Remembering Bob Weir: Grateful Dead to Dead & Company E114

Bonus Episode

We share stories, setlists, and tributes to honor Bob Weir, who passed away on January 10, 2026, and explore moments that made the music feel like home. Loss meets gratitude as we reckon with legacy, improvisation, and greatness.

• remembering Bob Weir and his influence
• post‑Jerry eras
• favorite Weir vocals
• social media tributes from Trey Anastasio, Mickey Hart, John Mayer
• Johnny Hickman on opening for the Dead and Cracker's "Loser" cover
• Grateful Dead's final tour memories and artifacts
• Dead & Company’s final tour and setlist variety
• Wolf Brothers at the Capitol Theater, long-form jams
• the Sphere experience and immersive staging

We close on a Philadelphia rooftop just after sunrise: The Clash's Joe Strummer asking Bob about Pigpen until the manager comes to collect him. Punk meets jam, curiosity meets memory, and the line between scenes dissolves. That’s the Weir effect—bridges where you didn’t expect them, songs that hold more than one world at once. If this moved you, share it with a friend, subscribe for new episodes, and leave a review so others can find the music too. What’s the first Weir song you’ll play tonight?

Learn Something New or
Remember Something Old

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Reach out to us at musicinmyshoes@gmail.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Remembering Bob Weir
• 0:49 Why His Passing Hits Hard
• 2:27 Post‑Jerry Incarnations And A Long Hiatus
• 4:36 The 2019 Epiphany And Return
• 5:46 Setlist Joy And Favorite Weir Songs
• 8:01 Tributes From Trey And Letterman Memory
• 10:12 Johnny Hickman On Opening For The Dead
• 13:27 Final 1995 Shows And Tampa Memories
• 17:06 Dead & Company’s Final Tour Highlights
• 19:01 Wolf Brothers At The Capitol Theater
• 22:00 The Sphere Experience In Las Vegas
• 27:05 Legacy, Family, And Joe Strummer Story
• 30:32 Closing Thanks And How To Connect

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:22

Hey everybody, this is Jim Boge, and you're listening to Music in My Shoes Podcasting Worldwide. That was Vic Thrill kicking off episode 114. I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. Today we are remembering Bob Weir, vocals, guitar, founding member of The Grateful Dead. Started in 1965, a real long time ago, Jimmy. Yep. He passed away at the age of 78 on January 10th, 2026, which happens to be the 10-year anniversary of the passing of David Bowie. Some called him Bob, some called him Bobby. I think more people called him Bobby. I've always called him Bob. I've been a Bob guy, so I'm going to stick with Bob. All right. One of my favorite people to listen to and to go see in concert, been doing it for many years, uh, as recently as April 2025, going to Sphere out in Las Vegas. And we're going to look back at, you know, Bob, Grateful Dead, Wolf Brothers, Dead and Company, different things that we've talked about on the show since we started. We're going to go back to some episodes and actually play some clips. And um, I think that's going to be, you know, kind of cool to look back at it. Um, you know, it's tough. It really is, because I really enjoy going to see him. I enjoy going to see Dead and Company. And then his offshoot Wolf Brothers. I enjoyed going to The Grateful Dead. I saw him play with Rat Dog. And it's all of these things that you look forward to and you now know that you can't do it anymore. It just sucks. That's it. You know, it really does when you you come to the end of it. Because I thought he was gonna live to a hundred. I mean, I just did. That's what I thought. But, you know, we don't. You know, very few people do, I should say.

SPEAKER_03: 2:27

Aaron Ross Powell But you know, as as somebody that's not necessarily a Grateful Dead fan, and looking at Jerry Garcia that passed away many years ago, you know, people have carried on his songs and his music, and the same's gonna happen with Bob.

SPEAKER_02: 2:38

Aaron Powell I agree, and I didn't think so in 1995. You know, after Jerry died, I didn't think anything would happen, but it did. And you know, they continued on and in 1996 they did this further festival, and I got to see, you know, Bob play with Rat Dog, and Mickey Hart had a band that played, and they had uh, I think Los Lobos played, and as well as um the guys from Hotuna, they played. You know, they were originally two of the guys from Jefferson Airplane. And then after that, I became the snob, that snob guy that was like, you know, I'm not interested in this. You know, they were, you know, they call themselves further, and the other ones, the dead, they went through all these incarnations of different things, and it just was not something I was interested in without Jerry Garcia. And in 2019, I had like this epiphany of why are you not even giving it a chance when it's music that you love so much?

SPEAKER_03: 3:39

That was a long time, Jim.

SPEAKER_02: 3:41

It was a long time, it was a real long time.

SPEAKER_03: 3:44

Like over 25 years.

SPEAKER_02: 3:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 3:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 3:46

I would listen to the music of The Grateful Dead, but I would not listen to Dead and Company. You know, they got together in 2015. I just wasn't that wasn't my thing. And then I had this epiphany of why are you not doing it? And I think in in 2015, the Grateful Dead got together, they did these uh shows in California and in Chicago, and I think it was about five shows. And it started to get me kind of like, oh wow, this is great. And you know, they had um Trey Anastasio of fish, he sat in on guitar uh for Jerry, and I was like, this is kind of cool, it's getting me going, but I still don't want to see something that's not the Grateful Dead.

SPEAKER_03: 4:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 4:36

But in 2019, you know, I keep saying it, in 2019, I don't know what it was, but all of a sudden, like, why are you depriving yourself of at least going and you can see Bob, you know? You can see him play. You know, Mickey was in the band. Uh Bill, uh, the other drummer, he was still in the band at the time. Just go. And I made a decision. I went to see them, uh, Lakewood Amphitheater here in Atlanta, and I bought a ticket the day of the show, but I got it real close, and it was absolutely fantastic. And it opened up everything again, and then I was back on the bus and I was, you know, ready for everything.

SPEAKER_03: 5:20

With the Merry Pranksters, you're back on the bus.

SPEAKER_02: 5:22

There you go. There you go. I was, it was, you know, it was just something like, what the heck have I been doing all of these years? And um, you know, I mean, I'm I'm honest, I was a snob about it. There's no question about it. But I'm glad that I've had these last few years to be able to travel around and see them. And, you know, whether it was uh Denton Company or or Bob with um, you know, with the Wolf brothers and different states and you know, different cities, it's been fun. It really has. So Saturday I wake up, take a shower, go to get dressed, go in my closet, and I'm like, I want to wear a shirt I haven't worn in a long time. And I go and I see a Grateful Dead shirt. And I grab that shirt, I throw that on, and a few hours later I get a text from a person, from a cousin, and they're like, Did you hear that Bob Weir passed? And I was like, what are the odds of me like wearing this shirt today, this shirt that I don't wear that often, and then all of a sudden I get this text about you know that he had passed. And you know, it's just kind of crazy. You know, he sang so many songs, and I I'll name a few, and you know me, when I say a few, it's more than a few.

SPEAKER_03: 6:44

Every song that he sings. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 6:47

You know, but like Mama Tride, Sugar Magnolia, Estimate a Profit, Me and My Uncle, Samson and Delilah. My favorite, Black Throated Wind, that's my favorite song that that Bob sang with The Grateful Dead, um, was actually on a solo album of his, but all the members of The Grateful Dead were on it, so it actually sounds just like The Grateful Dead. Oh, yeah. Um, The Music Never Stop, which is probably my second favorite song that Bob does. Big River, Jack Straw, playing in the band, Hell in a Bucket, I Need a Miracle, Throwing Stones, New Minglewood Blues, and of course, One More Saturday Night. And it's just something that he is, he's just as important as Jerry. And I don't think I realized that until I got back into the whole thing and really understood understanding what he brought to the band, with the style of, you know, his rhythm guitar that he would play and just kind of what what he would do. And, you know, Jerry would talk about his solos would be off of the way that Bob was playing, and you know, like it was just kind of cool. I had a lot more respect for him. So I mentioned Trey Anastasio. He played with them um in 2015. They did a thing called Fairly Well. And Trey wrote on social media, and Trey again is the vocals and guitar for Fish, and he wrote a tribute to him, and it talks about right before they did those shows. And he says, This one really hurts. I really loved him. He was a sweet, kind, gentle friend, talking about the year 2015. And then he continues, I went out to his beach house and we spent three nights there alone, just the two of us, playing guitar, cooking scrambled eggs, listening to records, working out, talking, and walking on the beach. He told me he was still in high school when the first acid test happened. When it was over, the sun came out and he had to do his math homework as he raced back to school on the train. Wow. He said after the second or third acid test, he looked down at his homework and said, nah. And that was it. The rest of his life was on the road with the Grateful Dead and other bands. The last time I saw Bobby was at Dead 60, so Dead 60 was in August of 2025. We had a nice laugh backstage, then I went and hung out with him and his beautiful family on his bus. I could tell his health was not what it used to be. Rest in peace, Bobby. Your spirit lives on forever. And I think that's a fantastic tribute, you know? It really is. He opened up one of the nights uh for Dead Company when they did the Grateful Dead 60 thing, which ended up being the last thing that Dead Company did. Speaking of the acid test, Bob and Jerry Garcia were on late night with David Letterman back in 1982. And I think that's when Letterman started. I think it was about 1982. So Letterman is really nervous in this interview. It's one of the few times that you see him kind of nervous. Wow. And it it's definitely, if you get a chance, check it out, because it's it's definitely different. It's not the same, you know, I I I want to say cocky. I like Letterman. I'm not talking negative about you know, that, you know, I know it and I'm ready. And again, I like him, you know?

SPEAKER_03: 10:24

Very confident, if not cocky.

SPEAKER_02: 10:26

Yeah, uh that's a good way to put it. So Lenarin asks them to describe their favorite memories of the early days of the Grateful Dead. Bob says, first off, there was the acid test, and that was a barrel of fun. And the audience is all cracking up. More fun than a frog in a glass of milk. And uh and after he says that he just stares like kind of in the distance, his mouth half open, nothing. And it's like, wow. So Lennerman finally speaks, Jerry's laughing, Letterman says, You were gonna say, and Jerry picks up for Bob and says, Oh yeah, I was gonna apologize for not having any memory. And then Bob joins back in. I think I think Bob partook in something before he went on this episode. So, friend of the show, Johnny Hickman, guitarist vocals for Cracker, was on episode 102 and spoke about from going to see The Grateful Dead to actually opening up for the Grateful Dead.

SPEAKER_01: 11:42

I remember when I was a punk rock guy, and uh I was right between two siblings that were big dead fans, okay? My older sister and my younger brother, and they were deadheads. And uh finally, punk rock days, I said, Hey, just come see the dead with us. All right, yeah, sure, but I got to lose. I I like a couple of songs. Yeah, sure, let's go down. And I went down to Ventura and they did a show on the beach, and it was Jerry's birthday. And I had so much fun, it was so great. You know, I got my Misfit shirt on and my blue hair, you know. It's like, you know, uh early mid 80s, I think it was. Right. And um, I just went, I was sensational, man. It was so good. So, you know, I went out and started buying dead records, I'm you know, and really getting into them and going to shows. And then it it, you know, over time came to pass and we covered the loser on kerosene hat. Jerry got a hold of it, really liked it, and they invited us to do three shows opening for them. And it was sensational. I'm still meeting people that's that say, yeah, I didn't know who Cracker was, then I saw you open for The Grateful Dead. We're not talking Dead and Company, we're talking the Grateful Dead. Right. When Jerry was still with us, you know, and they were just so cool to us, and we bonded, you know, and that was another one of those connections. And so, yeah, still still, you know, getting some traction out of that, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 13:05

Yeah, you know, I mentioned I'm a great uh big Grateful Dead fan. You know, I've seen it's funny because I tell this on the show often, you know, I go see Dead in Company or I I saw Billy Strings and I see different things. I see people with Grateful Dead shirts on. And I'll say, Oh, that's a cool shirt. And they'll be like, Hey, did you see Jerry play? Like, I guess I'm old enough that they've realized that I saw him while he was alive. And I'm like, Yes, I've seen Jerry Garcia in person playing, you know? And it's um it's it's really neat what they've done with Dead and Company and trying to carry the torch and do things a little bit different. It's not the same by any means, but it's cool. But when I go and I've seen you guys play and you do lose her, whoever I am with, I'm like, just listen to this version. It is so good. And you really do it while you do it in your own way, it is so much like the Grateful Dead version. It is just an honor, I think. You know, honoring them. And I love your version. Sometimes people do versions that you're like, oh wow, that's not that good. But yours is fantastic. And I think it's one of those versions where it comes from your heart, it comes from your soul as you're playing it, and and and us in the audience, we can feel it.

SPEAKER_01: 14:28

Yeah. Well, I'm glad to hear that. Yeah, it's one of those songs we don't do a lot of covers, but the ones we do choose to do, I mean, we we try to really get inside the soul of the song. And kind of make it our own. But yeah, that one uh I love the fact that it's got these big wide open areas for solos, which of course I'll do different every time, a different guitar solo. Uh I've played mandolin on it live. And Ann Harris, our our violinist, uh, when we do that song live now, it features her on a beautiful song. And she and I will get sort of a conversation going between violin and uh and guitar. And that's one of the songs that really uh highlights what we're able to do live.

SPEAKER_02: 15:08

And that was really cool listening to Johnny talk about that experience. And on social media, he, you know, posted about the experience, and it was really cool to see how many people, you know, responded to it, whether they liked it or they had their comments regarding, you know, seeing The Grateful Dead and or, you know, Cracker's version of Loser and just some cool stuff. So for the final tour of The Grateful Dead, which we did not know back in 1995, I saw them in Atlanta for three shows in March 1995. We're gonna go back to episode 72 when I talk about going home after the March 27th show. So there's actually a story, Jimmy, about night two. And the story is, as I told you, I took a guy for the first time, and the part of town he lived in, he's like, hey, can we take the train from the Buckhead station? And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, that's fine. I'm you didn't really want to do it. I didn't live anywhere near there. But this was gonna be his first time. I just wanted to be a cool night. So I'm, you know, we meet over at Buckhead, take the train, and after the show, so I went to three nights. Let me let me just uh preface all this with I couldn't afford to to go and to buy food at the arena every night and and buy a coke or an adult beverage. I you know, I had a you know a child that was uh, you know, uh not a newborn, but a toddler. I really had to watch my money, and it was uh already enough buying tickets to three shows, never mind trying to eat and drink and be merry at all these things. So this night I don't buy anything at the show because I'm like, I can't, I can't do it. Show ends, we take the train back to Buckhead, like I mentioned, I get in my car, and I'm driving in the road that's in front of the governor's mansion here, they have a roadblock. And most people would say, You didn't drink, you didn't do anything, what are you worried about? My tag was expired. Oh no. Okay. So my tag was expired, and I'm like and it is a big deal, okay? And they always say, Where did you come from? They always ask you where you're coming from. And I wanted to say, Oh man, I came from the Grateful Dead show. And I'm like, this is not gonna go well. No. All right. So I'm like thinking, what am I gonna do? You know, hey, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it looks like it's every third car they're stopping and they're letting the other two go. And I'm look, and I'm like, I'm the third car. I'm getting stopped. My tag has expired, okay? I don't know what possessed the guy in front of me, but he decides to make a U-turn. And you can't just make a U-turn. The road is pretty small. He like turns, backs up, turns, and then goes. And then the police have their lights on. The police are literally right there. And that was my break because of that. I just went. You just went. I just went.

SPEAKER_03: 18:36

That was like me at the U2 concert.

SPEAKER_02: 18:38

It was like you at the U2 concert. And I just went and I was like, oh my lord. I I was like, yeah, um, my tag has expired, and I just came from the Grateful Dead show at the Omni, and I didn't even drink. I I mean, I couldn't afford it. I I swear, you know?

SPEAKER_03: 18:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 18:58

I it just wasn't gonna end up well until the idiot in front of me made it end up well for me by doing that. Just absolutely crazy. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03: 19:06

You know, it's like they say every zebra in the pack doesn't have to be faster than the lion, they just have to be faster than the zebra next to them. Aaron Powell That is correct. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 19:16

I like that, Jimmy. So to end up on The Grateful Dead, April 7th, 1995, I went down to Tampa, and the final show that I ever saw The Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia, so it's 30 years ago, last night of the spring tour, and Black Crows open up for them, and it was at the old Tampa Stadium, which Chris Berman from ESPN would call the big sombrero. Do you know what I'm talking about? If you looked at the stadium, it looked like a sombrero that he would call it the big sombrero. And seeing the grateful dead, you know, I had only seen them indoors. I Never seen them outdoors, and it was the first time seeing them outdoors, and I just felt so far away from them, and I just felt kind of detached from the whole thing. Well, I'm glad I went, it's definitely not one of my favorite shows. The Black Crows opening up was cool. You know, that was definitely, you know, fun. The experience was fun. You know, I had a buddy in Orlando, he let us stay at his place. And, you know, you you never know when you're gonna go to a show, and it's the last time that you see a band. So I actually bought the Tampa Tribune that day just to kind of read. I like to do that when I go to a different city. And it has on the front page, it was a Friday, it has on the front page of like the weekend section.

SPEAKER_00: 20:50

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02: 20:51

It has the Grateful Dead Steely, you know, the Steely face. Everybody knows the Grateful Dead Steely face.

SPEAKER_03: 20:58

Oh, that's what that's called? Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 21:00

That I'm wearing on my shirt right now.

SPEAKER_03: 21:02

What do they call it? A steely face.

SPEAKER_02: 21:04

Yes, it's the steely face.

SPEAKER_03: 21:05

It's a skull.

SPEAKER_02: 21:06

Yeah, it's the steely face. All right. So it has the the lines on it that say, their heads have more than a touch of gray. After 30 years, the grateful dead come to Tampa Stadium tonight. And I have that framed and it's in my basement. And I think it's one of the coolest pieces of memorabilia that I have because it's not something that everybody has. You had to buy the paper and you had to say, yeah, I want to hang this up, but it's also the last show I went to. It's got a cool little tagline. So, you know, it's just a reminder of that last time getting to see and hear Jerry. And uh I'm glad that I had those moments. Thirty years ago since they played with them. Jimmy, one of the things I did not mention when we did that episode in Tampa, I went to the show, and I remember sitting down before the show. You know, we got there super early. We had driven up, oh, excuse me, driven down. We drove from Atlanta to Tampa, and we went right to the stadium. So we get in there when the doors open, and there are people that have smuggled in, you know, whatever. Anything you can think of, they have smuggled it in. And there are a couple of people, like not too far from us, and I guess they brought in, and I kid you not, cans of Coca-Cola. And they're drinking this cans of Coca-Cola, and it didn't look like they had anything in it. It didn't look like they put something else in it. No adult beverage. It didn't look like that. It kind of just looking at them. And out of nowhere, security shows up. Drop the cans. I'm like, whoa! All this stuff that's going on all around us. And they find these two people that are drinking cans of Coca-Cola. Really? Yeah, it was really, really funny. Like it was very bizarre.

SPEAKER_03: 23:13

Don't mess with the concessions.

SPEAKER_02: 23:15

Don't mess with the concessions for sure. But that definitely was a fun time there in uh 1995, the, you know, the three shows in Atlanta and then that one show in Tampa. So I mentioned that I went a few years without seeing anything. 2019, I finally went back, you know, started to go Atlanta, New York, and, you know, tried to go to both shows. In 2023, they announced that they're gonna have their final tour, that they're not gonna tour anymore at this point. So we're gonna go back to our first episode of Music in My Shoes. Episode one, Pilot Part One. Yes, when we talked about uh seeing them in the summer of 2023. Memorial Day weekend, I saw Dead and Company in Atlanta. Dead and Company is an offshoot of the Grateful Dead with original members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart. John Mayer on lead guitar and sharing vocals with Bob. I saw them three times in three cities, and of the 47 songs they played during these three shows, they only played six songs twice. At no time did they play any one song at all three shows. It's one of the reasons I started to like The Grateful Dead, because they would play stuff and you never knew what you were going to hear until they actually started playing it. I was so nervous that first episode that I forgot to mention O'Teal Burbridge on bass, Jeff Trementi on keyboards, and J-Lane on drums. And I only mentioned Bob and I think I mentioned Mickey and John Mayer, and that was it. And I also forgot to mention that I saw them in Atlanta. I also saw them at City Field in New York, and then Fenway Park in Boston, and that Fenway show was fantastic. They actually did this thing where they spontaneously came up with Darkstar on the River Jam. And it's essentially a mashup of the song Big River and Darkstar. And when it started playing, I remember saying to my cousin, I'm like, oh, it's Big River. And then it was playing a little bit longer. And I'm like, yeah, I'm wrong. It's Darkstar. And I'm like, how can I get these wrong? They're nothing alive. Oh yeah. And they just kept playing. And then I'm like, I'm not really sure what this is. But it sounds like both. And it was. And it was. And it really is super cool because the two songs couldn't be further apart. And they somehow managed to put them together and make something that's a really cool jam that they only played once or twice after that, as far as I know. So Mickey Hart wrote on social media, and the highlights include Bob Weir was a little brother to me for almost 60 years. He was my first friend in The Grateful Dead. We lived together, played together, and made music together that ended up changing the world. What was a lifetime of adventure boils down to something simple. We were family and true to the music through it all. I miss you so much already, dear friend. And I think that's really cool, you know, like kind of summing up how he feels. John Mayer, his other bandmate in Den and Company, you know, he took to social media also. Okay, Bob, I'll do it your way. F and 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, John Bow. And now that is definitely different. Obviously, I'm assuming that they had conversations and Bob, you know, said, Hey, you know, it's not the end, and you know, I'm gonna play through you through the music, and you know, I I think it takes a lot to share some of those feelings, and you know, obviously some of the final conversations probably John had with Bob.

SPEAKER_03: 27:27

Aaron Powell Yeah, but that's the amazing thing about music and about art is that it endures after you. So, you know, he really is gonna feel uh Bob's presence when he's playing his music.

SPEAKER_02: 27:37

Aaron Powell Yeah, you know, Bob always wanted it to be a 300-year plan that kids and people would want to listen to The Grateful Dead for 300 years. That was always the plan that would go out. Okay. And I think it's possible. I truly I truly do. So my brother is not a jam band kind of guy. He's more 80s arena rock. I convinced them to go see Bob Weir and Wolf Brothers featuring the Wolf Pack at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York, December 17, 2023. Here's a bit on how that went from episode nine. So while I'm in New York, I went to see Bobby Weir and the Wolf Brothers in concert at the Capitol Theater, which is located in Port Chester, New York. Now, the Capitol Theater is a place that is kind of like a rock haven. Bands have been playing there since like the late 60s. Grateful Dead, who Bob Weir was in, actually played 13 times there between 1970 and 71. The first Grateful Dead bootleg CD I ever bought was from the Capitol Theater. I actually have three shows from the Capitol Theater now that I listen to often that I think are fantastic. So I went to the show, and it was his last show of a five-show run, and during these shows, he played 89 different songs and didn't repeat any of them. Again, let me say that one more time. 89 different songs, no repeats. So I I just love that him and the band are ready to do whatever it is that he wants. But what I think is really cool is, you know, I usually look up the set list, all right? I want to see what they've played so I can try and guess what they're gonna play that night. And I didn't do that at all this time. I went straight into the show with no knowledge of the you know the first four shows. Let's just hear what goes on. And never have done it that way before. This was really cool to be able to do that and loved it, had a great time. So let me say, I had a great time. My brother Brian went to the show with me, okay? He's not a Grateful Dead fan, but he went to see what it's all about. All right, so real quick, let me just go a little further in depth. The Grateful Dead were the original band, and that had Bob Weir, Jerry Garcia, a bunch of other members that were uh in existence from 1965 to 1995 when Jerry Garcia died. After that, then they had some different incarnations. They had a band called Dead, they had a band called Further, some different things where different members would all be part of it. In 2015, they play the final Grateful Dead show, and they say it's all over. Until, you know, a few months later they announced Deading Company with John Mayer, who we've talked about on the show, but not all of the band members were in it. So, in my opinion, if you're gonna take someone to something, then the one thing you would want to take them to is the Grateful Dead. That's the pinnacle, but you can't because Jerry Garcia is no longer alive. The second would be to go to Dead and Company. Because you have John Mayer, where it's a guitar-driven jam, fun, good time. That would be the second thing. Bob Weir and the Wolf Brothers has a pedal steel guitarist, has a horn section. It's a lot different than what you would think of as The Grateful Dead. And it's probably not the best place to start for someone that's getting into it or just wants to see what it's all about. So my brother went and he starts like showing his watch to me as the show's going on. Show started roughly about 7:40. And about 10:40, he's like, hey, hey, it's getting a little late here. He had to go to work the next day. And I'm like, oh yeah, don't worry, just a little bit longer. We'll listen to the next song and we'll go. Because I know I've seen Bob Weir enough, I've seen, you know, all of them enough to know there's going to be one more song, then there's going to be the encore. And so my thought was we listened to the one song, we start walking out, they start playing the encore, we hear a few minutes, but then we get in the car and go, so we beat all the traffic. So I can get back to where we were, staying with my mom, and he could go to work the next morning. Next song starts. They play the song uh morning dew, and it's gotta be like 16 minutes later. My brother's looking at the watch, pointing at me. And if it I'm like, okay, yeah, yeah. And it ends. So I say, Hey, you want to go? We start walking out. They go into the song Broke Down Palace, and we leave. Um, not before I bought the shirt that I'm wearing right now, and I bought uh uh a tour poster talking specifically about the Capitol Theater shows. We walk out, we're not 20 feet out of the Capitol Theater. I said, What'd you think? And he said, he said, I went to the Philippines in the fall, and it was a 17-hour flight, and I didn't think anything could possibly be worse than that. I was cracking up. So I go to say something, and he goes, No, no. He goes, why do they have to have so many 20-minute songs? Why can't they make a song less than 20 minutes? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 33:46

Well, why? I I I want to know too.

SPEAKER_02: 33:49

I that's what they do, that's what they're known for. I just was laughing so hard, I I just thought that was great because his honesty was just funny. It really was funny. I'm on his side. You know, Jimmy, it still is funny to me. I gotta be honest. Every once in a while I'll bring it up to my brother and, you know, say to him, you know, is this worse than a 17-hour flight? You know. Um, you know, my final time seeing Dead and Company was at Sphere in Las Vegas on April 19th, 2025. I bought a plane ticket a couple of weeks before and didn't get a ticket to the show until 9 p.m. the night before. Gamble paid off from episode 76. My enthusiasm shows for sure. It was so cool. It was everything and more than what I expected. And I wanted to sit up at the top because, as you know, inside it's all a LED screen, you know, everything, you know, up above you, everything. So I didn't want to sit low to see the band. I've seen the band many times. I wanted to sit high so I could see all of the screen, and it was fantastic. The band, yeah, they look like ants. I didn't care. The show, what they could do, unbelievable. So there's about 18,000 seats in the arena, if you call it an arena, and then they have the floor, but the floor isn't like uh, you know, I don't think that you could put like a hockey rink or or a basketball court. Like you couldn't do that. The way that they have it built is that the floor kind of looks minimal, and then they have all the seats that are very steep going up. Okay. All right, so that you can be close to everything as close as close can be and still enjoy it. It was fantastic. They have a hundred and sixty thousand speakers in this building.

SPEAKER_03: 36:00

Yeah, I've heard that the sound is just unlike anything you've ever heard.

SPEAKER_02: 36:04

It is. They have roughly about 10,000 seats that the sound actually comes right to you. So if you're sitting in those 10,000 seats, no matter where you are, you think the sound is coming right at you. And it it's just super cool. I mean, it is as as cool as one could be. You know, I think people get excited for 4K TV. This is 16k resolution, you know, LED. I mean, it just wraps around you. It was just unbelievable. And it was like every song as they played it, they had, you know, all these things that were happening. So at times, some songs you never saw the band unless you were on the floor, you know, right up there. Yeah. And you know, Dead and Company, an offshoot of The Grateful Dead, and you know, the the steely-faced skeletons, the bears, you know, all the different things that are connected to the Grateful Dead, they had as part of it. So the show begins, and it's super cool. And inside it's it kind of looks like scaffolding, it kind of looks very futuristic. The second song was trucking, and it opens up and it just goes all the way behind you to where now you see the screen, and they show the house that the Grateful Dead were in back in the days in San Francisco. Right. And then as they're playing trucking, it goes up. So it goes, and now you see San Francisco, and the camera view just keeps going up to now you're in space. And listening to the song, it was insane. It was so cool. It really was. They did Lay Down Sally, which is an Eric Clapton song, right? But Jerry Garcia, when he would play with the Jerry Garcia band, he would play that a lot. He loved the song. They did a really good version of it. Mare was on uh vocals, it was cool. The video, like what they did with it was cool. Uh, Tennessee Jed, Jack Straw, Jack Straw was just so cool. So this one, they have everything connected to the Grateful Dead in vibrant colors, starting all the way up at the top of the ceiling, like this little tiny dot, but going around in circles, coming down the sphere walls until there's like it seems like a million different things are happening. And they're singing the song, and you're like, this is just crazy. It really, really was. Um, Casey Jones, they played, Scarlet Begonias, Fire on the Mountain with um uh drummer uh Mickey Hart. You know, sometimes he'll do a little rap that he has, and it's funny hearing it from a guy that's like 80 years old. He did it on this one, it was really cool. He's Gone, Saint Stephen, which is an old Grateful Dead song. It's always good to hear one of the super old ones from back in the day. And then they played Brown Eyed Women, and it was absolutely insane. The video that they show is of the Fillmore in San Francisco, and then they have they put like a screen on it to show the band playing, Dead and Company playing. And then the the building turns around and now it's Radio City Music Hall from nineteen eighty, from their, you know, sacred shows that they did in October of eighty. And then it becomes Madison Square Garden, and then it's Hampton Coliseum. Oh wow. It's like so cool. I mean, it was really, really like, and especially if you like The Grateful Dead. I mean, they put a lot of stuff there that knowing the band and liking the band that you got. You just got all these things. Um, John Mayer, keyboardist Jeff Cemente. I mean, they were playing off each other on Brown Eyed Women. And at one point, you could see, like Jeff, you know, he's got some long hair, and it's usually it was coming in front of his face. He's playing, and you could see the look in his face of trying to keep up with Mayor. It was, it was so good. It really, really was. Hell in a bucket, grateful dead skeleton, Uncle Sam. He comes out, he's kind of like dancing in a garden, and he's like tremendous, you know. He's, you know, I don't know, he's 80 feet tall or something. Hops on a motorcycle, and now they have 4D, you don't wear glasses or anything, but that motorcycle, when it was coming towards me, I thought the motorcycle was coming towards me, you know? And then, you know, he's just kind of driving in the road and going past like different things, and you could see him headed towards the sphere. It was just crazy. It really was.

SPEAKER_03: 41:20

How do they do that with no glasses? That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02: 41:23

I I don't know, but it's just, you know, super duper thought process that goes into it so that you enjoy it. I mean, honestly, I could have just put headphones on and listened to the band and watched everything. The band was actually really good. I mean, they sounded great. I just told you about, you know, uh John Mayer and Jeff. Bob Weir sounded good. I mean, everybody did, you know, uh, everyone was good. Final two songs, Broke Town Palace, which is on my funeral playlist, and one more Saturday night, because it was a Saturday night, so they always play one more Saturday night. It was so cool. It was everything I had hoped for. I didn't want to be disappointed, you know. I didn't want to spend a lot of money and go out there and it just be like a money grab. And I didn't think it was at all. I thought it was worth every penny that I spent and lack of sleep that I had. It was great. So, Jimmy, I could talk about Bob Weir and The Grateful Dead and Dead and Company, Wolf Brothers, Rat Dog, and you know, all the other bands that Bob's been in, and I could probably talk for weeks without repeating any of the same things. But I think that, you know, we highlighted some of the things that we talked about on the show. Some fun times, some good times, some great memories. You know, I will definitely miss them. There's no doubt about it. Like I said earlier, I really enjoyed going to see him and listening to him and not knowing what the next song was gonna be. It just was really, really exciting.

SPEAKER_03: 43:03

Now I want everybody to know that this is the first Music in my shoes episode that's not on a regular Sunday release. So, Jim, this meant so much to Jim that he wanted to come in and do a midweek episode to commemorate, you know, and memorialize Bob Weir.

SPEAKER_02: 43:22

Aaron Powell And it is, you're right, Jimmy. It's a special episode for a special person, you know, musically that I have connected to, you know, through the power of music. So I'll end the episode with this last story as told by Bob Weir, and you can actually go on YouTube and you can watch it. And basically he says sometime in the 80s, the Grateful Dead were in Philadelphia for a show. And back at their hotel during the post-show after party, someone knocks on the door. It's the manager of another band in Philadelphia for a show, also. The manager asked if some of the band can come up and meet the Grateful Dead. Next thing you know, Joe Strummer of The Clash is hanging out with The Grateful Dead. Ah. And Joe wanted to know about Pig Pen, who was the original keyboardist, well, organ player is really what he did, or harmonica. But he really was a founding member of The Grateful Dead when they were doing a lot of blues and and music like that. And unfortunately, he died in in 1973 at the age of 27. But Bob was amazed because he says in this interview, I hadn't been asked about Pig Pen in a really long time. And Joe wanted to know everything he could. And he's like, I can't understand why, but I'm gonna do it. And then I guess the party started to get a little crazy, and they climb out on a fire escape, they go on the roof of the hotel, and they finish the conversation until it's 10 a.m. the next morning, and the manager for The Clash goes to get Joe Strummer because they had to play a show that night. The Grateful Dead did not, but Joe Strummer did have to play. And I think that's a great story. And he told it during this virtual tribute titled A Song for Joe, and it's from uh 2020, and that's during COVID times, and that's why it was a virtual tribute. So afterwards, Bob joined Jesse Malin on a cover of the clashes Death or Glory, a video that Jimmy sent me, so I did some research into it. Oh, cool. After getting that, and I think it's really cool. Two totally different musical worlds brought together just by the music.

SPEAKER_03: 45:47

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 45:47

You know, just by the music.

SPEAKER_03: 45:49

And pig pen.

SPEAKER_02: 45:50

And pig pen. What more could you ask for? Rest in peace, Bob. We will miss you. That's it for this episode of Music in My Shoes. I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios, located right here in Atlanta, Georgia, and Vic Thrill for our podcast music. You can reach us at musicinmyshoes at gmail.com. Please like and follow the Music in My Shoes Facebook and Instagram pages. This is Jim Boj, and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, live life and keep the music playing.