A limited-run bio-series centering on jam pioneers, the Grateful Dead, is currently in the works at Amazon, with founding and core four member Bob Weir lending a watchful eye to the entire project's creation and use of music.
The series remains unnamed but is closely crafted after Steven Parish's 2003 memoir titled, Home Before Daylight: My Life On the Road with the Grateful Dead. Parish, acting as the show's executive producer, wrote of his time spent in the orbit of the Dead as their roadie and later on, the late Jerry Garcia's manager and close companion.
As UltimateClassicRock reports, Parish and producer Stephen Emery tried to launch Home Before Daylight as a biopic back in 2008. Even with the confirmed involvement of Weir as musical director and solid soundtrack contributions from Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane and Neil Young, the project still managed to crumble.
Despite the setback, Emery will sit in the co-executive producer chair for the Amazon limited series while its uncertain if Weir will be forced to scrap his work on the show's music thus far. The series is still in need of a director as well as a writer, Rolling Stone reports.
The Amazon announcement trails an emotional roller coaster of a year for the Grateful Dead, who relished in their 50th anniversary Fare Thee Well gigs in the Chicago and Bay Area over the summer. Also in tribute to the 20th anniversary of Garcia's death, the performances offered a lineup of the Dead's surviving members, Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart and Phil Lesh, with the addition of Phish's Trey Anastasio to fill the monumental shoes of Jerry Garcia.
Sans Lesh, who was recently diagnosed with bladder cancer, the rest of the Core Four have been touring North American with John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti as Dead & Company. The innovative lineup delivers uniquely constructed setlists, chock-full of deadhead favorites spanning American Beauty, Shakedown Street, Steal Your Face and more.
