John Mayer has looked back on his partnership with the late Bob Weir, recalling the early days of the pair’s professional relationship as Dead & Company bandmates.
Weir, who passed away last month, became one of Mayer’s closest collaborators during the latter half of his life. After the pair were put in touch with each other by producer Don Was, a mutual respect – and a love for Grateful Dead’s music – soon developed into something more.
The resulting Dead & Company project continued the jam band’s legacy, resulting in numerous tours that – with the help of Mayer’s contributions – brought its music to a new generation of fans and listeners.
It was a project that Mayer approached with the utmost respect, and took some time getting used to. Playing electric guitar with one of his heroes, after all, was both the opportunity of a lifetime – and rather daunting.
“I spent a lot of shows in the beginning wondering if he was upset,” Mayer remembers in a new interview with Rolling Stone. “I’d think: ‘I hope he’s happy. He might not be. Oh, he just went and turned his guitar amp up. Does that mean he thinks I’m too loud? Is someone going to come into my [dressing] room and say, “Hey, can you turn your guitar down?”’
“Then one day, you walk up onstage and there’s plexiglass between the amps and you go, ‘I have a feeling I’m a little too loud.’”
Mayer clearly learned to manage his insecurities. You don’t embark on global tours – and host two high-profile residencies at the Las Vegas Sphere – if you don’t.
“The first couple of tours were proving to the audience that I had a right to be there. And the rest of the tours were proving to Bobby that I meant well for everything I was trying to do,” Mayer continues when asked about when he finally felt comfortable sharing the stage with Weir.
“You got to understand, I never quantified it. And I don’t think Bob ever quantified it. Looking at it now, I think he never interacted with whatever that energy field was of adulation, or ‘Oh, my God, can you believe?’ He didn’t account for it. And oddly, I didn’t account for it – only when I heard what it meant to people.
“We never talked about it. But towards the end, maybe from ’23 on, and certainly the two Sphere runs, we had done it for so long. How did I read his signals? I just knew the way his head moved – we all do – and had an understanding of what his instincts were night after night. It got to the point where, in those last few tours, he knew when I would step forward and really hit the gas.
“And because I’d figured it out by then, I knew when to step back, look at Bobby and say, 'It’s yours again.' We were aligned. Bobby and I both had the same clock – where he knew what I was going to do, and he knew I’d give it back and go, 'All yours.' There were times where Bobby started singing as a way of letting me know, 'That’s the end of your solo, son.'”
Weir’s death prompted an outpouring of tributes from all corners of the music, with Mayer delivering a powerful and emotional eulogy during a public memorial.
Last year, both Mayer and Weir sat down with Guitar World to discuss their years-long collaboration and ever-evolving musical partnership.
