NBA Hall of Famer Bill Walton’s Grateful Dead fandom is no secret, but the former Boston Celtic sat down for an interview with The Washington Post to expand on it and also discuss the upcoming Fare Thee Well shows. Yes, Walton will be in attendance. “It didn’t matter what was planned,” Walton said. “They announced the shows, my calendar was set.”

Walton said he has been to “over 850” shows, adding, “John Wooden had a maxim for every scenario. The Grateful Dead, they’ve got a song for every emotion.” As for the finality of these shows, Walton related the Dead’s longevity and career to some of the NBA’s brightest stars. “We don’t own them. It’s just like with Kevin Garnett, just like LeBron James, Kevin Love. It’s their lives and we’re incredibly fortunate that they choose to do this. As we see from Bob Dylan, who just turned 74 the other day, to the Stones who I was just with two nights ago, from Paul McCartney, who we just saw recently, to Ringo to the Eagles to Carlos Santana to Neil Young to Jimmy Cliff to John Fogerty, all these guys, a dream, a leader, a culture, a foundation. And they are still going strong. We are just ecstatic that everybody is still out there driving the train.”

When asked if it could possibly be the Grateful Dead without Jerry Garcia, Walton offered a rather lengthy response, saying, “We all loved Jerry but this is a team. And never discount the incredible and remarkable talents of the other guys. It’s going to be fantastic. There’s nothing like being part of a team. One of the beautiful things about the Grateful Dead is the whole culture of freedom, of independence. Forever on the Grateful Dead tour, in the parking lot, there is this big bus and on the side of it was painted, ‘We do what we want.’ That epitomized the Grateful Dead.”

The rest of the interview is filled with brief anecdotes about his experience with the Grateful Dead’s music over the last 50 years. As for song requests, Walton said he used to suggest some tunes to the band but stopped. “I just want to go, I want to listen, I want to be educated, I want to be inspired, I want to be healed. I want to think, I want to laugh, I want to cry, I want to dance. And I want them to put the show on that they want. Because they know what they’re doing.”