Grateful Dead Celebrate Anniversary Of Hit Album In The Studio

The 30th anniversary of the Grateful Dead's 1987 hit album "In The Dark" is celebrated in the latest episode of the syndicated radio show
In The Studio with Redbeard: The Stories Behind History's Greatest Rock Bands. The show sent over the following details:

From their inception in 1965's San Francisco Haight/Ashbury district, the Grateful Dead were highly prolific writers and released many albums through 1980, even releasing two classics in one year, American Beauty and Workingman's Dead in 1970. But as the 1980s rolled on, the band experienced a dry spell on new material and studio releases, choosing instead to focus on touring.

By 1986 however, it was apparent that the dry spell had become a full-fledged creative drought. Adding injury to insult midway through the decade, Grateful Dead singer, songwriter, lead guitarist Jerry Garcia went into a coma from undiagnosed diabetes and almost died. So the album In The Dark, that emerged in July 1987 was truly the resurrection of the Dead, becoming the band's top-seller ever. IN THE STUDIO producer and host Redbeard asks Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Phil Lesh why the Dead went almost seven years without releasing a studio album prior to 1987's In The Dark.

Bob Weir explains, "We never got around to it. We were on the road so much just to keep our noses above water and (it was) kinda, what we were robotized into doing I think... We did go into the studio a couple of times and it wasn't our best period. Jerry wasn't in his best health at that particular point, for instance. You know when we would go into the studio we wouldn't get much of anywhere. They were pretty sleepy sessions." Stream the episode here.

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