You know guys.......I know DKG is an easy target, but you're fooling yourselves if you don't think that being financially successful is something that the members of the Grateful Dead were interested in. Do you like the Beatles? One memorable comment from them, "Let's go write a new car". Garcia was alive when they started selling his art work as ties......and they weren't cheap.
It's a double-edged sword too, isn't it? I mean, you meet someone that's never heard the Dead, or one of those folks that has a real false perception of the Dead, most Dead Heads' tendencies are to "turn them on". Guess what? Lot's of people like the Dead because A) they're pretty good, and B) Dead Heads turned previously non-Dead Heads onto them. Have you ever heard the term in Grateful Dead-dom "We are everywhere"?
They certainly are not gaining any (measurable) new fans from radio play or even touring. It is the turn on/word of mouth that has contributed to make them more and more mainstream. And it always seems to draw this mixed reaction when they show up in some mainstream channel.
Ed
First Show - 5/5/77
Last Show - 3/28/93