Bob Weir was a symbol of the Grateful Dead's unrivaled endurance

In June 2024, I sat with Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and John Mayer backstage astatine Sphere successful Las Vegas, wherever Dead & Company was 16 shows into a raved-about play residency that would yet agelong to the mediate of 2025.

At 1 point, I asked the 3 what they did betwixt gigs. Hart said helium was connected a level location to California each Saturday night: “I permission present astatine 11:30, and by 2 o’clock it’s lights out.” Mayer echoed his bandmate, describing his effort to “go backmost to my life” successful Los Angeles connected Mondays.

Not Weir, though. Turned retired the guitarist had rented a spot successful municipality and was spending his days disconnected soaking up immoderate determination was to soak up nether the blistery godforsaken sun.

“Thought I’d instrumentality around,” helium said with a small shrug.

Weir’s reply came to caput erstwhile quality broke Saturday that the founding subordinate of the Grateful Dead had died astatine 78 aft being diagnosed with crab successful July.

Having formed the Dead with frontman Jerry Garcia successful 1965 — the 2 met erstwhile Weir heard idiosyncratic plucking a banjo successful a euphony store successful Palo Alto — Weir played with the set for 30 years until Garcia’s decease successful 1995. Then helium spent 30 much keeping the Dead’s fable live with a succession of projects including the Other Ones, Furthur and Dead & Company built astir the group’s rangy yet instantly identifiable blend of rock, country, people and blues.

Once regarded arsenic the band’s kid member — not to notation its youthful heartthrob — Weir became a whiskery awesome of the Dead’s unrivaled endurance.

Musically, helium supplied slippery rhythm-guitar riffs for Garcia to solo against; helium sang pb occasionally, too, arsenic successful “Sugar Magnolia” and “Truckin’,” to sanction 2 of the hookier numbers from a catalog cipher ever measured successful vigor hits. Weir’s playing was nimble and intuitive, his dependable a sly croon that got appealingly craggy with age.

But conscionable arsenic important arsenic his dependable was Weir’s cognition — his determination to support uncovering caller ways to marque the Dead’s euphony mean caller things to caller people.

Jerry Garcia, left, and Bob Weir execute with the Grateful Dead successful London successful 1972.

(Michael Putland / Getty Images)

He collaborated widely, making friends of the varied likes of Wynonna Judd, the National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner and the teen-pop brothers of Hanson. And helium seemed to relish showing up successful photographs adjacent to unexpected admirers, among them Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. (Be it a Yosemite Sam mustache oregon a brace of denim short-shorts, Weir understood amended than immoderate popular stars the powerfulness of a large look.)

The Sphere show, which enactment Dead & Company amid a lavish multimedia spectacle that employed materials from the Grateful Dead’s expansive archives, was thought by galore to beryllium Mayer’s baby.

And so successful my speech with the band, Mayer described the countless hours he’d spent overseeing the fine-tuning of the show’s visuals. But it was Weir who spoke of however important it was that the production, which helium likened to an opera, acceptable into the communicative the Dead had been telling for six decades.

“We’re conscionable continuing connected with it,” helium said.

After the interview, I was lasting astir successful a hallway chatting with immoderate folks from Dead & Company’s squad erstwhile Mayer popped retired of his dressing country to connection a last thought.

“When I speech astir the thought of a enactment relation successful this band, that’s perchance existent successful the consciousness of an admin thing,” helium told me. “But connected that stage, Bob Weir is the leader. He calls each shot, and astatine nary clip volition that ever change.”