{"id":1259155,"date":"2020-10-28T12:33:54","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T16:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1259155"},"modified":"2020-10-28T12:36:01","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T16:36:01","slug":"bill-walton-has-seen-the-grateful-dead-perform-850-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bill-walton-has-seen-the-grateful-dead-perform-850-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Walton Has Seen the Grateful Dead Perform 850 Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What do you get when you cross basketball great <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/sports-fans-know-bill-walton-but-do-they-remember-his-brother-bruce\/\">Bill Walton<\/a> and broadcast giant <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/espn\/\">ESPN<\/a> with the legendary Grateful Dead? We weren\u2019t sure either, but the answer turns out to be <em>Fire On The Mountain<\/em>, a documentary about extreme sports athletes including skier Chris Benchetler, surfer Rob Machado, and snowboarders Jeremy Jones and Kimmy Fasani.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The film makes its debut on ESPN on Oct. 28, 2020. It will also air on ABC on Nov. 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\u2018Fire on the Mountain\u2019 is a Grateful Dead tune, too<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fire On The Mountain - Official Grateful Dead &amp; Chris Benchetler Film\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E6XyzhH93JU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/how-bill-walton-overcame-a-life-plagued-by-injuries-and-a-stutter\/\">How Bill Walton Overcame a Life Plagued By Injuries and a Stutter<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once the producers of the extreme sports film <em>Fire On The Mountain<\/em> settled on a title and a soundtrack, picking the narrator was a no-brainer. College and NBA great Bill Walton, an ESPN college analyst, is a Grateful Dead fanatic, and the film\u2019s title is taken from a tune of the same name on <em>Shakedown Street<\/em>, the band\u2019s 1978 album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a kindred spirit of the featured athletes, Walton embraced the concept of the film. \u201cLike me, they love the edge, nature, the groove, rhythm, sport, and the culture and rhythmic beat of the Grateful Dead,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/films\/fire-on-the-mountain-espn-abc.html\">he said in an ESPN release<\/a>.  \u201cThe new young guys asked me to speak. I channeled everyone and everything I\u2019ve known in my now 53 years with the Grateful Dead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 6-foot-11 Walton has been bestowed with the title of \u201cWorld\u2019s Tallest Deadhead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt's not how big you are, it's how big you play,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gq.com\/story\/bill-walton-fire-on-the-mountain\">Walton told GQ<\/a>. \u201cBut yeah, I can see at the concerts. I have a good view.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Bill Walton was a basketball great<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/BillWalton\/status\/615235583309254656\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/whats-bill-waltons-net-worth\/\">What\u2019s Bill Walton\u2019s Net Worth?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bill Walton was one of the greats in college basketball history in his three seasons at UCLA. He averaged 21.1, 20.4, and 19.3 points per game and was also a superb rebounder who ran the floor with ease in the era before the 3-point shot marginalized the value of 7-footers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walton was drafted by the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/the-la-lakers-have-owned-the-portland-trail-blazers-in-the-nba-playoffs\/\">Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> in 1974 and played 10 seasons over 13 years in between injuries that put him under a surgeon\u2019s knife numerous times. He finished with averages of 13.3 points and 10.5 rebounds a game in stints with Portland, the San Diego\/Los Angeles Clippers, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/do-the-boston-celtics-have-the-only-big-3-in-the-nba\/\">Boston Celtics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walton has had a <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/bill-walton-hilariously-called-a-baseball-game\/\">successful career<\/a> as a basketball color commentator with CBS, ABC, and ESPN, lately working primarily Pac-12 conference telecasts. His observations and pop-culture references have made him a favorite with viewers, and Walton owns an Emmy Award for the best live sports television broadcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Bill Walton has seen the Grateful Dead perform 850 times<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/BillWalton\/status\/615430744727367680\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/bill-walton-once-needed-john-wooden-to-bail-him-out-of-jail\/\">Bill Walton Once Needed John Wooden to Bail Him out of Jail<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Grateful Dead officially broke up in 1995 following the death of Jerry Garcia, the counterculture band\u2019s guitarist and vocalist. However, its members continued to perform in various combinations leading up to five \u201cfarewell\u201d shows performed two decades later by the surviving members and hosted by Bill Walton on pay-per-view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walton told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandiegouniontribune.com\/entertainment\/music\/sdut-bill-walton-chats-about-life-and-the-grateful-dead-2015jun27-htmlstory.html\">San Diego Tribune<\/a> in 2015 that he attended his first Grateful Dead concert as a freshman or sophomore in high school and didn\u2019t even start counting his number of shows until after arriving at UCLA in 1970. That means that even his own count of 854 Grateful Dead concerts over five decades is low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cOne of the things I love so much about basketball is the same thing I love about the Grateful Dead. You go to a Dead show and there are no restraints on what will happen. The band creates this phenomenal atmosphere, out of nothing, and it\u2019s the same in a basketball game.\u201d<\/p><cite>Bill Walton<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Like <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Sports7dotcom\/\"><em>Sports7<\/em><\/a><em> on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sports719\"><em>@sports719<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Noted Grateful Dead fan Bill Walton is the narrator of &#8216;Fire On The Mountain,' an extreme sports documentary on ESPN featuring music by the band.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":1259156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[68500,86460],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bill Walton Has Seen the Grateful Dead Perform 850 Times - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Grateful Dead fan Bill Walton is the narrator of &#039;Fire On The Mountain,&#039; an extreme sports documentary on ESPN featuring music by the band.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bill-walton-has-seen-the-grateful-dead-perform-850-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bill Walton Has Seen the Grateful Dead Perform 850 Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Grateful Dead fan Bill Walton is the narrator of &#039;Fire On The Mountain,&#039; an extreme sports documentary on ESPN featuring music by the band.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bill-walton-has-seen-the-grateful-dead-perform-850-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-28T16:33:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-28T16:36:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Bill-Walton.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1791\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1173\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Moriello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Sports7J\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Moriello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bill-walton-has-seen-the-grateful-dead-perform-850-times\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bill-walton-has-seen-the-grateful-dead-perform-850-times\/\",\"name\":\"Bill Walton Has Seen the Grateful Dead Perform 850 Times - Sports7\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bill-walton-has-seen-the-grateful-dead-perform-850-times\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bill-walton-has-seen-the-grateful-dead-perform-850-times\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Bill-Walton.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-28T16:33:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-28T16:36:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#\/schema\/person\/625c659832a23452683545602e055cac\"},\"description\":\"Grateful Dead fan Bill Walton is the narrator of 'Fire On The Mountain,' an extreme sports documentary on ESPN featuring music by the band.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bill-walton-has-seen-the-grateful-dead-perform-850-times\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bill-walton-has-seen-the-grateful-dead-perform-850-times\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bill-walton-has-seen-the-grateful-dead-perform-850-times\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Bill-Walton.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Bill-Walton.jpg\",\"width\":1791,\"height\":1173,\"caption\":\"Bill Walton is the narrator of 'Fire On The Mountain,' an extreme sports documentary featuring music by the Grateful Dead. | Sean M. 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