photo via GoFundMe

Longtime Grateful Dead crew member Kidd Candelario suffered three small strokes last week. His family reports, “He was traveling to work in his car when he was found mildly responsive but unable to operate the vehicle or communicate.” After nearly three decades with the Dead, Candelario currently focuses on making handmade instrument cables, at Kidds Kables.

Candelario was a roadie who began traveling with the Grateful Dead in 1966. He also took on a variety of other projects over time, for instance running point on the Dead’s backstage passes. In 1991, Jerry Garcia encouraged him to develop Grateful Dead Comix and as Candelario told Relix, “Jerry volunteered me to do a lot of stuff over the years that I wouldn’t have otherwise done. In this case, we brought in [Robert] Hunter, who was skeptical at first, but then he saw how someone like Tim Truman was interpreting his lyrics. The ‘Dire Wolf’ art is amazing.”

A GoFundMe campaign has been established to help Candelario, noting, “After spending five days in the hospital, he was transitioned to an Acute Care facility where he will participate in an intensive physical therapy process. He is working with occupational therapists, neuropsychologists and a speech therapist among a host of other doctors. Although his team is optimistic about his condition, there is still a long road ahead of us as he regains his strength. Until then he will need daily care and support as he has lost a large portion of mobility and functionality on the left side of his body. Even though his incredible sense of humor and rolodex of rockstar stories are still intact, he will not be able to return to work making cables for quite some time.”