"The Grateful Dead are a lot of things. I would venture to say they are the great American band," declared Andy Cohen at the opening of MusiCares Persons of the Year annual gala on Friday night (Jan.

For a band long known for its musical elasticity, the timing of Friday’s MusiCares Persons of the Year concert honoring the Grateful Dead could not have been more on the money, literally and figuratively,

The venerable band brought out a star-studded entourage who paid tribute, and a sold-out crowd of 2,000, some of whom swapped the gala’s typical black tie attire for tie-dye.