Hey, Bobby. Please don’t–

“You know Branford.”

–call that man Branford. He is named Joe Louis Walker.

“Tremendous name.”

The history of the Grateful Dead vis-à-vis race relations has never been written, has it?

“We had great race relations. We didn’t see color.”

Uh-huh.

“Honestly. For about a month in ’69, everyone’s vision was black and white. Bear got something wrong in the formula. But we also didn’t care if you were black, as long as you were a top-level musician or dating Pigpen. We did that Black Panther benefit.”

Right. How was that?

“Tense. But, you know, those guys were on edge.”

Sure.

“Oh, and: one of my best friends is black. You know him. Jimi Hendrix.”

I forgot.

“Progressive organization from top to bottom. Except for the Road Crew. They, uh, were mostly from rural Oregon, and I’ll just leave it at that. And Billy. Other than that, though: top to bottom.”

Good to hear.