Trixie Garcia Participates In Reddit Ask Me Anything Session

Yesterday, Trixie Garcia answered questions from fans during an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. Jerry Garcia’s daughter and Marc Allan of Red Light, both of whom help run the estate of the late Grateful Dead vocalist/guitarist, responded to queries both serious and more light-hearted over the course of the session with a promise to follow up on some additional questions.

Trixie participated in the session to help promote the forthcoming GarciaLive Volume Nine: August 11th, 1974 – Keystone Berkeley archival release featuring Jerry, Merl Saunders, Bill Kreutzmann, John Kahn and Martin Fierro as well as a concert in honor of Jerry’s 75th birthday set to be held at Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado on August 4.

Here’s a few of the choice nuggets gleamed from Trixie’s responses with all of her answers viewable via this link:

likeascrantonparty: Is there a stash of Jerry’s guitar and amp gear somewhere or is it all sold off?

Trixie Garcia: Yes, there is a stash of Jerry’s guitar and amp gear somewhere. You know the story about the Irwin guitars, those were sold off. His family was given some of his personal instrument collection. I have one of Jerry’s old MESA/Boogie amps that will go on display at the Bill Graham exhibit in Chicago next month. And we are preparing a really big surprise for Red Rocks in August!

DJEricDanger: Did you ever go on tour with your Dad and/or the group? What was the vibe like? Were there other children on tour?

Trixie Garcia: The Grateful Dead played so many shows locally in the Bay Area that we had a pretty thriving community here, so I never went on tour until i was 10 or 11. As they years went on there were more and more kids on tour. But in the early years it was pretty uncool to have kids on tour, so we stayed home.

Laughing Bones: On the hip hop tip, Did 2pac and crew (you included) really destroy Jerry’s house while he was out on tour? And is it true that you and Del the Funkyhomosapien use to date and he found out you are Jerry’s daughter from seeing him on a magazine cover and saying that you looked a hella a lot like Jerry? I read you are still friends today I believe.

Trixie Garcia: Yeah, that sounds about right. I never used to reveal my identity to anyone. Yes, Tupac came over to Jerry’s house when Jerry was on the road. They didn’t destroy it, but I have a distinct memory of people handing keyboards through the windows. Let me clarify, Tupac certainly wasn’t a thief and his friends weren’t thieves, it was a party that got out of hand. It was my good relationship with Tupac and his boys in Marin City that allowed me to get all that stuff back. And Jerry never noticed. Or Jerry might have noticed, but he was such a non-confrontational kind of dad that he never told me he noticed.

youenjoymyself: I was curious if you are aware that you might have been referenced in a new Phish song after GD50. The song, Blaze On, Trey sings, “I saw a red dress, I met a daughter.” The whole vibe of the song seems to be Trey’s elated joy to having been able to play and meet the Dead and crew, and likely you, too! Am I just imagining this, or did you and Trey have nice conversations?

Trixie Garcia: I know that the song isn’t about me, but I did have an intense conversation with Trey at GD50. Me and my sister were sitting with Trey and his two daughters. We were just chatting, and he said, “My daughter’s nineteen, what were you doing when you were 19?” And I said, “Jerry died when I was 20.” The look on his face was priceless, like he realized that he had beaten the demon. He wasn’t going to die, and he was going to be there for his daughters. It was a sweet moment.

thehistorybeard: If you could correct one misconception about Jerry, or tell the world one thing about him that they should always bear in mind when considering his life, what would that be, and why?

Trixie Garcia: That he’s just a human. He’s simply a human.

itsdoublen: Do you feel like John Mayer is doing a good job with Dead and Company? I’m seeing them on Saturday and I’m so excited.

Trixie Garcia: John Mayer is such a random choice but no one can deny that he is killing it. He also seems to be a genuinely nice guy.

Marc Allan’s answers can be viewed here. Check out his response about the contents of Jerry’s non-Grateful Dead work in the vault:

Marc Allan: The vault has a good amount of material from throughout Garcia’s solo work. If I had to point out “holes” we don’t have as much mid 80’s (think 83/84) material in the vault, but there is still a good sampling. There isn’t much missing once DAT players came onto the scene, as by that point Jerry’s production team was recording pretty much on a nightly basis. Luckily, there is also a wealth of material that Jerry and Merl did together as well as a good amount of mid and late 70’s material. I can answer that we do have a copy of 8/10/91 in the vault, as well as June 1989 at Eel River…maybe we can do something with both of those shows, a French’s Camp box of some sorts.