Last weekend, John Mayer called into SiriusXM’s Tales From The Golden Road to chat about Dead & Company’s summer tour, which came to a close ahead of 4th of July at Wrigley Field in Chicago. During his interview with hosts David Gans and Gary Lambert, in addition to talking about his own upcoming solo plans, Mayer spent much of the time heaping praises both onto Dead & Company as a project and onto his individual band members and specifically, bassist Oteil Burbridge.
Dead & Company Recaps Tour Success, Sets Attendance Record for Wrigley Field
Echoing the thoughts of many fans who caught the Grateful Dead-inspired ensemble on the road this summer, Mayer emphasized a newfound cohesion amongst the members of the band, stating, “So many discoveries took place this tour. This is the tour we became a unit, a band, instead of a project.” Mayer then noted, “Oteil and I clicked in a way we never had before. . . . It’s like our own little cell that we have on that side of the stage now.”
Here’s Everything We Learned From Dead & Company Bassist Oteil Burbridge’s Reddit AMA
From there, the interview shifts to Oteil Burbridge as a singer, with Mayer reiterating the power of Oteil’s voice and praising the bassist for his vocal leads during this past tour. “To sing with such purity, I don’t really know who to compare it to. Perfect pitch, by the way. . . . [Oteil] just goes up and he’s such an open channel. . . . He almost sings like a horn player, he’s beautiful, languid. We’re all listening to each other play now and enjoying it like it’s the best seat in the house. His ability to deliver a song and a lyric, it’s just beautiful,” noted Mayer. In context of the vocal abilities of the group as a whole, Mayer stated, “That’s exactly what you want in a band, a wrecking crew who can each take on a song or a certain group of songs with their strengths.”
From there, John Mayer and the hosts began speaking about the Oteil-led “Fire On The Mountain” from the final night at Wrigley Field, with Mayer identifying it as “a pivotal moment” for Dead & Company. Mayer continues, “There was a moment where Oteil took ‘Fire On The Mountain,’ and it became Oteil’s ‘Fire On The Mountain.’ It was almost like a glimpse at what will be the full second-generation version of the Dead with Oteil’s infusion of his DNA into ‘Fire On The Mountain. . . . He took it and made it into something that was so perfect and unlike anything we’d ever played before. It was really a revelation the way that that went down.”
Dead & Co Closes Summer Tour With Sunshine Daydream Fireworks Spectacle At Wrigley [Videos]
You can listen to the excerpt from John Mayer’s interview on Sirius XM’s Tales From the Golden Road below, courtesy of Oteil Burbridge.
[Photo: Phierce Photo]