Bill Kreutzmann

I was born May 7, 1946 in Palo Alto, California, and was the drummer for the legendary rock band the Grateful Dead for its entire 30-year career. I started playing drums at the age of 13, despite the fact that my sixth grade music teacher told me I couldn't keep a beat. As a teenager, I had the good chance to meet the mystic English writer Aldous Huxley, who encouraged me in my drumming. In 1962, I started working at Dana Morgan's Music Store in Palo Alto. One day a young picker named Jerry Garcia stopped in to purchase a banjo. Shortly thereafter,... more