Jerry Garcia Band Manager Big Steve Parish to Auction Off Grateful Dead Memorabilia as NFTs
Big Steve Parish, a longtime Grateful Dead roadie and manager for the Jerry Garcia Band, will mint four pieces of Grateful Dead memorabilia for an upcoming NFT drop. The auction will launch July 23rd at 12 p.m. PST and be live for 72 to 96 hours via Vccess.com
The four items that will be minted are: The last-known functioning Mu-Tron III pedal Jerry Garcia used (complete with grease pencil markings made by Garcia); a Yamaha guitar amp Garcia used to warm up backstage with some cigarette burns still lingering on the wood paneling; a “ticket wheel” from the Jerry Garcia Band’s 1991 tour with original tickets and backstage passes that boasted original artwork for each window; and an early sketch of the Ice Cream Kid character, designed by the artist Mouse, that would later appear on the cover of the Dead’s classic, Europe ’72.
For the drop, Parish will mint all four pieces as Open Edition NFTs, meaning anyone who wants one will be able to purchase. Each NFT will also come with videos in which Parish discusses the origins and significance of the various pieces of memorabilia. On top of the Open Edition NFTs, however, there will also be a special “1 of 1” NFT for each piece of ephemera, with the winner of those auctions also receiving the actual physical item.
“In the brave new world of NFTs, I take a jump. I take a leap,” Parish said in a statement. “I try to figure out what it all means. And I bring the sacred items of my life and the glorious story of my relationship with Jerry Garcia, the Jerry Garcia Band, and the Grateful Dead to this brave new medium. It is something that is a bold experiment. And I feel it is something that needs to happen to provide access to people that may want to have a piece of this history. So I take the leap along with all of us.”
Ahead of the sale, Parish will host a chat on Clubhouse on July 19th at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. He’ll go live again for a “launch party” on July 23rd at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT.
