-This week, we celebrate remember the life of the Grateful Dead’s Bobby Weir (October 16, 1947-January 10, 1946)
-This week, we talk about all things Grateful Dead in an interview with Cookeville Deadhead Alvin Knox
-thanks to the Dead taping community, we will hear excerpts from the only original Grateful Dead shows in the Jerry era that Teacher On The Radio attended, in 1987 & 1988 respectively
-content warning for discussion of drug use & incarceration
-shout to the Wharf Rats & the entire yellow balloon movement of clean & sober music fans; if you or someone you love is struggling with substance use disorder, help is available
-originally aired on WTTU 88.5 FM The Nest on Wednesday, October 14, 2026
-all views only represent the host, the guests, & the artists played, never the student managers or the Communication department or the university
Grateful Dead - Cassidy (Shoreline Amphitheatre, 6-16-1990)
-Voices of Bobby Weir, Mickey Hart, Jerry Garcia, & Dennis McNally from the Long Strange Trip documentary
Grateful Dead - Sugar Magnolia (Winterland, 12-31-1978)
- Interview with Deadhead Alvin Knox - excerpt
Grateful Dead - Fire On The Mountain (Winterland, 12-31-1978)
- Interview with Deadhead Alvin Knox - excerpt
Grateful Dead - Wharf Rat (Alpine Valley, 6-27-1987)
- Interview with Deadhead Alvin Knox - excerpt
Grateful Dead - Turn On Your Lovelight (Joe Louis Arena, 4-11-1988)
Grateful Dead - Happy Birthday Drummers (Joe Louis Arena, 4-11-1988)
(An inside joke or tongue-in-cheek prank was it was neither Bill Kreutzman’s nor Mickey Hart’s actual birthday)
Grateful Dead - Brokedown Palace (Joe Louis Arena, 4-11-1988)
Grateful Dead - Touch of Grey (Joe Louis Arena, 4-11-1988)
Grateful Dead - Death Don’t Have No Mercy (Hampton Coliseum, 10-9-1989)
Cookeville Poet (and Deadhead and retired MTSU English professor) Alvin Knox is moving away. Grateful Dead singer & guitarist Bobby Weir is dead. This week is Bobby’s birthday, & I think it’s high time for a Grateful Dead episode of Teacher On The Radio.
When some of Alvin’s incredible Dead collection (including live cassettes and photographs) started showing up at University Vintage and Moody’s Thrift Store last spring, I got a hankering to talk to him about the Grateful Dead.
It turns out that part of Alvin’s Dead story is incredibly near and dear to my heart, beyond the bond that heads & fans always share. He once edited a by-mail fanzine for incarcerated Deadheads. As a recovering addict/alcoholic & a prison abolitionist, I find this completely fascinating & an important -- but perhaps not-talked-about-enough -- aspect of the Grateful Dead community. We go there. We also end up talking about one of my other favorite Dead topics, the Spinners.
To honor Alvin on the occasion of his departure, & to honor Bobby Weir on his birthday & for the first All Saints/Halloween season since Weir’s passing, I have been working on a special Dead themed Teacher On The Radio to include some of this interview with Alvin & some Dead music. I hope you all might want to check out the unedited interview as well as the radio show. (There are some minor technical glitches at the end of the unedited interview tape, which will be excerpted for the radio program.
