Deadheads

Deadheads are devoted fans of the Grateful Dead, the American rock band known for extended improvisational performances.

The term reflects both the band's name and the community that formed around following them on tour: Deadheads would travel from city to city, trading bootleg tapes.

The culture emphasized communal experience, psychedelic exploration, and a distinctive tie-dye aesthetic.

Separately, deadhead as a verb means to remove spent flowers from plants, or in transportation, to travel empty—a truck deadheading back without cargo, a pilot flying as a passenger to reposition.