A Unitarian pastor sees a link between the music of the Grateful Dead and spirituality, offering a three-part sermon on the topic to congregants.

Those who were “Deadheads” were the ones who pledged allegiance to the band and spent incredibly large quantities of time riding around in Volkswagen buses, tie-dying T-shirts and following the group from concert to concert.

Considered a part of a controversial youth culture movement that drifted into the 1970s and ‘80s, the Grateful Dead rose to icon status in the psychedelic era by selling its message of peace, love and understanding to adoring concert crowds. History doesn’t deny that the concerts were venues for the emerging free drug, free love culture during those years, but fans who went to hear the music came away with a message.

Now, 40 years since the group got its start and 12 years after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia silenced their music, some people who didn’t get the message then are revisiting the Grateful Dead and finding a lyrical connection to religion and spirituality. That link is something Pastor Chip Roush of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Grand Traverse, Mich., discovered. He plans to share it with his congregation in an upcoming three-part series, “Searching for the Sound: The Spirituality of the Grateful Dead.” The worship series begins Jan. 14 with “Fire from the Ice: The Religious Humanism of the Grateful Dead.”

Wasn't the show the church? I seem to remember having at least one or two spiritual experiences at a GD show...