The remaining members of the Grateful Dead -- probably the most prolific and enduring psychedelic rock band -- have gotten together once again, but this time to endorse Barack Obama for president.

The usually apolitical group waded into the presidential campaign Monday in a press conference and a concert that melded the old with the new. The show began with a recorded video message by Obama in which he thanked the members of the band for their support. A fog of marijuana hung over the crowd, the Reuters news agency reported.

"Every few generations a guy like this comes along," drummer Mickey Hart told reporters in San Francisco on Monday, a day before voters began heading to polls in hotly contested California. "It seems like desperate times, and we're desperate people."

At the concert of about 2,400 fans, band member Bob Weir said the band, which had not performed for four years, never before had appeared on behalf of a presidential candidate.

"The last time hope was in the air, it was ended by a bullet," Weir said, referring to Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated on the night he won the California Democratic primary in 1968. "We've been reluctant to do political events all along."

At least one concert-goer appeared not to be swayed.

"Long live the Dead!" said Ron Svetlik, 51, who said he had attended more than 200 Grateful Dead concerts, starting in 1974.

The home builder said he had already voted by mail for the Green Party candidate, but added: "If I had to cast a write-in ballot, I'd put Jerry Garcia," the band's late front-man.

Click here to read the full Reuters report.