Grateful Dead Secret Meeting with Obama

President Barack Obama had a secret and impromptu meeting with the Dead in advance of legendary jam band's performance at the nearby Verizon Center. The surviving members of the Grateful Dead -- who credit Obama for bringing them back together -- were welcomed into the Oval Office just before dinner Monday night.

"The president was so gracious," a source close to the Dead told the Washington Post. "Really, really nice and so welcoming. It hit you: you're in the Oval Office, but it was so normal." The band's entourage included counted the four surviving members of the Grateful Dead -- Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann -- plus keyboardist Jeff Chimenti (from Weir's Ratdog) and frontman Warren Haynes.

The parties talked history -- specifically about the Oval Office and the president's desk -- over music. On the way out, Lesh and his wife marveled at a vase full of Scarlet Begonias. There's no word if the bouquet was an homage to the late leader Jerry Garcia, who wrote one of the band's enduring classics, 'Scarlet Begonias.'