Music
The Drop | Julien's On Air: A "Big Steve" Primer
The road crew knew everything. Now, so will you.
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Uncover the pop cultural knowledge that lives the hands of the people who were there — who loaded the gear, who handed off the guitar mid-set, who watched from the wings every night for decades as history happened under the lights.
Steve Parish is that kind of knowledge, made flesh.
For more than fifty years, "Big Steve" Parish was the gravitational center of the Grateful Dead's road operation — Jerry Garcia's closest confidant, the crew chief who kept the machine running, the man who knew where everything was, what it meant, and who it belonged to. He didn't observe the Dead from a distance. He was part of the Dead, in every sense that mattered.
Today, Julien's Auctions brings you the inaugural items drop for Julien's first “On Air” auction — and there was only one way to open: with Big Steve in the room.
Join host-auctioneer Kody Frederick and Steve Parish for an auction broadcast unlike any Julien's has staged before. Ten curated lots. Ten stories told by the man who lived them. This isn't provenance by paperwork. This is provenance by energetic memory — the specific, unguarded kind that Parish has spent a lifetime carrying.
Deliberately intimate, each object gets its moment, and each moment gets its story. Collectors who've followed the Dead's material culture for years could hear details that have never surfaced in print. Fans who are newer to the world Parish inhabited will get something rarer still: an education straight from the source.
"On Air" was built for exactly this. The bi-weekly live-stream format — ten curated lots, a live host/auctioneer, a guest with genuine skin in the game — strips the auction experience down to its most essential elements. The object, the story, and the bid.
Julien's “On Air” airs every other Monday. New items drop every other Tuesday.
The Rundown
1. Lot #1. Phil Lesh | Color Portrait by Herb Greene, 2. Lot #2. Grateful Dead | 1973-1974 “Wall of Sound” P.A. Tower and Scaffolding Blueprints, 3. Lot #3. “Big Steve” Parish | THE DEAD License Plate Thrown On Stage By Fan, 4. Lot #4. Lawrence “Ram Rod” Shurtliff | Small Anvil Hand Carry Case, 5. Lot #5. Jerry Garcia | Framed Early 1980s Backstage Passes, 6. Lot #6. Jerry Garcia | Vintage 1982 Jerry Garcia and Friends Benefit Concert T-Shirt, 7. Lot #7. Jerry Garcia | Original Airbrush Artwork, 8. Lot #8. Jerry Garcia | Original Pencil Drawing (Man's Face), 9. Lot #9. Bill Graham | Jerry Garcia Band Photo Signed to “Big Steve” Parish, 10. Lot #10. “Big Steve” Parish | “The Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead” Record Album,
Tune In
The items that passed through “Big Steve” Parish’s hands, and those of the people he worked alongside, have found their way into collections all over the world. For once, the auction isn't just moving the items — it's moving the context with them.
The first drop is now LIVE. Ten lots. One livestream. Fifty years of stories. Watch. Bid. Win.
Julien's “On Air” airs every other Monday. New items drop every other Tuesday.
