The legendary band the Grateful Dead started playing together in the mid 1960s and stayed mostly together, playing thousands of shows around the world, until 1995, when lead guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia died.
The band spent a great deal of that time under the legal counsel of attorney Harold “Hal” Kant. Over the years, he and his wife, Dr. Jesse Kant, attended several shows and were even invited to Jerry Garcia’s 1994 wedding.
Hal Kant died in 2008. Now, Jesse Kant is selling Grateful Dead memorabilia the couple accumulated over the decades through Stremmel Auctions in Reno.
“I had never heard of the band," Dr. Kant told KNPR's State of Nevada, "I was definitely a jazz fan and didn’t know anything about the Grateful Dead until Hal introduced me to them.”
When she was introduced to the band, it was never a dull moment with them from then on.
“Working with the Grateful Dead was never tame," she said, "These were extraordinarily unusual and wonderfully, delightfully different people.”
Kant said her husband thought of himself as the band's chief protector. He had to make sure no one took advantage of them, especially Garcia. She said money wasn't important to them so her husband had to make sure they didn't let things happen that could end up hurting them.
“He did take very good care of them and they appreciated it,” she said.
Because of her association with the band, Kant ended up in some unusual situations, including getting lost in the Sahara Desert while trying to find a party following a concert at the Great Pyramids.
While trying to find her way back, she was rescued by a man, who turned out to be Garcia, on a camel.
“Not a lot of people can say they’ve been rescued from the desert by Jerry Garcia on a camel," she said.
The auction will include many items from her and her husband's time knowing the band, including artwork by Garcia and a golf bag given to her husband by the band that has a large Grateful Dead logo on it.
One of her favorite items up for sale is from Garcia's wedding.
“One of the bits of memorabilia that I have in the auction is an invitation to the wedding reception," she said, "I took a rose from the vase that was on the table where we sat with Jerry and his bride and had that pressed with the rose.”
She said it was difficult to part with that item and some other things up for auction, but in the end, she decided it was time to let them go.
“I wasn’t really sad to let them go because I felt I’ve lived with them and enjoyed them for so many years and now I’m quite ready to pass them on to someone else,” she said.
After the gavel falls December 9, Stremmel Auctions and Jesse Kant will make a donation to the Rex Foundation, a non-profit started by the band to support creative endeavors in the arts, sciences, and education.
One of the items up for sale is this rare poster of Jerry Garcia/Courtesy: Stremmel Auctions
Dr. Jesse Kant, widow of longtime Grateful Dead lawyer Harold "Hal" Kant