Grateful Useless founding member Bobby Weir is without doubt one of the final males standing in his legendary rock band.
The considered mortality has crossed Weir’s thoughts, as he’s seen a lot of his band members go.
Regardless of having lived a life stuffed with music and reminiscences, Weir’s sentiment wasn’t one in all worry, however quite of acceptance.
“Every day, things change. I’ll say this: I look forward to dying,” Weir, 77, advised Rolling Stone.
“I tend to think of death as the last and best reward for a life well-lived. That’s it. I’ve still got a lot on my plate, and I won’t be ready to go for a while.”
Whereas Weir has confirmed no indicators of slowing down, he witnessed a number of deaths of his band members, together with bassist Phil Lesh and guitarist Jerry Garcia.
“I want … effectively, Phil made it to his eighties. Jerry didn’t, and there was loads that Jerry needed to provide that he didn’t get to supply.
Lesh was one of many founding members and died in October 2024. He was 84.
Weir was famously the “little brother” of the Grateful Useless, as he joined the band at age 16.
In 1963, he met Garcia in Palo Alto, California, in an alleyway, in line with Rolling Stone.
Weir is without doubt one of the band’s few remaining members, alongside drummers Mickey Hart and Invoice Kreutzmann.
Earlier than Lesh’s dying, the 4 bandmates mentioned reuniting in honor of the rock band’s sixtieth anniversary this yr. Since Lesh’s passing, Weir is now uncertain of a band reunion.
“We speak a language that nobody else speaks,” Weir defined. “We communicate, we kick stuff back and forth, and then make our little statement in a more universal language.”
He continued, “For us, it’s a look or a motion with one shoulder, or the way you reflect a phrase or something that tips off the other guys where you’re going with this. And then they work on being where you’re headed, getting there with a little surprise for you. That’s a formula that’s worked real well for us over the years, and there just aren’t enough of us left now to do that anymore.”
Nonetheless, this month, Weir returned to Las Vegas for an additional Useless & Firm residency with 18 exhibits on the Sphere.
“That’s what I do,” he stated. “That’s what I’m here for.”
In the meantime, in October 2024, Lesh’s dying was confirmed on his official Instagram web page.
“Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love,” his social media learn on the time.
“When Phil’s happening, the band’s happening,” Grateful Useless co-founder, frontman and lead guitarist Garcia, who died in 1995, as soon as stated of Lesh’s bass enjoying.
The Grateful Useless disbanded in 1995 after Garcia’s dying, however Lesh continued to carry out into his 80s, usually together with his son Grahame Lesh.
Lesh and Garcia first met in 1959, and after reconnecting in 1964, Garcia invited Lesh to affix the group, then known as the Warlocks. Garcia requested Lesh to play bass guitar, which he by no means had completed earlier than, in line with Rolling Stone.
