Dead & Company share pro-choice messages onscreen during Virginia show

Dead & Company have shared their support for abortion rights during a recent show in Bristow, Virginia.

Performing at Jiffy Lube Live on Friday night (July 8), the outfit — comprising surviving members of Grateful Dead, John Mayer, Jeff Chimenti and Oteil Burbridge — played footage of abortion and reproductive rights activists during their song ‘Throwing Stones’. At one point, the message “save our rights” was also emblazoned onscreen.

See a fan-shot clip of the moment below.

At @JiffyLube_Live in VA this eve pic.twitter.com/fMAp6WpAT5

— Paul Veracka (He/They) (@meepmorpfan) July 9, 2022

The band are currently on their North American summer tour, which will wrap up on July 16 in New York. Back in April, Rolling Stone reported that it would be the group’s last tour, to which Bob Weir replied “news to me…”.

They’d had a number of interruptions to their touring schedule prior to the Dead & Company summer tour, with drummer Bill Kreutzmann sitting out of their Mexico shows on his doctor’s orders. Mayer then contracted COVID-19, causing the group to cancel their appearance at the destination festival Playing In The Sand.

They’re the latest in a string of musicians to voice their support for abortion rights following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a 1973 US Supreme Court ruling that deemed abortion a Constitutional right.

After the law was overturned last month, Olivia Rodrigo and Lily Allen dedicated their Glastonbury performance of ‘Fuck You’ to the Supreme Court, while Phoebe Bridgers chanted “fuck the Supreme Court” during her set.

Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong also told the London crowd on his Hella Mega Tour that he was “renouncing” his US citizenship over the decision, saying: “There’s just too much fucking stupid in the world to go back to that miserable fucking excuse for a country.”