Music Trivia
Grateful Dead Trivia Questions & Answers
The band that made live tape collecting a way of life. Test your Dead knowledge, from the Acid Tests to Soldier Field, from easy questions to expert level.
15 Grateful Dead trivia questions to test yourself
Tap a question to reveal the answer. From easy warm-ups to expert-level questions only serious fans get right. Want a score and a diploma? Play the full quiz — it has many more Grateful Dead questions than this page.
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Who was the Grateful Dead's lead guitarist and iconic figurehead? Easy
Answer: Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia led the band from 1965 until his death in 1995.
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What was the band's name immediately before Grateful Dead? Easy
Answer: The Warlocks
After the Mother McCree's era, they became the Warlocks before adopting the Grateful Dead name in 1965.
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'Casey Jones' warns that the driver is high on what? Easy
Answer: Cocaine
'Driving that train, high on cocaine' opens the famous chorus.
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Which Dead song contains the line 'What a long strange trip it's been'? Easy
Answer: Truckin'
'Truckin'' chronicled life on the road, including the famous New Orleans bust.
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What did the Grateful Dead famously allow fans to do at concerts? Easy
Answer: Record the shows
Their taper-friendly policy created the largest live archive in rock history.
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What did founding member Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan play? Medium
Answer: Organ and harmonica
Pigpen was the band's bluesy heart until his death in 1973 at age 27.
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Which 1972 triple live album documented their first European tour? Medium
Answer: Europe '72
Europe '72 introduced songs like 'Jack Straw' and 'Brown-Eyed Women'.
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The archival series Dick's Picks is named after whom? Medium
Answer: Dick Latvala
Tape archivist Dick Latvala chose the shows for the series that began in 1993.
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In September 1978 the Dead played three shows at which extraordinary location? Medium
Answer: The Great Pyramid of Giza
The Egypt shows near the Sphinx are Deadhead legend.
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Married couple Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux joined the band in which roles? Medium
Answer: Piano and vocals
Keith joined on piano in late 1971; Donna Jean joined on vocals as 1971 turned into 1972, and both left in 1979.
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Owsley 'Bear' Stanley, who funded and recorded the early Dead, was also famous as what? Hard
Answer: An LSD chemist
Bear was the underground's master LSD chemist and the band's pioneering soundman-taper.
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Cornell '77 received which official honor in 2012? Hard
Answer: Entry into the National Recording Registry
The Library of Congress added the Barton Hall tape to the National Recording Registry.
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Final keyboardist Vince Welnick came from which band? Hard
Answer: The Tubes
Welnick had been the keyboardist of San Francisco's The Tubes.
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Which member left the band from 1971 to 1974? Hard
Answer: Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart stepped away after his father, the band's manager, embezzled from them.
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Where did Garcia reportedly find the name 'Grateful Dead'? Expert
Answer: A dictionary entry about folk tales
He opened a dictionary and landed on the folklore term for a grateful spirit motif.
How many did you get right?
The full Lost Tape Club Trivia Challenge tracks your score across every difficulty level and hands out a collector diploma at the end.
Beyond trivia: the Grateful Dead recordings most fans never hear
No band is more central to live collecting than the Dead: they invented the taper section, and tapes like Cornell '77 and the Betty Boards became legend. Lost Tape Club carries unofficial Grateful Dead collector CDs covering shows from across their thirty-year run.
Browse the Grateful Dead archive, browse all artists, or see real product photos of the collector editions.