Rock's longest strangest trip the Grateful Dead were the psychedelic era's most beloved musical ambassadors as well as its most enduring survivors spreading their message of peace love and mind-expansion across the globe throughout the better part of three decades. The object of adoration for popular music's most fervent and celebrated fan following — the Deadheads their numbers and devotion legendary in their own right — they were the ultimate cult band creating a self-styled universe all their own; for the better part of their career orbiting well outside of the mainstream the Dead became superstars solely on their own terms tie-dyed pied pipers whose epic free-form live shows were rites of passage for an extended family of listeners who knew no cultural boundaries.