The Grateful Dead check in with Barack Obama

"No ties ... and no tie-dyes," is how the Dead dressed for a meeting with President Obama in the Oval Office, according to a source at the White House on Monday evening.

Obama thanked the Grateful Dead last year:



The meeting (not on the president's official schedule), was arranged by a Deadhead in the White House (lots of fans there, and in Washington including Senators Al Franken and Patrick Leahy, two other Senators, The Gores, etc). The current lineup of Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, Warren Haynes and Jeff Chimenti and some of their wives, met with Obama for about 15 minutes.

Then it was on to a much longer visit with senior staff. While the president has never been to a Dead show, the officials they met with next -- senior advisers David Axelrod and Pete Rouse and Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina -- are said to be big fans who had plans to attend last night's Verizon Center show. "They talked about a lot of different issues."

When Jerry Garcia visited the White House, he wore sweat pants. This time they wore jackets.
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