The life and career of Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir, who passed away Jan. 10, is celebrated in a new tribute issue of Rolling Stone.
The magazine’s March issue includes exclusive tributes to Weir from bandmates Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. There’s also an interview with Dead & Company’s John Mayer, intimate photos of Weir taken by his daughter, photographer Chloe Weir, and more.
“The Grateful Dead, for Bob, was freedom. It was a place for him to be Bob — his home,” Hart said of his bandmate. “He had a tough time in his early life, but in the Grateful Dead everyone could be what they wanted to be, and that was freedom. It’s everything.”
“Bob wasn’t one to talk a lot, but this was the way for all of us to fly,” he continued. “We all gave each other space, and at the same time, we all were supporting each other, and the music just started to flow. We all believed in the magic.”
Kreutzmann reflected on the surviving members of the band accepting that it was OK to continue playing Grateful Dead music following the 1995 death of Jerry Garcia.
“It took me a few years to figure that out, but I think it took Bob about five minutes — he played a show in New Hampshire the very night Jerry died,” Kruetzmann told Rolling Stone. “That was also his way of processing it.”
And Mayer told the mag about the connection he felt with Weir.
“We were aligned. Bobby and I both had the same clock — where he knew what I was going to do, and he knew I’d give it back and go, ‘All yours,'” he said. “There were times where Bobby started singing as a way of letting me know, ‘That’s the end of your solo, son.”’
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