Bill Walton’s love of the Grateful Dead, explained: How basketball legend became ‘Celebrity Deadhead No. 1’ | Sporting News

Bill Walton, who died on Monday at the age of 71, will be remembered for many things.

Some will recall him as one of college basketball’s most dominant stars while at UCLA. Others remember how he twice won NBA titles and was the 1978 NBA MVP. Others will know him from his extensive broadcasting career after the end of his playing career.

But there was another aspect of Walton’s life he wanted everyone to know: he was a Deadhead. Everyone has a favorite band, but not everyone loves their favorite band as much as Walton loved the Grateful Dead.

The classic rock band has a devoted following in the rock world. For 30 years, they captured the hearts of many music lovers for their eclectic style and live performances. Even nearly a full three decades after the passing of frontman Jerry Garcia, the band has remained among the most popular in the music world (and, in fact, had just begun a residency at Las Vegas’ The Sphere at the time of Walton’s death).

How did Walton become such a big fan of the Grateful Dead? Here’s what you need to know.

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How did Bill Walton become a Grateful Dead fan?

Walton has been a fan of the Grateful Dead for a long time. According to USA Today, he first saw the band perform live in 1967 at the age of 15 years old. That was the same year the band released its first full album, “The Grateful Dead.”

Since then, Walton has been to countless shows. He told The San Diego Union-Tribune in 2015 he had been to 854 Grateful Dead shows, though he only started counting after he started playing at UCLA in 1970, meaning the number is likely higher. Per the report, he was called by Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann as “Celebrity Deadhead Number One.”

“More than 854 shows, over 48 years,” Walton told The San Diego Union-Tribune. “That’s less than 20 shows a year, so that’s nothing.”

His wife, Lori Walton, said if she wasn’t a music fan, it would be difficult to be married to Walton “because so much of our life is surrounded by the Dead.” She recalled to The San Diego Union-Tribune the two first met at a Grateful Dead concert, though their version of events are different.

“This is mine: ‘We met backstage at a Dead concert,'” Lori Walton said. “Bill’s version is: ‘We met at church.’ But I think it’s because he considers the Dead concerts to be church! My mom read once that we met at church. She phoned me to say she was so happy I’d met Bill at church. I didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth.”

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Walton’s fandom quickly became legendary. Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart recalled to USA Today how at a concert he wondered why everyone was sitting and only one person was standing. Lawrence “Ramrod” Shurtliff, a Grateful Dead crew member and executive, told Hart everyone was standing. The towering presence was the 6-11 Walton.

Per The San Diego Union-Tribune, the story goes on that a crew member thought Walton was standing on his seat, and when they found out he wasn’t, he was given a backstage pass so he wouldn’t block the view of others. Walton remembered how he was asked to come up, but he recalled turning them down until the intermission.

“I met everybody in the band, and things were never the same again,” Walton told The San Diego Union-Tribune. “They became our best friends and part of our lives. My life has been incredibly enhanced by my friendship and relationship with the Dead.”

Walton worked to impart his love of the band on his teammates. He put stickers around the Celtics practice facility at Hellenic College, per USA Today. His teammate Danny Ainge was not convinced no matter how much Walton tried, which included giving Ainge a cassette tape for his teammate to listen.

Rick Carlisle, a teammate of Walton’s with the Celtics, told USA Today he had been to 25-30 Grateful Dead concerts, but called it “a different experience going with Bill Walton.”

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“In ensuing years, I went to a lot of shows with Bill and ended up getting to know the guys in the band and some of their stage crew,” Carlisle said.

Larry Bird also became a successful convert for Walton, who reportedly later called Jerry Garcia “the Michael Jordan of musicians.”

The band members became close friends with Walton over the years. Grateful Dead historian Dennis McNally, the group’s former publicist, said the band would often stay at Walton’s home in San Diego rather than stay at a hotel.

“The members of the Dead had friends in different cities, yes,” McNally told The San Diego Union-Tribune. “But, generally speaking, on tour they stayed in a hotel. Because the problem is: ‘If you stay with friends, how much privacy do you get?’ They could have that privacy with Bill. It’s very peaceful, staying with him.”

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Over the years, Walton’s house became more and more filled with Grateful Dead memorabilia. There are instruments given to him by members of the band. There are framed pictures and posters. Furniture featured the iconic logo. The shower features a red and white tile illustration of the logo. 

Even in a following as large as the Grateful Dead’s, Walton stands out among the celebrity fans. Fans have widely recognized him as the band’s most well-known Deadhead. He hosted shows on SiriusXM talking about the band and hosted the pay-per-view broadcast of the band’s farewell tour.

Many will remember Walton as a fixture of the basketball world for many years. For Walton, it was only part of his story.

“The Celtics and the Grateful Dead represent so much of everything I believe in, live for and try to do with my life,” Walton told USA Today. “Because of the culture Red [Auerbach] had built, the Celtics were a family organization. The Grateful Dead, that’s a family as well. They both have the ability to inspire, encourage and to allow you to be you and to become something that is bigger and better and more important than you as an individual.”