“When you got three Grateful Dead songs, you could be in that pit for 40 minutes, if you’ve got the right songs,” says Jeff Kravitz.

When Kravitz first got to shoot the Dead in 1994, he found himself in the pit next to a more veteran photographer of the band, Jay Blakesberg, who was already renowned among Deadheads for his iconic portraits of the group after shooting them since 1978.

Kravitz recalled a story of his first attempt to shoot at a show, where he wound up in a conversation with Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally.

Jodi Peckman didn’t call, but next time I went to the Dead, I brought a whole folder of photographs with all my bylines with them,” said Kravitz.

“He’s like, ‘Why are you showing me this?’ I was like, ‘Because you questioned my veracity!’ He goes, ‘If you want to shoot the Grateful Dead, be down here with your camera in 10 minutes.’ I ran back, got my camera, went right back to the pit.

Unfortunately, that was the result, that there were a lot of performances that were not up to the par of who Jerry Garcia was,” Blakesberg said.

However, there were also many uplifting moments Blakesberg and Kravitz shared with Garcia before he died.

“He was a taper, and that’s why he allowed the taping — because it was a tool that he used in his life,” said Kravitz.

On August 9, 1995, a month after the final Grateful Dead show at Soldier Field, the word that Garcia had passed away spread around the world.

After the Golden Gate Park tribute, one of hundreds or thousands of gatherings in which fans across the globe mourned, many who immersed themselves in Garcia’s music moved forward with life — new jobs, starting families, but still having a love for the memories and music.

Although members of the Grateful Dead had played together in several bands after Garcia’s passing, notably just as the Dead, “Fare Thee Well” reinvigorated the band’s timeless history for old and new fans alike.

I want you to come out and thank them for 50 years of music as an “I’m not worthy” and pump your fist and connect with the audience, before you play that last show.’ They came out and I said, ‘Then you’re going to turn around and thank the 10,000 people behind the drums and I’ll be up on the drum riser.’ They all said, ‘Wow, that’s great, we’ll do it.’ That’s the cover of the Fare Thee Well book,” said Blakesberg

That same summer, John Mayer, along with Weir, Kreutzmann and Hart, formed Dead & Company — with Mayer paying tribute to Garcia as the new band’s lead vocalist

“It’s all gonna be part of the tale of the Grateful Dead and the way that people celebrate the music

That’s the amazing thing about the music — the music is going to outlive the guys that are playing it,” said Kravitz

Yet Blakesberg, although forever connected to the music and having a role in the Dead’s history, noted that his official Grateful Dead archive will close when the “core four” officially stop making music — but will save a new, separate photographic chapter in case spin-off groups like Dead & Company continue on with new members one day

“Many of the most important moments in my life, these profound moments, were with the Grateful Dead or Deadheads — people that were at my wedding, people that were my friends, when my children were born, the career that I’ve had, the photographs that I’ve taken, the documentary aspect of photographing members of the Grateful Dead starting in 1978 all the way up till today,” said Blakesberg

It’s the groups like the Dead and Dead & Company, and even Furthur and RatDog, that have honored and kept the Grateful Dead energy and jam band scene alive and well