The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland is honoring the Grateful Dead with its major annual exhibit, "The Long, Strange Trip," opening April 12 during the hall's induction week festivities.

"The Grateful Dead have always been a subject we've wanted to do something on," said curatorial director Howard Kramer. "We've had an ongoing dialogue with the band since we opened. They finally said yes."

The Marin-based Dead join a short list of rock legends who have had exhibits at the hall, among them U2, the Clash, the Doors, Elvis Presley, the Who and the Supremes.

Logo for the Grateful Dead exhibit, ÒThe Long, Strange Trip,Ó opening April 12 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Çleveland.

"The Grateful Dead is a band that is identified with a remarkable era in American history, and, inasmuch as they embody that era, their work is timeless," said Jim Henke, vice president of exhibits and curatorial affairs. "They've inspired many performers and bands, but none has exhibited their musical depth and cultural resonance. In a 30-year career, this group wrote their own rules and created a community unlike any band before or since."

Dead drummer Mickey Hart will be on hand for the unveiling of the comprehensive exhibit, performing with his Mickey Hart Band at a hall of fame event the day before the public opening. Hart contributed some old conga drums played by the late Ron "Pig Pen" McKernan and some 1967-68 vintage stage gongs, among other artifacts.


A highlight will be a showcase of iconic instruments band members played on stage over the years, including Jerry Garcia's vaunted Travis Bean TB5 guitar, Bob Weir's Ibanez "cowboy" custom guitar and a bass from Phil Lesh. The Dead's famed "Wall of Sound" system will be incorporated into the exhibit design.

"It honors a lot of our tradition, and that's cool, but we're also moving forward," Hart said, referring to his upcoming album, "Mysterium Tremendum," and spring tour with his band. "The whole thing is about honoring your past while being headed straight for the future with feet planted firmly in the now."

Individual sections within the exhibit will be devoted to the Dead as a recording group and a touring band, but no exhibit on the Grateful Dead would be complete without acknowledging the importance of its legions of Deadhead fans.

"The story of the Grateful Dead is more about what they meant to people and what people meant to them," Kramer said. "You can't separate them. It's a two-way street: what the fans did around the band and what the band did for the fans."

The Deadhead section of the exhibit includes a collection of homemade marijuana pipes and paraphernalia that symbolize the parking lot bazaar that blossomed spontaneously outside Dead shows.

"One pipe is made of elk horn, and we have a roach clip fashioned from transistors and electronic parts," Kramer said. "They're very cool. People sold them so they could follow the band on the road."

A part of the exhibit called "Fellow Travelers" will be devoted to members of the Dead's extended family, including Merry Pranksters Neal Cassady and Ken Kesey and promoter Bill Graham, whose Father Time robe from the Dead's New Year's Eve shows will be on display.

The Dead are instantly recognized by their iconic art work, and this exhibit will present an unprecedented collection of original art from posters and album covers.

Kramer is particularly proud of an assemblage of original lyric manuscripts of Dead classics like "Truckin'" and "Sugaree." The typed lyrics for "Box of Rain," he pointed out, feature chord changes by Lesh, who wrote the song, and notes on the tune from Garcia.

"That allows you to see the level of collaboration they did on this," Kramer said. "It's easy to draw a cartoonish picture of the Grateful Dead, but that takes away from their depth as a band."

The Dead were inducted into the hall of fame in 1994, and disbanded a year later after Garcia's death. All of the surviving members have stayed active, performing with various spinoff bands.

"The Grateful Dead: The Long, Strange Trip" will be open through December.

"It never ceases to amaze me how influential and really significant all that was," said photographer Richie Pechner, a former Dead roadie whose photos of the Wall of Sound will be in the exhibit. "It blows my mind."

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