psychoactive substances, "a constant acid consumer, a bong hit taker, a coffee drinker, a cigarette smoker, a drinker." At one point, the Grateful Dead paid for Latvala to enter rehab for alcohol. The autobiography he wrote in 1965 begins "I consider any form of psychotherapy . I prefer LSD for a number of reasons." As Latvala recalled in 1993 to David Gans about his first LSD experience: "A major turning point occurred on June 28, 1965. I took LSD in a research project in 1965 in Menlo Park, in which I actually paid $500 to go through this experience, which was, perhaps, the most powerful single experience I ever went through... something happened that changed me forever." Beyond his love of the Grateful Dead, Latvala enjoyed gospel music, Henry Kaiser, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Lead Belly, and Robert Johnson. Work with the Grateful Dead While living in Hawaii, Latvala became very active in tape trading. In addition to amassing a large collection of live recordings, in the 1970s Latvala began maintaining personal notebooks filled with commentary about particular Grateful Dead shows. As described by Grateful Dead archivist Nicholas Meriwether, Latvala "catalog[ed] his tapes in a series of notebooks, detailing their origin and provenance—who taped it and with what equipment—as well as when, where, what they played. He usually noted especially strong renditions as well as his impressions, which he would often revisit later, critiquing his critiques." In the early 1980s Latvala began working at the Grateful Dead's Front Street office in San Rafael, where he did various odd jobs. Prior to Latvala's arrival, the band did not actively maintain an archive of their recorded concerts. It was Latvala who convinced the band about the importance of maintaining such an archive. Latvala eventually became the curator of Dick's Picks, a series of commercially released recordings of live Grateful Dead performances. Until Dick's Picks, the Grateful Dead typically released live albums that were specially recorded on multitrack source tapes, then professionally mixed. Dick's Picks however, tapped into the band's vast 2-track audio collection, spanning thousands of hours of concerts. During the early years of Dick's Picks until Latvala's death, 1993–1999, Latvala routinely posted on chat rooms at the band's web site, www.dead.net, and conversed with fans regarding his opinions of Grateful Dead recordings and what should be released next. Latvala was known for his outspoken and sometimes wild opinions about particular Grateful