Usually, when you get way too high, you're far too incapacitated to do much of anything. That's sort of the idea, to fry yourself out of thought. That way your brain isn't so fixated on the sobering realities of the world everyday. The stronger stuff might take you on more of a journey. However, it typically doesn't account for the user to go on much of a journey. But for Woody Harrelson, he took some pretty intense stuff and spent his day at a Grateful Dead concert. That sounds like a good time by itself but he almost ruined it for everyone.
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Recently, Harrelson joined The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he promotes his latest film Last Breath. There, he recalls a wild story watching the Grateful Dead for the first time in northern California. He takes some mushrooms beforehand and eventually heads backstage to talk with members of the band. "We imbibed some fungi and were like, hanging out," Woody recalls. "We go back to talk to everybody back there. Before you know it, I'm meeting the Dead. We chat for a minute and then they're like, 'We gotta get out there.' "
Woody Harrelson Gets Way Too High and Nearly Ruins a Grateful Dead Concert
Progressively, the effects start to kick in for Harrelson. After conversations with lead guitarist Jerry Garcia and singer-songwriter Bruce Hornsby, it all starts to hit him. He plops backwards and unwittingly crashes into a keyboard. However, Woody is way too fried and processes it like an abstract musical moment from the band. "And then suddenly this wild, discordant cacophony of crazy notes — just WHAM! Well, I think to myself, 'Kinda genius!'" the actor grins.
But when the band collectively stares at him, he starts to realize something must be off. "But then I notice things — and, granted, things are kicking in — and I look and I see Jerry [Garcia]'s looking back at me and Phil [Lesh] and Bobby [Weir] and they're looking back directly at me, like if it was your dream you'd be like, 'Whoa!' And in life, I was like 'Whoa!'" Woody recalls. "Bruce goes, 'Woody, you're sitting on a live MIDI!' Which is a keyboard.'"
Ultimately, Woody feels like the key takeaway from the story is that he essentially jammed with the Grateful Dead on stage. The power of getting high.
