The SFGate has an obituary about the interesting life of a Grateful Dead roadie named Lawrence "Ramrod" Shurtliff. Sounds like he was a good guy to have in your corner.
(link to photo by Jay Blakesburg)
[Mickey] Hart also remembered one New Year's Eve when he thought he might be too high to play. Ramrod solved the problem by strapping Hart to his drum stool with gaffer's tape. Hart recalled another show in San Jose with Big Brother and the Holding Company, where the starter's cannon the band used to punctuate the drum solo of "St. Stephen's" went off early."I looked back," Hart said. "His face was on fire. He'd lost his eyebrows. You could smell his flesh. And he was hurrying to reload the cannon in time. That was the end of the cannons."
Link (via Information Junk)
