The Modern Tourhead: Conflicted Kindness in the Mobile Community of Grateful Dead, USA

Abstract

This paper examines the contemporary subculture which has developed out of and emerged from the nomadic fans of the 1960s psychedelic rock band the Grateful Dead (the deadheads) following the death of the band’s frontman and the subculture’s unofficial emissary Jerry Garcia in 1995. The community of modern tourheads – people that repeatedly attend performances of, and “tour” along with improvisational jazz-rock “jam bands” – and the ethos and values which unite them, aided by the Internet’s ability to broaden and mainstreamize disparate subcultures, has fragmented and expanded in the several decades since Garcia’s passing. For several months during 2006, the author conducted ethnographic research with a devoted group of tourheads, traveling with and immersing himself in their daily rituals and customs. Tourheads are united by a shared sense of alternative spirituality, political beliefs and emotional sincerity. The author observes and analyzes the tourhead lifestyle, from its penchant for illicit drug experimentation and other self-proclaimed prolongers of youth to its seemingly omnipresent contradictory dialectic. Finally, the paper contains an anthropological and ethnomusicological assessment of the commonalities and differences between the “scene” and “vibe” of the respective deadhead and tourhead subcultures.