Over the summer, the Grateful Dead had fans pack up the van and start truckin' to their final Fare Thee Well tour concerts in both the Bay Area and Chicago. Trailing the performances, many deadheads were dedicated to bringing the Dead over to the east coast for some fare thee well fun of their own but to their surprise, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann announced that they'd regroup. Lacking Phil Lesh, the guitarist and two percussionists decided to take on John Mayer for their latest project, Dead & Company. The singer-songwriter has since defended the jam icons on their decision to continue touring past their final billed summer shows.
"I don't know of any Deadhead in the world who said, 'When I paid my money, I paid to see these guys finish this,'" Mayer told the Associated Press. The stand-in guitarist has placed all focus on rehearsing and heading out for a fall tour with three-quarters of the Dead's remaining "core four," along with Ratdog keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and The Allman Brothers Band's Oteill Burbridge. Mayer even took to Instagram to tease a quick studio jam session on "Tennessee Jed."
The freshly assembled group will tour under the name Dead & Company this fall and although Phil Lesh isn't on the bill, it's quite possible the bassist will join them for an impending gig or two. The North American trek closely trails the Dead's 50th anniversary Fare Thee Well shows, which found herds of deadheads flocking to Chicago's Soldier Field and Santa Clara's Levi Stadium. Phish's own Trey Anastasio filled in for the late Jerry Garcia during the five good-bye gigs, which sold out almost immediately and lead re-sale ticket prices to jump to thousands of dollars.
After being able to bounce ideas off of one another, Weir explained that walking away from music wasn't something he was ready to do just yet. According to Rolling Stone, Weir divulged, "[He] was answering back, and it was fun, and more fun than I was really going to be happy about just walking away from.
Dead & Company will launch their string of gigs on Oct. 29 at Albany's Times Union Center before heading to three Madison Square Garden stops, including a free show on Nov. 7. Fans can enter a chance to win tickets to the exclusive MSG tour date but if all else fails, will be able to view the show via a Brett Ratner-directed livestream.
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