The day Jerry died I was in Seattle (I'm from the DC area) at a weeklong annual convention of the company for which I worked. The news broke, and nobody else really cared. One guy joked that his tie (!)was going to be worth more now. I went to a bar with the boys that night, but just cried in my beer all night. One pretty chick even hit on me strongly, my friends told me, but I didn't notice. I told the guys I couldn't handle it and took a cab home early, and a Dead show was playing on his radio. I got the frequency (it was a college station), which was doing a memorial. I lay in bed listening to the hotel radio in the dark all night. When I got home, I played every piece of Jerry's recorded music I owned, which took a couple of weeks, in a row. After that, I started to feel better. RIP Jerry.
First show: Spectrum, Philly 4-25-83
Last show: RFK, Washington, DC 6-25-95