“He was a huge fan. He could identify, ‘No, that’s not ’78 because Jerry’s playing through this pedal’”: John Mayer was a Grateful Dead fanatic – before he landed the Dead & Company gig

John Mayer and Bob Weir [left] of Dead and Company both play a D'Angelico archtop. Mayer picks the strings, Weird frets a chord.

After 10 years of playing electric guitar together, John Mayer and Bob Weir have forged a truly formidable guitar partnership in Dead & Company – and they’ve learned a lot about one another in the process, too.

Now, as the dust on their second mega-selling Las Vegas Sphere residency settles, an interview clip of Don Was has resurfaced, with the revered producer and musician revealing how Mayer got the gig in the first place – and how he helped facilitate the group's formation.