The night Grateful Dead were arrested for starting a riot

Posted On September 15, 2025September 15, 2025

The Grateful Dead were many things, but never a safe band.

One of the biggest acts of the 1960s, they were largely associated with the hippie movement and drug culture. Five years after their formation in 1965, they were arrested for drug possession in a raid on their hotel room, of which they sing on one of their most popular songs, ‘Friend of the Devil’, “The sheriff’s on my trail / and if he catches up with me / I’ll spend my life in jail”.

The band was even the subject of an FBI investigation, so news that they were once arrested on suspicion of inciting a riot is not exactly a surprise, but the tug of war between that went down between the two is an eerie pastiche of our present moment of violence and state brutality.

A decade after their first arrest for drug possession, it was 1980, and the venue was the San Diego Sports Arena, capable of holding around 15,000. Thankfully, on the night in question, the band made it through an entire set for their dedicated, famously named, Deadheads. They opened the show with ‘Jack Straw’, later barrelling through two Kingfish covers, ‘Lazy Lightning’ and ‘Supplication’. For the encore, they returned to a host of roaring fans to play ‘Alabama Getaway’ and transition smoothly into a cover of Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B Goode’.

As the last notes faded and the band clambered backstage, however, they’d noticed an overpowering police presence, unaware of where the night would lead them. Shortly after their set, the police were called to the stage area to investigate reports that a concertgoer was urinating on another person, during which they apparently stumbled upon a drug deal, and all hell broke loose. As per a local newspaper at the time, patrolman Jorge Nelson reported, “The guy resisted. Then everything went to hell because it looked like a fight.”

Guitarist Bob Weir, drummer Mickey Hart, and road manager Danny Rifkin were arrested for, according to police, attempting to “free the person being arrested”. Those words, menial and clipped, don’t exactly paint the picture of what really happened, for Weir had a different take.

“On my way back to the dressing room, I saw about half a dozen cops standing on a kid who was lying face down in a pool of blood,” Weir recalled. “About six feet from them were Mickey and Danny. Mickey said, ‘It doesn’t take all of you to do that job.’ One of the cops said to him, ‘You’re under arrest.’ Danny said, ‘No, you don’t understand. This is our show.’”

Weir continued incredulously, “At that point, a door burst open and maybe a dozen more cops came in, all with their clubs up. Four cops grabbed Mickey and Danny and started choking them and dragging them off.” Weir saw what was coming and tried to stem the situation from realising its “potential for a riot”. However, before he could act, he was “grabbed, handcuffed and dragged off to jail”.

The gang spent eight hours in holding before being released on bail. Along with the musicians, 31 others were arrested that night, as things reached a fever-pitch in reaction to the murky details of the scene behind the stage. Notwithstanding what went down, and how Deadheads and the Dead themselves remember it, the authorities remain keen as ever to wield state-sponsored power.

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