Don Was is a man of many talents. As the president of Blue Note Records, he’s put out modern classics by Robert GlasperDOMi & JD Beck, and Norah Jones as well as compiled recordings from legendary artists Tony AllenRon Carter, and Chick Corea. He’s produced The Rolling StonesBrian Wilson, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Iggy Pop, and many, many more legendary artists. But these days, among a certain tie-dye-clad crowd, he’s best known as the bassist for Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir‘s backing band Wolf Bros. In a new interview with drummer and Jammcard founder Elmo Lavano, Don Was revealed that he also played a crucial part in assembling the record-breaking, box office-smashing Dead offshoot Dead & Company by first introducing John Mayer to Bob Weir and drummer Mickey Hart.

In the early 2010s, Was was working with Mayer on what would become 2012’s Born and Raised (arguably the beginning of John’s descent into jambandom). Early on, Was noticed the pop superstar’s surprising affinity for the Grateful Dead.

“I get in the car and drive with him, you know to the studio and stuff, and he always had the Grateful Dead channel on Sirius on,” Was recalled on Go with Elmo Lovano. “Or he had cassettes of gigs, and he could identify ‘No that’s not ’78 cuz Jerry’s playing through this pedal’ or something like that. And I didn’t see that coming.”

Around that same time, Bobby and Mickey came to see the newly christened Blue Note president Don Was in L.A. about putting their solo stuff out on the label. Meanwhile, Mayer was downstairs at Capitol Studios woodshedding his new album, “So I called him up and said ‘You better come up here.’ … And he came up and they clicked.”

“He was very eloquent about how much he loved the Grateful Dead and why,” Was said. “And they were kind of taken aback, they’re surprised. So they invited him ‘Well come on up and play sometime,’ so I drove up there with them, we got a couple of Airstreams and parked it in the parking lot of Bobby’s studio, and we stayed about four days.”

Together, John and Don jammed with Bobby, Mickey, Bill Kreutzmann, and a revolving cast of bass players including Phish’s Mike Gordon. Despite the fact that Mayer was in the middle of putting together a major studio album, he put it all on hold to give his full attention to the Dead.

“John, to his credit, he was starting to write songs. He was using Capital Studios with an eye towards making a new record, and when the opportunity cemented itself for him to go play with those guys three months later, he shut down the record, cleared out all his stuff, went home and cracked the code on the Grateful Dead,” Was said. “And particularly what was behind what Jerry was doing. He knew not to do karaoke Jerry, but what is he actually doing, what modes is he using, why does this stuff make people feel so good? And he really studied.”

Was, on the other hand, readily admits he was not so prepared.

“I didn’t learn a single song,” Was confessed. “So I got there to play and I’m stumbling, I’m playing way too many notes, and I made the Grateful Dead sound like a Dead cover band. It was terrible, man.

A few years later, he got his shot at redemption—with some outside help from an unexpected source.

“Bobby called me up out of nowhere, it was like 2018,” Was remembered. “He called me up, he said you know Rob Wasserman came to me in a dream last night—and Rob is the guy who introduced me to Bobby in the ’90s. Rob said ‘You know, the reason I introduced you to Don was because he’s supposed to take my place in the band when I’m gone.’ [Bobby] said ‘So you want to start a trio with me and Jay Lane?” I was like ‘F–k yeah.’

“So we we picked a date like in a month and this time I wasn’t going to be an idiot. I went to New York and locked myself in a room at The Bowery Hotel. And I got a bass from David Gage in the room and I told Bob, just tell me six songs to get into because it’s too massive an undertaking, you can’t just choose from that catalog. He gave me a list of six songs and I just played them till they were etched into my soul.

“I flew from the Bowery to Marin, and went up there and played with him. I walked in and, of course, he didn’t call any of the six songs but we started jamming on an A chord, just me Jay, and Bobby. We did it for about 30 minutes and at the end he said ‘Alright, it’s a band.’ And he called Bernie [Cahill], he said book us. But that was something I learned from John: don’t go in unprepared.”

Check out the full interview with Don Was below, where he talks about producing The Stones, getting into the Dead, and a whole lot more. The John Mayer/Bob Weir section starts at 43:20. Dead & Company will return to Sphere in March to kick off another 18-show residency. Find tickets and dates here.

Don Was: President of Blue Note Records, Producing The Rolling Stones, John Mayer, The B-52’s, Dylan