The Warlocks, after having had too much confusion in the local scene over another established band with the same name, decided to change their name. The group sat down together, smoked some DMT and attempted to go through the dictionary for ideas. however, the way the story goes, no body could read a word of this dictionary, every page was all blurry to everyone, they tried but alas, nothing. And then, jerry, as they were turning the pages, noticed one word standing out, glowing even, clear and bright, "Grateful Dead" and suddenly it was the only word that any of them could see, and so they all saw it as a sign.
"Pop music, in fact, seems to be an OED weakness. On March 10, the online version added the proper noun "Deadhead" to denote a fan of the
Grateful Dead-nearly 10 years after the band's lead guitarist, Jerry Garcia, died."