Fire Up the Router: Grateful Dead Join TikTok on 4/20

In timing that was surely coincidental, iconic OG jam band the Grateful Dead unrolled their first post on TikTok on Thursday (April 20). The ultimate toker’s band celebrated the universally beloved smoker holiday with a compilation video of archival footage set to a live, remastered take of “St. Stephen” recorded at the legendary Fillmore West in San Francisco in 1969.

The @gratefuldead account was launched in conjunction withe Rhino Entertainment and a release promises that it will “serve as an outlet to celebrate the decades of music, generations of community, and endless array of creativity that has woven the band and its fans into every new era of the world’s counterculture and consciousness.”

The first 30-second clip pulls together archival concert footage, candid scenes from “Shakedown Street,” handmade fan artwork and snippets of Deadheads spinning and showing off their customized vans. A release promises “much more exclusive content” in the offing on a near-daily basis in the future a month after the debut of the band’s music on TikTok in March, which allowed users to used the group’s recordings in their videos for the first time.

The Dead are just the latest heritage act to make their way to the TikTok universe, following on the heels of fellow old schoolers Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, who’ve all joined since 2021. The GD spin-off band, Dead & Company, will play their final shows this summer, with the last gigs slated to take place at San Francisco’s Oracle Park on July 14-16.

Check out the first GD TikTok video here.