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The world’s first Grateful Drag band, BERTHA is an all-star collective of queer and allied East Nashville talent coming together in wigs and full face for a good cause. Fronted by a harmony trio of Berthas and backed by a rocking all-Bertha band, BERTHA has captured the heart and imagination of Deadheads everywhere, with coast-to-coast demand for their electrifying live show. Whether collaborating with local drag queens in Mexico or playing the most prestigious festival lineups in the States, BERTHA: Grateful Drag has only begun to make her impact on the world.

ORIGIN STORY

In the mid 1990s, just after Jerry Garcia’s tragic and untimely demise, a deadhead janitor working at Area 51 gained access to top secret time travel technology and took it upon himself to retrieve Jerry’s severed middle finger at the moment he lost it in 1946. He thought if he could just get the DNA to the right scientists, cloning technology might one day be able to bring Jerry back. Breakthroughs in the early 2000s found that a compound in LSD could activate dormant genes to sufficiently to grow a functioning human body in a lab. The theory was: if they could mix Jerry’s DNA with the original Owsley acid, it could create a Jerry clone that would reunite the Grateful Dead to continue their “long strange trip.” Unfortunately, they mixed up the vials and the first seven clones were the bastard children of Jerry’s finger DNA and the infamous Brown Acid. These pitiful yet beautiful creatures were musical mutants, with the chops of their father but a physical form yet unseen in the jam band world—that of a woman. After being cast out of the lab, and the experiment shut down as a failure, these orphan queens each took the name BERTHA in solidarity with one another and formed a band.

Honors Beyond the Broadcast 

Icons: Legacy 

Join us for celebratory tributes, immersive experiences, and Honoree-curated performances on the Millennium Stage, echoing the stories that Kennedy Center Honorees have given the world.