On June 26, 1993, the Grateful Dead played RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. And none other than President Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, was in attendance. In fact, she ended up hanging out with Jerry and Bobby before the show. But that was not exactly the plan from the start, and it only became necessary once Bear arrived on the scene.
By this point in time, Owsley was living in Australia where he was, among other things, making jewelry that he would sell on Dead tour during his trips back to the States. And it was on June 26th that Bear found himself backstage with the opportunity to sell some of his goods to a presidential teenybopper and her friends, who also happened to be surrounded by secret service agents.
As a Dead staffer told Robert Greenfield, author of Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III, Bear “had the sales tactics of a Mumbai street peddler.” While being fully accosted by Bear, Chelsea kept her cool. But with the Secret Service agents getting increasingly alarmed and ready to spring into action, the Dead staffer intervened.
First, they tried talking to Bear who, unsurprisingly, just walked away and returned to the first daughter. Not knowing where else to turn, the staffer raced into Bobby’s dressing room and asked to bring Chelsea and her friends in, to save them from Bear. Bobby’s characteristic response? “Sure, why not? Let’s talk to Chelsea.”
The little Clinton and her buddies then spent time in “the innermost sanctum, where there was no one else but them and Jerry and Bobby.” Whether they talked about science fiction, discussed the president’s love for El Caminos, or requested the Playin’> Terrapin into Drums is not known. But it was a democratic night; Tipper and Al Gore were in the skybox, and the Dead encored Liberty.
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