The Grateful Dead‘s Bobby Weir has revealed that he’s open to the “possibility” of the band reuniting as a trio for their 60th anniversary.
This year, The Grateful Dead will celebrate their 60th anniversary. Back in November, the band revealed that they had plans for a reunion featuring its four core members to celebrate the milestone, though that was abruptly put on ice due to the passing of co-founder and bassist Phil Lesh in October.
Lesh died back in October at the age of 84. A statement shared on social media at the time said that he “passed peacefully” and was “surrounded by his family and full of love”.
Shortly after Lesh’s passing, remaining Grateful Dead members Bobby Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart opened up about how they were considering a reunion to celebrate the band’s 60th anniversary this year with Lesh and had scheduled time to rehearse.
Now, Weir has opened up on the chances of the Grateful Dead reuniting without Lesh later this year for the 60th anniversary in an interview with Rolling Stone. Addressing the thought of reuniting without Lesh, Weir said: “I think when Phil checked out, so did that notion, because we don’t have a bass player who’s been playing with us for 60 years now. And that was the intriguing prospect.… I think you need somebody holding down the bottom. Phil had all kinds of ideas that were pretty much unique to him. I grew up with Phil holding down the bottom in his unique way.”
However, there may still be hope for a Grateful Dead reunion, as Weir hasn’t closed the door on their return entirely: “I suppose I could go back out. I wouldn’t put anybody in his place, so it would be a trio at this point. It’d be me and two drummers. I’d have to think about that. I haven’t thought about it — it’s just now occurring to me that it’s a possibility that we could do that, since you asked.… I guess we’ll just see what the three of us can pull together.”
Elsewhere in the chat with Rolling Stone, Weir reflected on his differences with Lesh and recalled their final phone call together: “We did have our differences. But the last phone call I had from him was when the news came out that we were being honoured at the Kennedy Center. He called me just simply to congratulate me and us, and that was his entire reason for calling. And when we were done talking about that, I was spun out, he was spun out. We tried to make sense of it for a little bit. And then said, “Well, OK, see you there,” basically. I guess that wasn’t to be.”
For their honouring at the Kennedy Center by then US President Joe Biden in December, Kreutzmann, Hart and Weir were in attendance. Lesh was represented by his son Grahame, while former frontman Jerry Garcia, who died in 1995, was represented by daughter Trixie Garcia.
In other news, Dead & Company recently kicked off their 2025 residency at the Las Vegas venue, the Sphere.
The band – who are made up of Grateful Dead‘s Weir and Hart alongside John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane – returned to a venue after a wildly successful residency last year, which saw them perform in front of the Sphere’s 240-foot screens from May to July 2024.