BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In our look back at CNN's 20 years, how the fans known as "deadheads" reacted to the loss of Jerry Garcia five years ago.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A whole way of life is ending, and I have been a Dead fan for ever since the beginning.</s>GREG LEFEVRE, CNN SAN FRANCISCO BUREAU CHIEF: We all knew that Jerry had been in and out of rehab, and now that he was back in. He was actually in a second time, trying to kick his heroin addiction. We all wanted him to kick his heroin addiction because we wanted to hear his music again. There was something stunning about Jerry's death. A number of people chose to celebrate his music, as if to believe that he and it would live on forever, perhaps denying his death. But for the rest of us, Jerry was almost a sibling. He was about our age. And just as a sibling dies, that jolt goes through you, that we are mortal. The city of San Francisco knew that it needed to find some way to mark the passing of Jerry Garcia, a local music icon for sure. But it also needed a place to put all these people who were coming into town who wanted to find some way to acknowledge Garcia, recognize his death, and celebrate his music. And so the city opened up Golden Gate Park, and it turned into a be-in. Yes, there were cops, yes, there were drugs, but there really was a very minimum amount of trouble, a lot of celebration, a lot of Grateful Dead music, a lot of folks deciding that they really needed to find a way to honor this man who had been with them, for many of them, since their youth.
CNN 20: Jerry Garcia Dies, August 9, 1995