As previously reported, Dead & Company will play an outdoor concert on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight, May 10, and the band members are encouraging their fans to use the national television appearance to support a cause that has been close to their hearts throughout their long and storied career.

As the LA Times reports, the Dead & Co guys first tried to get marijuana advocacy groups to sponsor the appearance, but that idea was rejected. The band is now asking their fans, along with organizations like the California Cannabis Industry Association and the Los Angeles medical marijuana collective Buds & Roses, to show up at the taping with T-shirts, signs and even costumes to get the word out during the ABC program.

In an interview, Bob Weir laid out the band’s position, saying, “The folks it would be hitting on that broadcast would be outside our normal sphere of influence. We’re about music, but we’re about other stuff as well, and we always have been. We need to make our feelings on the subject as apparent as we can.”

The Times also notes that Dead & Co manager Bernie Cahill appreciates the band’s tactics. “They’re respectful advocates, and they’re very thoughtful in their approach to this entire industry,” he says. “I don’t see that changing.”

While medicinal marijuana is currently legal in California, voters in the state will have the opportunity to vote on full recreational legalization in November.