Bill Graham Rites Draw Music Stars

Concert promoter Bill Graham was remembered as “a very special guy” as stars of the music world turned out Monday to bid an emotional farewell to the man who built an empire on rock ‘n’ roll.

Black stretch limousines lined the streets for blocks around the temple where the hourlong service was held. Friends of Graham who spoke included drummer Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead and Paul Kantner of the original Jefferson Airplane.

Graham rose to prominence in the 1960s promoting those groups, building Winterland and the Fillmore auditoriums in San Francisco and Fillmore East in New York City into premiere showplaces of rock music.

Graham, 60, died Friday in a helicopter crash in Vallejo.