when Jerry looked over and saw that ugly purple dinosaur playing bass in his band (mind you, he could hear what was unmistakably my playing), the expression on his face was that of a man who didn’t believe what he was seeing – a very rare situation for him. After all the hallucinations he’d played through in his life, to be confronted by this? Barney, meanwhile, is having the time of his life – shaking it left and right, up and down – while I’m laughing so hard at the look on Jerry’s face that I can hardly breathe, let alone play. The sheer cognitive dissonance of it all finally tickled his sense of humor and brought forth a kind of shaky smile – OK, you got me this time, man.

The whole episode happened on the spur of the moment. With so many band and crew kids hanging out at shows, the Dead regularly hired entertainment backstage. And on this night, it was Barney. And at set break, Phil’s wife, Jill, suggested the prank. It seemed to work splendidly. You can listen to the Iko here or head over and check out remastered video of the entire night, including Barney playing bass.