In 1965, when the Warlocks were first starting out, the original band members included Pigpen on electric organ, harmonica, and vocals, Jerry Garcia as lead guitarist, Bob Weir playing rhythm guitar, Billy Kreutzmann on drums, and Dana Morgan Jr. on bass. Dana was a helpful addition because he helped run his father’s music store and provided the band with some needed equipment plus an after-hours rehearsal venue.

They were different right out of the gate because they weren’t totally focused on covering popular radio hits of the day by British-invasion bands like The Beatles, Kinks, and Stones. Their sound was more raw, less polished, and just more authentic and new.

Sue Swanson, known for being a very early friend and fan of the band, recalls rehearsals at Dana Morgan’s,  where the group would attempt to listen to current recorded music and imitate it. “My job was to change the 45s,” she explained. ‘Play that part again!’ “I’ll never forget the sound of them practicing in there, and all the cymbals and everything in the whole room would be going. The whole room would be making all this noise.”

It was at Magoo’s Pizza Parlor on Santa Cruz Avenue in Menlo Park where the group played some of its first gigs in May of 1965. Shortly thereafter, it became clear that Dana Morgan Jr. wasn’t going to work out as their bass player, and they met Phil Lesh, who was an accomplished classical musician, although not a bass player. Still, he and Jerry hit it off and Jerry wanted him in the band.

Eventually, a rumor emerged that someone, somewhere, had seen an album in a record store by another band called The Warlocks. Although it is unclear if this is even true, it prompted the need for a name change, which took some thinking.

One afternoon at Lesh’s apartment, while the band was sitting around smoking DMT and flipping through the dictionary they came across an expression that seemed like the perfect fit for them. “There was ‘grateful dead,’ those words juxtaposed. It was one of those moments, y’know, like everything else on the page went blank, diffuse, just sort of oozed away, and there was grateful dead. Big black letters edged all around in gold, man, blasting out at me, such a stunning combination. So I said, ‘How about Grateful Dead?’ and that was it,” Jerry noted.

The band members didn’t all love it immediately, but other friends and acquaintances thought it was right on, so it stuck. “It’s just repellent enough to filter curious onlookers and just quirky enough that parents don’t like it,” Jerry added with a chuckle.