Dave Davies

This is Fresh Air.

I'm Dave Davies.

Bob Weir, the guitarist, singer, songwriter, and founding member of the Grateful Dead, died recently at the age of 78.

The Dead were a unique phenomenon of rock and roll.

Spawned by a chance meeting between Weir and Jerry Garcia on New Year's Eve in 1963, the band did plenty of recording, but was probably best known for its long, improvisational concerts, attended by dedicated followers who traveled on the band's tour route and camped out at multiple shows.

While Jerry Garcia was the band's lead guitarist and singer, Weir became known for his inventive rhythm guitar.

Bob Pirellas of the New York Times wrote that Weir strummed his rhythm chords lightly, nimbly, and malleably, charting and shaping the ever-shifting undercurrents of the Dead's songs and jams.

While the band officially ended with Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, surviving members continued playing their songs in new groups, including Dead and Company.

Weir and the other members of the Grateful Dead were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, given a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2007, and named Kennedy Center honorees in 2024.

Bob Weir continued to play his own music and was on our show in 2016 when he'd released his first album of original songs in 30 years, titled Blue Mountain.

Many of the songs were co-written with Josh Ritter.

Weir said the album was inspired by the time when, as a teen, he ran away to work on a cattle ranch in Wyoming.

The ranch was owned by the parents of John Perry Barlow, who later became Weir's songwriting partner.

Weir spoke with Fresh Air's Sam Brigger, and they started with the opening track from the album called Only a River.

Bob Weir, speaking with Sam Brigger, recorded in 2016.

We'll hear more after this short break.

This is Fresh Air.

Let's get back to Weir's 2016 interview with Fresh Air's Sam Brigger.

While they were talking, they listened to the Dead's song Sugar Magnolia, which Weir co-wrote.

Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead speaking with Fresh Air's Sam Brigger, recorded in 2016.