Chloë Sevigny on Producing Deadhead Doc ‘Summer Tour’

Chloë Sevigny has been a Deadhead since her high school days. “I think it was maybe first the drugs, and then the band,” she jokes on a phone call in late February. Her first-hand experience in this realm is coming in handy with the release of Summer Tour, a new documentary she’s executive producing. Directed by Mischa Richter, the film is all about the Deadheads who followed Dead & Company’s final tour in 2023 (prior to their subsequent runs at the Sphere in Las Vegas). 

Summer Tour premiered at Telluride Film Festival last August, and was recently acquired by Utopia. The film will screen on a multi-city tour this summer, featuring performances by various artists inspired by the band. “The film is so beautiful,” Sevigny tells us. “These kids are so pure, and their love of the Dead is so engaging.”

Why did you want to make this film?
Mischa is a friend of mine from high school. He was a hardcore kid, and we were both really into hip-hop. We’d come home after school every day and watch Yo! MTV Raps together. And then I somehow evolved into a Deadhead, and he followed suit. We started going to shows together in 1990, I would guess. 

And then he ended up going to College of the Redwoods and seeing the Jerry [Garcia] Band and the Dead out West in the early Nineties. Then he moved to England, got married, had a couple kids. And then he and his family decided to move back to America and they moved to Brooklyn. We were hanging out again as friends. I was like, “Hey, there’s this New York Dead Night at this bar called Clem’s in Williamsburg. Do you want to go?” And we went and he made friends with a bunch of these kids in the scene and fell into this whole New York City Dead Family vibes. He and I went to Chicago for all three nights of Fare Thee Well. 

There’s been a lot of films about the Dead. What makes Summer Tour stand out?
This one’s really about this young couple who are in their teens, falling in love. It’s a road movie. It’s also a love letter to America, and some of the things that we can still say are good about the country [laughs].  And just this act of rebellion and what the music means to the kids. There’s no footage of the band, they aren’t in the movie at all. It’s really just what tour means to a lot of different people. Different generations are shown throughout the movie, different friends that Mischa’s made while touring himself. So you get all these different insights into why people have decided to follow the Dead, because as we know, this culture has sprung up around the band that’s so devoted. All these different people can speak to why the band means what they mean to them.

It’s like that episode of Long Strange Trip, only you guys made it into an entire film.
We all love to see the Deadheads, and there’s very [little] footage of them, because a lot of people can’t get access into the venues. We had the permission of Dead & Company management, and they were really generous with us, and realized which venues would let us in. And so Mischa went in with a skeleton crew. Really — it was him and two people and a tiny 16-millimeter camera, and he would shoot inside the shows. They also had access to the parking lot. We really got access, in a way that a lot of other photographers or filmmakers haven’t had.

How many times did you see the Dead?
I don’t know, I never counted. But a lot. I still have a lot of ticket stubs. And I remember seeing different iterations after Jerry died. And then I started to get really into the cover scene for a while. Dark Star Orchestra, obviously. High Time — they actually played at my wedding [laughs]. They’re one of my favorites. So I was really into the Dead cover band scene, going to the Capitol Theatre and things like that.

I was curious about Dead & Co. and I went almost every time they came to New York, and once in Portland and once somewhere else, maybe L.A. If I was somewhere and they were coming through, I would go to a show a year. Maybe not every tour, because they weren’t my favorite. 

Also, this so crazy, but the LED of stadium lighting now is very hard for me. I saw Depeche Mode at MSG and so many other bands and it’s just very hard for me to be in that kind of lighting. I don’t want to be the actress douche with sunglasses on while inside a concert, but I can’t handle it. Everyone’s like, “Are you going to the Sphere?” I was like, “That is my worst nightmare!” My sensory sensitivity. I would fritz out. But I would always give it a whirl, just because I love the scene. I love seeing the kids. I love the joy of the fans and just how immersive it is as an experience. And obviously, the music.

You spoke when the Dead were honored at the Kennedy Center in 2024. What was that experience like?
I’ve met Bobby [Weir] before, backstage. It’s really hard to meet idols in that way, and I was just respectful. They had hooked us up with tickets, so I wanted to say thank you. But I spent some time with Trixie [Garcia], and that was really emotional for me, because Jerry was really my in to the band. And Bill [Kreutzmann] and Mickey [Hart] were there, and I spent some time with Bill and his children. “Drums” is always one of my favorite parts of the show. And meeting Phil [Lesh]’s son, more of the extended family. But the Trixie of it all was very emotional for me. Being in her presence was really heavy. And poor girl, the worst nepo of it all. But she handles it with such grace, and she just has such beauty and warmth. Her presence is so solid — it’s what you would imagine his offspring [to be like]. She’s also funny and has an opinion. That was a real standout of that experience for me. 

The loss of Bobby was huge for the community. How did that impact you?
It’s just crazy to think that they were always just playing. There was always an opportunity in some formation, and to think that that’s now kind of — I don’t know what’s going to happen now. It was always there. It’s just a void now. And there are still so many great cover bands, and who knows what the establishment of the Dead will decide to do moving forward. But yeah, it’s such a profound loss. I’m shocked that people aren’t still talking about it. I guess the news cycle seems so rapid these days. I’m still sitting with it.

Yeah, me too. But I love that now more than ever, younger generations are getting into the Dead, more than 60 years on. It’s pretty incredible.
The ticket sales are higher than ever, and I feel like it’s just trickled into every corner of every hipster community. Maybe it was just my feed. But having grown up with this punk scene and then falling for the Dead was something that I was kind of ashamed of, in a little stint in my life. I had to hide it from different groups of friends that I had. Obviously I’m older now, I don’t care. But people get it now, in a way where other people might’ve bumped against it. There’s been a collective kind of understanding, at least for my generation.

Have you introduced your son to the Dead at all?
Oh, yeah. He’s heard the Dead a lot. Yeah. He likes the graphics obviously. He’s only five. He’s more into High on Fire right now. That’s kind of his favorite band. And Black Sabbath. He sees the record cover and he always wants to play High on Fire. I’m like, “This is very specific, and fine.” We also have to endure KPop Demon Hunters. 

He also has babysitters that play certain songs. I bought a karaoke machine because I’m trying to get over my fear of karaoke-ing for the family. We did it the first night, and he did “White Flag,” the Dido song. He had this one babysitter who was a singer, and I guess she would always play it in the car and sing. I was like, “Wow, he’s on pitch, and this is not an easy song!” 

That’s impressive. What would you say is your all-time favorite Dead song?
My favorite song to dance to is “Terrapin [Station],” and my favorite song to cry to is “Bird Song.” The rest is kind of a toss-up. Maybe “Help on the Way.” I like the more emo songs. I like the Jerry songs.

[At] Fare Thee Well, they played “Terrapin” one of the three nights. I remember going totally ballistic. I was speaking in tongues, basically. I was transported, transformed. And I turned around, and John Mayer and Katy Perry were standing behind me, looking at me. I was like, “Oh, hi!”