The Dead were on 60 Minutes tonight. It was a trip. The overall healthiness, in posture and affect, of the band members was a comfort. Phil Lesh was moving when he responded to the interviewer's comments on Garcia's heroin addiction and death.
Robert Hunter wasn't mentioned. Which could be because he didn't want to be, or because Rick Rubin decided he didn't need to be. But it was primarily a verbal piece. There was music to be sure, but it was mostly talking. And along with Garcia's idiosyncratic genius musicianship, Hunter's words were and are what a lot of us feel put the the band solidly in the American Pantheon. A mention would have been appropriate.