On a broadcast early this season or sometime last season, National Baseball Hall of Famer and current Fox Sports broadcaster John Smoltz said, "I'm not a big music guy."

He went on to tell of his admitted ignorance to not only lyrics and artists, but even genres in music.

He didn't know and didn't particularly care.

Smoltz was a wonderful pitcher. Hall of Fame career. Focused.

So focused, in fact, that he had no time for music.

But well-rounded? Not at all.

Smoltz even grew up in Michigan, which at one point was the epicenter of popular music. But no, sounds like he still didn't care.

As far as musical tastes go, I more or less like what I was exposed to between the ages of about 10 and 20. A few new bands or even old songs I was unaware of creep into my musical lexicon here and there.

Whereas Smoltz doesn't care about music at all, I don't pay much mind to the stuff I don't like. Same goes in life.

When I was growing up, a number of my friends liked the Grateful Dead. I liked "Touch of Grey," the Dead's 1987 single that reached number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the only track of the Dead's that ever reached the Top 40.

Great song. Plus, one of the guys—drummer Mickey Hart if I remember correctly—wore a Celtics jacket in the video and I was a huge fan of the Celtics then. Famous Deadhead Bill Walton, World Champion with the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers, played with the Celtics in that era, so the fellows gave a little shout out to the Big Redhead.

But, I didn't know much of the rest of their music. I couldn't stand the tie-dye t-shirts that came to symbolize the Dead culture in some respects. They still nauseate me.

I didn't understand the other symbols, dancing bears and skulls and lighting bolts and so forth. But I was a kid.

When I was 19 or 20, I got Skeletons in the Closet, essentially their greatest hits. I jammed to it that summer. But that wasn't the "real Dead." You had to experience or at least listen to it live from what I was told.

Well, frontman Jerry Garcia passed away the year or two before. The era had ended.

Fast-forward several years later and the advent of XM Radio. There is a Grateful Dead channel. I'd listen on occasion and I liked the music. But I didn't "know it."

Point being, I appreciate the music. Really like it, in fact. I just don't spend a lot of time with it.

I still don't know what I don't know. And I'm fine with that.

But the real fans of the Dead are something special in musical fandom. A far cry from today's "Swifties," shall we say.

And a lot of them have important things to say. I love talking music and culture with nearly all of them. Even if we may disagree here or there—tie-dies for example—the conversations are usually fruitful and can take you places you may not have been before.

Kind of like listening to the Dead. Politics, culture, and music can all collide in a beautiful vision of what's good and what's possible.

A friend of mine runs the "LibertarianDeadhead" account on Twitter.

Location: at the Corner of Shakedown & Liberty.

Celebrating: the Grateful Dead & Liberty

Check it out...

As always,

Brian