Happy 75th Birthday Bill Kreutzmann: Drumming With Grateful Dead & Others Through The Decades

The first video is from the Grateful Dead’s May 3, 1968 — just days before Billy’s 22nd birthday — concert at Columbia University in New York City. GD provided some much-needed relief in a free show for students who had suffered through police violently quashing protests a few days prior. The clip of the performance features portions of “Cryptical Envelopment” and “The Oher One,” with Kreutzmann having a hand in writing the latter. The video also showcases the influence that jazz had on Billy’s drumming.

On Kreutzman’s 26th birthday, May 7, 1972, the Grateful Dead performed at the Birkershaw Festival in Wigan, United Kingdom on their famed Europe ‘72 tour. A clip from a Woodstock documentary-style film surfaced several years back featuring GD performing “Mr. Charlie” during a marathon set on a rainy festival day. “Mr. Charlie” showcases Billy’s funk drumming as he was also influenced by seminal funk groups like The Meters.

While the Jerry Garcia Band featured a number of drummers over the years, Kreutzmann was actually its first drummer when Jerry launched the solo project with a run of shows in August 1975. Billy would also join JBG in 1981 and 1982. The video above features Kreutzmann performing Chuck Berry’s “Let It Rock” with JGB on June 24, 1982 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. Billy holds down a steady backbeat for the good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll number.

On July 2, 1999, Kreutzmann joined another fellow Grateful Dead bandmate, bassist Phil Lesh, for a Phil & Friends concert at The Warfield in San Francisco. Billy performed alongside Lesh, guitarists David Nelson (of New Riders of the Purple Sage), Steve Kimock and Barry Sless as well as keyboardist Mookie Siegel.

In 2008, Kreutzmann formed the short-lived trio BK3. The group featured The Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge, with whom Billy would reunite with in Dead & Company in 2015, as well as Max Creek guitarist Scott Murawski. Kretzmann and Muraski were introduced to each other by Phish bassist Mike Gordon. BK3 would make an appearance at the 2008 Gathering Of The Vibes festival held in Bridgeport, Connecticut that year and performed the Dead classic “Bertha.”

Another supergroup Kreutzmann has presides over is Billy & The Kids (in recent news, the collective is set for a run of livetream concerts from Hawaii this weekend featuring guitarist Billy Strings and Carlos Santana). But the earliest incarnation of the band — Kreutzmann, bassist Reed Mathis, guitarist Tom Hamilton and The Disco Biscuits keyboardist Aron Magner made its debut in 2014 at the pre-party for Warren Haynes’ annual Christmas Jam benefit concert in Asheville, North Carolina. Haynes would join Billy & The Kids on “Shakedown Street” for their second-ever performance at Christmas Jam proper the next night.

Most recently, Kreutzmann has rejoined his Grateful Dead bandmates guitarist Bob Weir and drummer Mickey Hart in Dead & Company. The past few years have seen D&C putting on a destination event in Mexico called Playing In The Sand. Dead & Company’s final shows before the pandemic were at the event in 2020 where they performed “U.S. Blues.” Fans will have the opportunity to can catch Billy and D&C at the Playing In The Sand 2022 two-weekend event.