Grateful Dead Reunited: The Dead Tour Dates 2009

The Grateful Dead will live again. The band’s remaining original members have confirmed plans for a new Dead tour in 2009.

The Dead Tour 2009

The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart played together in support of Barack Obama’s campaign this past fall (video below). Now, the Dead’s members say they’ll embark on their first official Dead tour since 2004.

The band will play 19 shows across 16 cities, joined by keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and Allman Brothers Band/Gov’t Mule guitarist Warren Haynes.

So why now? The band members say the Obama show sparked their interest, and they realized their time together had more life in it yet.

“We’ve got some unfinished business,” Weir says. “Everybody has a whole new bag of tricks. We have the body of material we workedup over the years and we have a mind meld going on here and it would be a sin to let that just wither and die.”

“For me, it’s the question mark that’s really pulling me in — what’s gonna happen?” Lesh asks. “When you walk out on the stage the possibilities are infinite every time.”

The Dead Tour Dates 2009

The following is the full list of Dead tour dates for the 2009 tour. A ticket presale begins January 13, with the full nationwide sale starting on the 23rd.

The Dead Tour 2009: Video

The following video is from the Dead’s rehearsal for the 2008 Obama rally show — the show said to have planted the seed for the new 2009 Dead tour. The band has also posted another video on its official site here.