Brent's final performance !!
"I got to go now, but my friends can stick around" !!

I got off the tour just before these shows. Rich stadium was my last show that year. I remember Brent being phenomenal, a true buried gem. Over the stretch of shows I was at that year (Foxboro, Three Rivers, Rich) we had agreed that Brent was probably the future of the band. He could sing the best, and we all assumed that Jerry would die any minute due to his diabetes, drugs, and weight issues.

I had heard rumors soon as I got back from other Heads that Brent was in really bad shape and had a "serious drinking problem" and was going through a super bad divorce. Friends told me that Brent was going to be fired after this tour. I honestly can't say if any of that talk was true, but Brent was dead within days of dude telling me all that.

In the end, I think of music as the saving grace of all humanity
- Henry Miller

www.iamcorrect.com

...........continued from previous shows post..........

So being unable to convince my buddy to go to the third night and even though we had tickets, he would'nt skip out on his first day of job training. But he did promise that he'd buy tickets the same night as Brents last show for Jean-Luc Ponty at Meadowbrook Music Theater in Rochester MI. So we headed to the first Dead campground parking lot we found after the previous night show and hesitantly sold our tickets to the last time Brent ever played with the Dead. After that we got on the road to Southfield Michigan where my buddy was staying in a suite for the beginning of 3 months job training which was about a 6 hour drive.

So the day of Brents last show had finally reached early evening and my buddy was finished with his training session for the day, we headed up to Meadowbrook for an absolutely fantastic Jean-Luc Ponty concert but I coud'nt help wondering what I was missing at "The Other Show" we sold our tickets for as a phenominal jazz rock fusion show was unfolding. After that concert was over my buddy drove me back to West Michigan and immediately drove back to Detroit for training the same night.

A couple days later while on my driving job, breaking news broke over the radio about Brents passing and my heart just dropped. I had a new stack of spring tour tapes from earlier in the year and immediately put 4/2/90 set 1 on and when Easy To Love You came on, I just lost it. I did my deliveries and everyone knew I was a complete basket case who I encountered. When I finally got home I immediately called my buddy back in Southfield and we both realized we sold our tickets to Brents last show. It took a long time to get over that.

Lo and behold a month later, we passed on an opportunity to see Stevie Ray Vaughan to see The Allman Brothers for our first time. That night SRV died. A week later my buddy was diagnosed with cancer. Summer 90 has some real bittersweet memories for me.

A couple months later when it was announced that The Dead were still going to tour, we bought tickets for the Compton Terrace shows which also happened to be right after my buddies first round of chemotherapy and not knowing if we would ever go to any concerts together again. (this part of the story continues on 12/5-6/90)

Ultimately my friend beat his cancer and is miraculously around today and more vibrant than ever. We've since been to more concerts than we could possibly count and we count our blessings each and everyday. Such as life.

I had a ticket up front and on the left side facing the band. I was looking threw Phil to Jerry and Brent. Brent was awesome and played like it was going to be his last. Unfortunately it was...................................... I had a great time at Tinley. All three shows were a blast. Grateful to be there.

GDfan4ever
Did this whole tour. The shows were great, but I remember looking at Brent and thinking to myself, "wow his eyes are buggin out of his head...he looks wild...what is wrong...what is goin on?" I thought he looked totally f**ked up. It scared me. Then I started thinking was it just me? When I asked my boyfriend at the time, he just said the show was smokin' and thought maybe I was the one who was f**ked up, but that wasn't so.....may Brent live in peace now.