Bob Weir sat down with Dean Budnick at Jambands.com for an exclusive, wide-ranging interview, discussing everything from his ongoing projects to collaborating with Phish, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and more. The Grateful Dead guitarist had nothing but enthusiasm for everything that was discussed, as he continues to push forward with music new and old.
On the collaboration with Phish, Weir was asked about singing Trey Anastasio’s new song “Miss You,” and he said, “It was actually suggested to me that we might want to do the tune and so I listened to it and I figured, ‘Well this might be fun to sing.’ So I proposed that to Trey. He liked the idea so we went ahead and did that. It was a matter of I was in the same town that they were in for an evening and I was off and they were playing, so I was there with bells on.”
Weir also mentioned the possibility of working with Trey again, saying, “I’d be surprised if that doesn’t happen. But we both have to have a little time on our hands and both of us are hellaciously busy right now.”
The interview picked on Weir and his Campfire Tour band, which assembled in support of the recently released solo effort Blue Mountain. Weir mentions the possibility for more acoustic shows in early 2017, saying “It was fun and we were just starting to get good toward the end of tour, predictably enough. We were having too much fun to just walk away from it so we’ll get back to that in a little bit. We’ll have some live shows coming up early-ish next year.” So far, only one has been announced.
They also talk about two big scale Grateful Dead projects, the upcoming Los Muertos Con Queso and the beloved Dead & Company. On the former, Weir talks about getting together with Dave Schools, Tom Hamilton and Jeff Chimenti for a fun, two-day practice session. “We thought we’d get a jump on it. Tommy Hamilton was in town here and he’s part of the band. Dave Schools, lives a bit north of here but not far and Jeff [Chimenti] is in the San Francisco area so we’re all fairly local and with Tommy in town we took it as an opportunity to get in some rehearsal. We got a couple days in and had a lot of fun.” You can find out more about that event here.
As for Dead & Company, Weir keeps the door wide open for that beloved touring band. When asked about the possibility for touring and recording, Weir said, “We’re looking at all of the above. I’m more interested in recording I think than some of the guys—I just think it’d be fun to get into the studio with that outfit [laughs] But nobody buys records anymore so we’d have to view it kind as a hobby. That said I’d love to do that. We’re also looking at some dates in the not too distant future.”
You can catch the full interview, right here.