Bob Weir. (Photo by Getty Images)
Famed Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh put together their first ever joint tour which kicked off in New York City, is in Boston now at the Boch Center, and then moves on to Chicago.
Called the "Bobby and Phil Duo Tour - Spring 2018," - someone forgot that spring won't be starting until nine days after the mini-tour wraps, but maybe they're going to add some dates and we just don't know about it yet. Dead fans can only hope!
I went into my archives to see what I could find from the tie-dye twins and found several interviews. Here are two from Bob Weir in 2003 and 2004, when the reconstituted band which had been calling themselves The Other Ones, switched over to calling themselves The Dead.
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The first interview is a surprise face-to-face meeting backstage at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield on June 22, 2003, while Steve Winwood was playing his warm-up set. Weir has some nice things to say about Winwood: "There's only one of him!"
What about the name change to The Dead? "We're the guys and we're playing that kind of music."
And playing in tribute to Jerry? "Yeah, and Pigpen, Keith [Godchaux], Brent [Mydland]...all the guys who aren't on tour with us this summer."
I mentioned that it was 37 years since the Summer of Love. Was he amazed to still be doing it in '03?
"It's all I ever wanted to do. Seems pretty natural to me."
The second interview occurred via satellite in June 2004 while the Dead were heading out on another summer tour with Warren Haynes and Jimmy Herring on guitar. That tour would arrive in Boston at the end of July, once again at the Tweeter Center. Weir talked about the discouraging practice of classic rockers pricing their shows at top-dollar. "Music shouldn't be expensive; people need that."
Bob had just released "Weir Here - The Best of Bob Weir" featuring the hits and a bunch of unreleased performances including a collaboration with former Del Fuegos singer and guitarist Dan Zanes plus a RatDog version of Dylan's "Masters of War." "The people that make these wars...if their kids were involved, I think they'd have second thoughts."
Future plans for a solo album? "I might do that, but probably just me and an acoustic guitar. Jerry did that once; did a run of shows on Broadway. He bailed and got a bass player, because its really tough to do an hour and a half of just you and an acoustic guitar. I think it would be fun and a somewhat illuminating thing to do."