Grateful Dead T-shirt sells for astronomical price at auction. This Boise man bought it

Grateful Dead fans are known for their unparalleled devotion to the band.

Yet, even some of the most die-hard Deadheads might have a hard time wrapping their minds around the idea of paying nearly $20,000 for a concert T-shirt.

But not one collector: part-time Idahoan Bo Bushnell, a Bishop Kelly High graduate who divides his time between Los Angeles and Boise.

Bushnell, 40, is believed to have set the record for the most money ever paid for a vintage rock band T-shirt. With an investment partner, he recently laid down $19,315.80 for an original Grateful Dead shirt from 1967. Bushnell’s purchase was reported by vintage T-shirt resource website Defunkd, which broke the story Oct. 14.

The yellow Grateful Dead shirt was expected to go for $6,000 to $8,000 during an online auction held by Sotheby’s that included some 228 Dead items, according to reports. Instead, the shirt went for $17,640 — the actual bid — plus administrative fees, which brought the final price to $19,315.80.

“Shipping was $523,” Bushnell said with a laugh, phoning from Los Angeles. “So ridiculous.”

Yet how stoked is he about the purchase? “Extremely,” he admitted.

The shirt was from the collection of Dan Healy, the audio engineer known for his work with the Grateful Dead and the band’s legendary “Wall of Sound” concert PA sound system. It is “an official T-shirt from 1967, around the time of the Dead’s earliest major performances,” according to the information on Sotheby’s website.

It was designed by graphic artist Allan “Gut” Terk, who was a key figure in the Bay Area’s 1960s counterculture movement, as well as a member of both the Hells Angels and Ken Kesey’s famed Merry Pranksters squad.

“Friends with Ken Kesey, he was the painter of the Pranksters’ ‘Furthur’ bus in 1964 and designed the Acid Test Graduation posters. By 1967, through his work for the Dead, he was acclaimed in the Bay Area music scene for his T-shirt and poster art,” according to the Sotheby’s auction item page.

Biker gang archive

Bushnell runs the motorcycle culture-related Instagram page Outlaw Archive and recently posted about the winning Grateful Dead T-shirt bid. “We just did this to keep the memory of #GutTerk alive and to keep his history together under one roof,” the post read.

Prior to Terk’s death in 2018, he “was a very good friend of mine,” Bushnell explained by phone. “When he passed away, I inherited his colors, which is his Hells Angels vest and patches from the early ’60s.”

In Los Angeles, Bushnell has stockpiled a titanic collection of biker gang memorabilia, which he calls the Research Institute of Contemporary Outlaws (or RICO). The archive includes about 40,000 items ranging from photographs and documents to banners and clothing — even Harley-Davidson choppers. It is “surely the world’s largest collection of 1960s and ‘70s California outlaw biker memorabilia,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

But this is not a typical museum. In a May article, the Times described Bushnell’s collection as “stored inside an unmarked red brick warehouse near downtown Los Angeles, behind a 2-ton bank-vault door in a hardened metal room, encased in four feet of steel, rebar and concrete.”

Bushnell’s newly purchased Grateful Dead shirt will be framed and displayed there, he said. But only a select audience will see it. “It’s by invite-only there,” Bushnell said, “just because of our privacy and safety concerns, I should say. Because the Hells Angels don’t like that I have all this stuff.”

High-dollar shirts

At the Sotheby’s auction, another Grateful Dead shirt from Healy’s collection fetched $15,120, thus, in all likelihood, marking the second most ever paid for a vintage concert T-shirt.

The previous record for most paid for one is believed to be for a 1979 Led Zeppelin shirt, which reportedly went for $10,000 in 2011.

Of course, nothing in the Grateful Dead is ever simple or black and white — there’s always a (pardon the pun) “Touch of Grey.” As such, it’s no surprise that there is already some controversy as to what article of clothing deserves the title of most expensive vintage shirt ever.

That’s because another Grateful Dead clothing item — a jersey worn by original member Ron “Pigpen” McKernan — went for $21,420 in an auction, according to Defunkd. But does this jersey qualify as a shirt? Or is there a difference? Either way, that’s a whole lot of dough — nearly $60,000 in total — to be paid for three items.

The takeaway from this? Forget stocks and bonds — invest in concert merch!

Bushnell originally balked at bidding so much at the Sotheby’s auction. He said as much in a last-minute cell-phone discussion with his investment partner, which occurred in an unusual environment. “I was in Ohio in the middle of a field with a team of forensic anthropologists searching for a body,” Bushnell said. “I’m hoping to solve a cold case that’s been cold since 1974. So I barely had any service. ... So I was calling my investment partner saying, ‘This is what’s going on. How high should I go? I’m not going over $10,000, it doesn’t feel right.’ ”

“He said, ‘Screw that. Go as high as you need to go. Having this T-shirt as part of our collection will add value.’ ”

Bushnell thinks 100 to 150 of the shirts probably were made. Terk had told him about it before, he said.

Still, now that the auction is over, dropping nearly $20,000 does seem like a lot of dough for a T-shirt — even it is a super-collectible Dead rarity, and Terk-designed. “But at the same time,” Bushnell said, “I got his Hells Angels colors for free. And those are essentially priceless.”

Now if Bushnell could just admire the shirt in real life.

“They haven’t even shipped it yet,” he said. “I’m hoping it gets here in one piece!”

This story was originally published October 27, 2021 at 4:00 AM.