I know the story about how the band came up with the name and the definition of"grateful dead". But I have a memory of another legend or myth when it was said something like the path to the after world is guarded or guided by the grateful Dead. Did I just dream that up or has anyone else heard that story?
That is how they got the name. There are a lot of “grateful dead” stories.
Whole books were written on the subject. This one from 1908: https://archive.org/details/gratefuldeadhist00gerorich/page/n7/mode/2up
maybe one of the stories will be similar to your thoughts…
I’ll check this out