Dead & Company bassist Oteil Burbridge is the latest musician to pay tribute to Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir, who died on Saturday at age 78.
“I can’t think of anyone that needed to play live music any more than Bob. It went past devotion, past dedication, past obsession. It seemed to me more like self identification,” Burbridge wrote on Instagram. “I think he felt it is what and who he was. I also cannot think of anyone who played more live shows. We could depend on it like the sun coming up.”
He then went on to thank Weir from bringing him into Dead & Company.
“There are no words that could ever encompass the last ten years we shared together. I’m so blessed to have been a part of it all,” Burbridge offered. “And thank you for being so generous with your time and sharing yourself with so many of us younger musicians.”
“It does my heart good to see so many pictures of you with so many musicians that weren’t in the Grateful Dead. Thank you for including us,” he added. “There is no higher form of musical grace.”
Burbridge suggested that one way fans can honor Bob “would be to fully live our life.”
“This life is such a gift, such a golden opportunity,” he wrote. “Please don’t let someone else define it. Let it proceed by it’s own design. Follow that inner voice and go for broke!”
He concluded by recalling a friend who said it was sad that Weir was only 78 when he died. “I told him I thought Bob packed at least 146 years into it,” Burbrigde noted.
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