I thought the '60s was the most exciting time and the most vital music, and we were really together as one mind then. Then afterwards, the songs and the bad drugs, that took its toll.

A few months out of high school he "discovered the work of Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji". In 2010 Hart debuted "Rhythms of the Universe" a composition based on a variety of astrophysical data. Personal life
Mickey Hart was born in Brooklyn and grew up on Long Island attending Lawrence High School before dropping out as a senior and leaving for Europe.

He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971 and from October 1974 to August 1995. Mickey Hart (born Michael Steven Hartman; September 11 1943) is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead.