Fare Thee Well: Bob Weir’s Immeasurable Impact On The Live Business

Bob Weir, the Other One, has moved on to the next leg of his long, strange trip, and one of the legendary figures of live rock and roll is finished with this realm, where he achieved icon status as one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead. Weir joins his former bandmates Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, among others, at the Great Gig in the Sky. The rhythm guitarist/vocalist was 78.

Drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart are the sole survivors of that early ‘70s classic-era Dead lineup. Weir joined with Garcia and the others at just 16 years old, and immediately assumed the “kid brother” role within the brotherhood of the band. Even as he approached what us civilians would consider “retirement age,” Weir’s younger brother status in the hierarchy of the band seemed to persist.

I once hopped on a bus to interview the Dead when they headlined Bonnaroo, and Lesh and Hart seemed to derive great amusement in pestering Weir as he tried to catch a pre-show nap in the bunk. The love was obvious, but it was clear, even after all the years, Weir’s bandmates cut him absolutely no slack. He eventually got up and joined the living Dead, befuddled, amused, and unbothered by the gentle ribbing of his bandmates. At the time, I couldn’t help but think of all the weirdness these three, and others among them, had been through together on their long, unlikely trek through countless backstages, immeasurable freaks, enthralled fans, and euphoric jams that were just as well run off the rails as achieve interstellar euphoria for band and fans alike.

Even among his cosmic brotherhood, Weir was especially transcendent.

Promoter/producer/venue operator Peter Shapiro, the man behind the Grateful Dead 2015 reunion concerts Fare Thee Well and a longtime Dead associate who formerly managed Lesh, had a special appreciation for those other worldly qualities in Weir. “I will miss his kind eyes the most,” Shapiro told Pollstar at Weir’s passing. “When you were speaking with him, you could see into those big brown eyes of his and they seemed to just open up into a whole land behind them. I swear, you could see space and stars within his pupils if you looked hard enough. That was real, and it evoked so much about him as a human and as a musician, his playing and his songwriting. His emotion was just so deep that his eyes were an opening into deep space, too. Very fitting for the man who was the connective glue of the Grateful Dead.”

Much has been made of Weir’s musicianship or, for some, lack thereof, but standing on stage next to a virtuoso like Garcia, few would stack up. And time has actually been good to Weir’s regard as a musician and, in Garcia’s absence, bandleader. He stood alongside another virtuoso with John Mayer in Dead & Co., who posted a quote that touched my heart and I’m sure many others’:

“Okay Bob. I’ll do it your way.

Fkn’ A…

Thanks for letting me ride alongside you. It sure was a pleasure.

If you say it’s not the end, then I’ll believe you.

I’ll meet you in the music.

Come find me anytime.”

That quote says everything that can be said about Weir as a player and a person, really.

Weir carried the musical weight in his band Ratdog, and with Lesh in Furthur. In all, Deadcentric outfits Weir was a part of, including the Grateful Dead, The Dead, the Other Ones, Furthur, Ratdog, and Dead & Company, remained a commercial juggernaut right up until Weir’s passing, with a combined box-office gross of $1,273,294,477 and 26,238,447 from 2,152 shows reported to Pollstar. The actual total was likely several times that, certainly in number of shows. An incredibly active musician who lived for live, Weir most recently toured with his Wolf Bros band, and curated the Dead Ahead festival in Cancun, Mexico.

Like every other ‘70s kid, I was raised on the Grateful Dead’s music, with songs like “Casey Jones” and “Truckin’” remaining a staple of FM radio to this day. The first time I ever actually saw them live was in the spring of 1990 at California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, Calif., a Bill Graham-promoted show. Graham was as intertwined in the band’s rise as the musicians themselves and made that show forever memorable for yelling at me backstage for wearing what he believed was a bootleg The Who T-shirt. (For the record, I had dutifully purchased the shirt at a Who concert.) I also remember seeing UCLA and Celtics basketball great Bill Walton, a renowned Deadhead, smiling backstage at that show, hanging out with Graham and others. I recall far more about the audience and strangeness of the vibe than I do any actual performances, but I went on to see the Dead and its various incarnations many more times, including the aforementioned Fare The Well show at Soldier Field in Chicago. The 100-year-old stadium actually rocked at Fare Thee Well, as euphoric fans embraced the band and the scene proved to be as vital as ever.

Weir made an appearance at the 2025 Pollstar Awards at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton, where he inducted Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium into the Pollstar Hall of Fame, a legendary musician feting a legendary venue. And Weir also had praise that night for the most modern venue on Earth, the Sphere in Las Vegas, where Dead & Company performed a sold-out residency to much acclaim, capturing the Residency of the Year Award. “Our 2024 ‘Dead Forever: Live at the Sphere’ residency was pretty special,” Weir said that night. “Thirty shows, 150 different songs, over 2 million bucks raised for nonprofits, it was a creative high point for all of us. And we’re grateful for everyone at Sphere who helped bring the vision to life.”

Weir touched innumerable lives as he moved in and out of a Dead universe that inspired an unlimited number of magical collaborations and brought joy to thousands of fans. One of the last links to a time in the history of live where small, insulated musical scenes could capture the imagination of presenter of shows and spring forth to touch music fans around the world, encouraging us all to reach for the stars in Bobby’s eyes.