Dead & Company helped raise $658,600 for charity with an auction that included a guitar used by Bob Weir, drumheads, and posters. The proceeds will support nonpartisan and nonprofit voter registration organization HeadCount, environmental organization REVERB, and a dozen other charities selected by the band.
The auction took place over the course of Dead & Company’s summer tour, which concluded with two nights at New York’s Citi Field last weekend. Fans were able to place bids at “Participation Row,” the charity social action village that travels with the Dead & Company tour.
The bulk of the proceeds came from guitars including an Ocean Turquoise D’Angelico Premier SS Guitar used onstage by Bob Weir and a collection of custom guitars commemorating specific two-night stops on the tour, with artwork by contemporary artist and Grateful Dead poster designer AJ Masthay. After Weir played the D’Angelico SS Guitar at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountainview, CA on June 13th, bidding immediately jumped to $74,000. Then, when he played it again at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on June 25th, it zoomed to $250,000. The guitar ended up bringing in a whopping $300,000.
The auction was conducted in partnership with HeadCount, a nonprofit organization dedicated to harnessing the power of music, culture, and digital media to register voters and inspire participation in democracy. Since 2004, HeadCount had registered over one million voters through their work with musicians like Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Dead & Co, Harry Styles, and Megan Thee Stallion; events including Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Pride Festivals, and RuPaul’s DragCon; plus partnerships with brands like Spotify, Ben & Jerry’s, and GrubHub. To find more information, donate, and register to vote, visit HeadCount’s website.