Reunited Billy & The Kids Tops Skull & Roses 2020 Lineup

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Bill Kreutzmann performs with Alex Bleeker and the Freaks at San Francisco’s Outside Lands on Aug. 9, 2015. The Grateful Dead drummer will reunite Billy & The Kids at Skull & Roses in April 2020.

After teasing a return on Monday, Billy & The Kids – the supergroup comprised of drummer and Grateful Dead founding member Bill Kreutzmann, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead guitarist Tom Hamilton, Tea Leaf Green bassist Reed Mathis, and Disco Biscuits keyboardist Aron Magner – announced a headlining appearance at Skull & Roses, the Southern California festival oriented around the Grateful Dead, on Tuesday.

“Soundcheck’s complete!” the group tweeted. “We’re cocked, loaded & bound for glory.”

Billy & The Kids were active from December 2014 to April 2016, playing theaters and festivals and often featuring luminaries of the jam world, including Kreutzmann’s Dead compatriots Mickey Hart and Bob Weir, Col. Bruce Hampton, The String Cheese Incident’s Jason Hann, moe.’s Vinnie Amico, Gov’t Mule and The Dead guitarist Warren Haynes and Blues Traveler’s John Popper.

The band’s origins date back to the second annual Lockn’ in 2014, when Kreutzmann formed an ensemble named Bill Kreutzmann’s Locknstep Allstars to perform following a cancellation from Bob Weir & RatDog.

Box office highlights for Billy & The Kids include a sold-out April 2015 gig at Denver’s Ogden Theatre that moved 1,600 tickets and grossed $41,490 and an April 2016 show at San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre that sold 1,600 tickets and grossed $68,250.

Skull & Roses also detailed the rest of its Dead-steeped lineup, which will stage its fourth annual iteration at Ventura County Fairgrounds in Ventura, Calif., April 2-5, 2020.

Oteil Burbridge, who plays bass with Kreutzmann in Dead & Company and was also performed with the Locknstepp Allstars in 2014, will lead an Oteil & Friends lineup filled out by Eric Krasno, John Morgan Kimock and Jason Crosby.

Steve Kimock, a perennial fixture in Dead-affiliated bands such as Phil Lesh and Friends and The Other Ones, will lead a Voodoo Dead lineup that will feature Dead & Company keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, along with George Porter, Jr., Jackie Greene and Kimock’s son John Morgan.

Melvin Seals & JGB, the tribute act honoring Jerry Garcia Band led by longtime JGB keyboardist Melvin Seals, will perform, as will will Jackie Green and Dead tribute act Grateful Shred.

So will bluegrass guitarist Keller Williams, with his Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass project, Dead-inspired jam outfit Circles Around The Sun and Dave Harrington’s Merry Pranksters, the act led by jam-meets-jazz guitarist Dave Harrington.

The lineup for Skull & Roses 2019 was topped by Oteil & Friends, Rebirth Brass Band and Melvin Seals & JGB.

Find the full lineup below.

Courtesy of Skull & Roses – Skull & Roses 2020
Billy & The Kids top the fourth annual Skull & Roses lineup.