Grateful Dead Fan Tries to Sell ‘Jerry Garcia’s Finger’ for Reunion Show Tickets
With tickets to the upcoming Grateful Dead 50th anniversary reunion shows completely sold out and going for absurdly expensive prices on the secondary market, some fans have been forced to take some desperate measures.
Undoubtedly the most desperate — as well as the cleverest, grossest and funniest in a warped sort of way — is the Craigslist ad from a seller known as "Matt" who's purporting to offer deceased Dead frontman Jerry Garcia's severed finger in a jar, in exchange for $5,000 that he can put toward reunion show tickets. "It pains me to part with this one of a kind collectible, but I believe Jerry would want me to see the last show," he writes. "Finger is preserved in brine solution and sealed in air tight bottle for long-term storage."
This is clearly a hoax, but we have to give Matt credit for going all out in his quest for tickets — even if the odds of selling a fake severed finger to all but the most addled Dead fan are exceedingly low. As the Grateful faithful are well aware, young Jerry lost two-thirds of his middle finger as a young boy, the victim of a wood-chopping accident that took place when he was steadying a log for his older brother, but there's no way the missing member has been floating in brine all these years ... and even if it has, there's also no way the "finger" in that picture belonged to a 4-year-old.
If nothing else, this ad may offer ideas to Black Sabbath fans who end up missing the boat on tickets to the band's upcoming (and reportedly final) tour. After all, Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi lost parts of two fingers — just think of how many tickets those could buy.
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