John Mayer and Bob Weir of Dead & Company perform at Sleep Train Amphitheatre on July 27, 2016 in Chula Vista, Calif.Bill Walton was a lot of things: the 1977-78 NBA MVP, two-time league champion, sportscaster and, perhaps most famously, a huge Deadhead. The 6′ 11″ center known as “Big Red” for his flowing, shaggy locks died on Monday at age 71 following a battle with cancer.
Drummer Mickey Hart weighed in as well, calling Walton, “The best friend I ever had. He was an amazing person, singular, irreplaceable, giving, loving. His love for our music was beyond description. He called himself the luckiest man in the world but it was us who were lucky — to know him, to share the adventure with him,” Hart wrote. “He was the biggest Deadhead in the world and used our music as the soundtrack to his life.
Not only did Walton gladly pay tribute to late San Francisco promoter and Dead supporter Bill Graham by slipping into the Father Time outfit, but he also slid in references to the band during broadcasts, occasionally sat in for DJ sets on the group’s SiriusXM channel and was even inducted into the Dead’s Hall of Honor, which the big man said was his
Kreutzmann said that Walton was a “genuine fan that became a genuine friend and someone I always looked up to. But his towering presence was more than just literal. Whenever I play, there will now always be a hole where a seat should be, about ten rows back, center, where Bill used to stand, eyes closed, arms raised, while he felt the music running through him. That was a happy place for him and seeing him out there was one of mine. We never did have a hard time finding him in the crowd.