiler. Phil said, "I can't do that," and I wondered why. One of the trainer's employees asked him deferentially, "Because of your hands?"
So I asked this rather large wimp man, thinking that he might be a surgeon or something, "What do you do?"
"I'm a bass player," he said.
Well that gave me pause to think. A bass player with a nice vehicle, a much younger wife and baby, giving away a thousand-dollar dog...well who could that be?
"I play for the Grateful Dead," he said, "with the band from the beginning."
Whoa...I'm so glad you shared this story. Thank you. So many questions arise, but let's start with the obvious: What was the dog's name when you received it?
Siegmund. He was part of a pair of siblings, Siegmund and Delia, a female. Lesh named them after characters in a Wagner opera. They kept Delia and I never saw her. I have a photo of a painting of Siegmund that my sister-in-law did, but I don't believe I can attach it here. I also have photos of Siegmund himself.
Love it love it