Carl met me at my house at 2pm on Saturday. Once he arrived, I measured his truck's bed. 6 feet. I was a little disappointed. I was concerned that we might need at least 7 feet. Also, Carl's truck has no tailgate. He assuaged my concerns, showing me a wide array of tie-down straps. He assured me we could secure our payload safely. I brought out an old bedspread and an old sheet in case we needed additional packing material. So, we looked at Google Maps and wrote down some directions, and then we left for Bill Walton's house. Bill's instructions to me were to "give a courtesy knock, then come right in. Then just yell for me." Bill seemed like a laid back guy. I wasn't sure what to expect from an NBA hall-of-famer, but he seemed nice enough. So, we arrived, backed Carl's truck into his driveway, and did as he'd instructed. Bill has a reputation as being one of the biggest deadheads there ever was, and this was immediately apparent in his house. I'd heard about his house from Chris, who had dinner there the last time he was in San Diego. I gave a yell for Bill, "Mr. Walton?!" and made my way into the main room of this part of his house. He soon came down from another part of the house with two very friendly and affectionate black labs. "Don't worry, they're friendly" he assured me. But this was already apparent. These were definitely no guard dogs. We made introductions and Bill led us into what would've seemed to be a dining room, except for the incredibly massive percussion rig in the corner. Well, in the corner is an inaccurate description, more like in the western half of the room. Not only was it huge, it was arranged for a huge guy. Bill is 6'11", after all. I felt like a gnome in the land of giants. Bill directed us to the reason for our visit; The Beam.

The Beam is a musical instrument. I'm not sure exactly who invented it, but it would seem to be a derivative of the Blaster Beam. The Beam is about 7 feet long, however, about half the length of the Blaster Beam. It is a large piece of aluminum, with piano strings strung out across it's length, with a large pickup near one end. This particular Beam had been used to record part of the soundtrack for "Apocalypse Now". Our task was to deliver this Beam to The Great Western Forum in Los Angeles (which, coincidentally, was Bill Walton's home court for at least one season of his basketball career). It was quite a task extracting this very large item from Bill's enormous percussion rig. I nearly destroyed either a djembe or a doumbek while we were carrying out The Beam. Nice going, Mark. Once we got it to the truck, I laid down the bedspread, which was too short, of course, and we laid it across it. We wrapped the bedspread around The Beam and secured it with duct tape. We then tied one of the cargo straps across the end of the instrument, between the strings and what you might call the nut. We finished it off by wrapping the sheet around the end, securing that with more duct tape, then adding some additional padding with an old towel. I was a little nervous about transporting such a rare instrument (to my knowledge, there are only 3 in existence) in such an open vehicle, but we had to make do with what we had to work with. So, we hopped in the truck and headed on our way, with Bill and his wife seeing us off with a wave. Once we were under way, I called Peter to let him know we had obtained the Beam, as he had requested. He asked if we had also gotten the power supply. I replied, "no", because Bill had said that all the cables should remain there. I heard Mickey talking in the background, and Peter let me know that they would need the power supply. I told him we'd only barely left Bill's house, so it would be no problem to turn around and get it. I called Bill back, and told him we'd need the power supply. He said to just come on in and get it. When I got there, I yelled a couple of times with no reply, and so I just showed myself back into the percussion cage to extract the power supply. While I was gathering it's cables, Bill's wife came in and said, "Oh, there you are. We didn't hear you, so we thought you might have come and gone already". These folks are wonderfully laid back people. I apologized and mentioned that I'd yelled for them, and she said they were in a different part of the house and didn't hear me. I finally wrangled the power supply, which is a black box about the size of a lunchbox, with two cables and a ground wire coming out of it, out of the room without doing any further damage to Bill's drums. Bill had come down at this point and I shook his hand and said it had been nice to meet him, and I headed back out the front door, petting one of the dogs once more on my way.  Meanwhile, Bill's extremely nice wife, Lori, had printed a map for us, along with written directions, of the best way back to the freeway, and was giving this to Carl when I got back out. She offered us some water for the road, we declined and thanked her, and we were on our way.
The Beam in the truck, as seen from the cab:


Traffic was nasty the entire way, which left me nervous. We had allowed plenty of time to get there before the show started, but with LA traffic, I was nervous about our rare cargo. I'm used to getting tailgated on California freeways, but when you've got a rare instrument sticking nearly a foot out beyond the rear of your vehicle, tailgaters make you even more nervous.

Upon arriving at the forum, we breathed a mighty sigh of relief, as did Peter, who met us at the gate. We were directed down the tunnel into the bowels of The Forum.


Tonight, The Dead were playing at The Forum (AKA: the Grateful Dead minus Jerry Garcia). This is why we were to deliver The Beam here. Chris was Mickey Hart's main sound technician, and when it became known that The Beam needed to get from San Diego to LA, he naturally thought of me. Now, this Beam wasn't to be a part of tonight's show, but Mickey needed it to take back with them to San Francisco (their next stop). Peter was clearly relieved that we had arrived safely with the Beam. I know he was nervous about having someone he'd never met bring it to them, and I'm a little surprised that Mickey allowed it, but they both trust Chris, so I was determined to make sure that trust wasn't to be considered misplaced.

After we got the Beam to it's destination for the evening, Peter invited us back into the dressing rooms area where we were treated to the catered food that had been brought for the band. This was very good food. Definitely a highlight of the evening. Peter gave Carl some gas money, we ate our fill, then decided to go check out the show. Chris had given us a pair of all-access passes, so we enjoyed the show without ever having to deal with the crowds.



When I entered the main floor, I was struck first by the huge lighting array over the stage, which looked like a spaceship hovering over the band.

We watched the show from an observation platform on the rear left portion of the stage.

It was a full house.


Check out these Grateful Dead branded Thermoses:


I got to meet Warren Haynes briefly.
Now, I must admit, I'm not a fan of The Grateful Dead. But, this was still a rare chance to see a major, legendary band from behind the scenes, and to play a small part in their endeavors. Here's Chris with a wicked grin (behind the bald guy).

Carl was stoked about his pass.

Mickey Hart and Bob Weir:

Mickey posed for me, but then he moved.

Here is Mickey playing his current "Beam", so you can see what it looks like:


After 4 hours and 2 sets, it was finally time to head home.

Back out the tunnel we go.

VIP Parking: We parked with the tour buses.

After another long drive back to San Diego, I arrived home around 3am. I then slept like "The Dead".