Big Steve Parish has been a central part of the Grateful Dead family for over 50 years. He joined as a roadie in 1969 and soon became Jerry Garcia’s trusted gear handler and manager of the Jerry Garcia Band. Parish and Garcia formed an unbreakable bond—Steve was Jerry’s best man and at his side during Garcia’s 1986 coma. He was the last friend to see Jerry before his death in 1995. As Bob Weir once said, “What we have is thicker than blood.”