from the "Relix" vol. 18 No. 4 (August 1991).
Poster unknown
used with permission of the publisher of Relix Magazine. All rights reserved by Relix. (c) 1996
Relix: What other shows do you have in mind for release?
Healy: Well, I haven't decided. Let me just say that I'm hoping to do maybe four releases a year, plus maybe at the end of the year do, like, a 10-CD set of bits and pieces of stuff that we can sell real cheap so the idea is a bonus that's virtually free at the end of the year. Later on, ultimately, it might get down to one release a month. But those are all sketches of ideas in the future. The main goal is to get the most significant shows out, to retain the honesty in audio quality and in performance, and to make it available packaged nicely, at much lower price than the record industry would try to sell it at, and so those are the guidelines. It also has to be done interspersed with my other Grateful Dead activities, namely live shows and stuff like that. I don't have unlimited time to spend doing it. Because of that, even four years is a fairly ambitious project, because by the time you actually get it ready to be released, there's a surprising amount of time that goes into it and a lot of effort.
Relix: Since it is impossible to release the entire back collection of tapes on CD, do you foresee a time when the band might make the archives available to Deadheads directly? Let's say they send in money for a specific show.
Healy: That idea has been kicked around a lot, and I'll tell you where that ideas is right now. We've just recently, as I've described to you, put together a room that is solely for listening and digitizing and working with the tapes. I think later on, one of the considerations is to maybe have a mail-order basis or something, whereby if you have a specific show in mind, you can write in and then we'll make you a CD or a tape of it. It'll be along those kind of lines.
Relix: That'd be interesting!
Healy: We've definitely thought about it, it's definitely in the dialogue. I think that [it is] the type of thing that if it happens at all it has to be consistent with the whole unfolding of the larger scale picture of it. But the answer is yes, there's a good chance that that could happen in the future.