LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Hal Kant, lawyer and strategic guru to the Grateful Dead for more than 35 years, has died in Reno Nevada from pancreatic cancer. He was 77.
Kant was widely regarded as one of the driving forces behind the Dead's empire, preserving for the band early on valuable IP rights which continue to be a major money maker even after frontman Jerry Garcia's 1995 death, largely through canny marketing, merchandising and live recordings.
Kant also worked with numerous other performers from the period, including Janis Joplin, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Sonny & Cher and Captain Beefheart among others, Billboard noted.
Kant, a graduate of Harvard Law, worked as a clerk at the US Court of Appeals before moving into music law. Kant was also a skilled poker player and won the World Series of Poker in 1987.
The family has requested that memorial donations can be made to the Tower Cancer Research Foundation in Los Angeles. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
