This year is the Grateful Dead's 60th anniversary, and the 30th anniversary of the death of their leader, Jerry Garcia.
Prior to bassist Phil Lesh dying last October 25th, there was talk of him, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart regrouping for a tour. But Weir is no longer optimistic, telling Rolling Stone, “I think when Phil checked out, so did that notion, because we don’t have a bass player who’s been playing with us for 60 years now. And that was the intriguing prospect.… I think you need somebody holding down the bottom. Phil had all kinds of ideas that were pretty much unique to him. I grew up with Phil holding down the bottom in his unique way.
"I suppose I could go back out. I wouldn’t put anybody in his place, so it would be a trio at this point. It’d be me and two drummers. I’d have to think about that. I haven’t thought about it — it’s just now occurring to me that it’s a possibility that we could do that... I guess we’ll just see what the three of us can pull together."
What Weir is also trying to pull together is his memoir.
"I’m working on that," he says. "For the last year or so I haven’t done much on it, but I’ve got the first few chapters down. I’ve got to get back to it, and I’ve got to get collected. What I was doing was, I was writing first thing in the morning, spending an hour or so working on the book. And I got a fair bit done. I’ve just got to get back to that. That’s going to be excellent news for my publisher.
"The working title is It’s Always July Under the Lights. Except that’s not true anymore. The new lights that they have, it’s not always July under the lights."
Until then he'll be under the lights as Dead & Company start another run at the Sphere in Las Vegas. They have six shows through March 29th, then six from April 17th to the 26th, and then six more from May 9th to the 17th.
Triple A Daily