When the Dead Met Obama

The surviving members of the Grateful Dead credit President Obama (!) with bringing them back together after years of feuding. So it’s only natural the ’60s icons—minus Jerry, of course—had a “secret impromptu meeting” with the president in the Oval Office, The Washington Post reports. Apparently, music wasn’t as hot a topic during the get-together Monday night as history—and how clean Obama’s desk was. Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmann, along with a few never additions, chatted with the president and, oddly enough, Lesh and his wife even found a vase of scarlet begonias on a table outside the office (“Scarlet Begonias,” of course, being one of the Dead’s most famous songs). The group is playing at Washington’s Verizon Center Tuesday night, though Obama’s won’t be in attendance. Deadheads David Axelrod, Pete Rouse, and Jim Messina will groove out in his place.