Jerry Garcia Was Just Driving to a Show—Then a Traffic Stop Landed Him in Jail 53 Years Ago Today

On March 27, 1973, Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia was driving down the New Jersey Turnpike from a gig in Baltimore to a gig in Massachusetts when he was pulled over for speeding. But what was supposed to be a routine traffic stop ended up landing him in jail.

The rock legend was just going to get a ticket for going 71 in a 60 mph zone — but Garcia was driving without a license, according to a newspaper article. This led the arresting officer to search his car. The officer then proceeded to find... exactly what you would expect to find in Jerry Garcia's car: 25 grams of marijuana, and amounts of LSD, cocaine, and prescription drugs.

Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, who was also in the car, wasn't detained. So he quickly got to work figuring out Garcia's bail. He spoke with John Scher, a New Jersey promoter, who posted the guitarist's $2,000 bail, according to Grateful Dead of the Day. Garcia spent just three hours in jail thanks to his friends — and this was all before the era of cell phones!

With that, he made it to Massachusetts in time to play the show at the Springfield Civic Center, and no one in the crowd was any the wiser.

Jerry Garcia Was Busted For Possession 3 Years Earlier

This wasn't the first time Garcia had been booked for drug possession, either. On January 31, 1970, he and his fellow bandmates were busted in a hotel in New Orleans' French Quarter — the same hotel where Jefferson Airplane had been nabbed just a few weeks prior.

“It was very perculiar, and it seems like they set them up,” the band's manager, Lenny Hart, told Rolling Stoneat the time. “They were waiting when they got back from their concert. They had a warrant and had already searched the room when the band got back. So they called them into their own room, one by one, and busted them."

Hart ended up putting up all the money the band had made from that night's gig to bail them out of jail.