UPDATE: Sources close to Dead and Company initially claimed that 2022 will be the last year the band tours together. However, after guitarist Bob Weir tweeted his surprise about Dead and Company suspending touring, the same sources changed their tune and say discussions continue about the fate of the band. The band itself said in a statement: “Dead & Company has made no official decision as to this being their final tour.”
“Whew,” drummer Bill Kreutzmann tweeted to Weir. “I thought you knew something that I didn’t! “#themusicneverstops #wewillsurvive.”
***
Dead and Company started in 2015 with three of the original “core four” Grateful Dead members, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann (bassist Phil Lesh didn’t join), alongside John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti. The group has been one of the most consistent live acts in the music industry ever since, playing each year from 2015 until the pandemic struck in 2020 before returning once again for another tour last summer.
Mayer’s love for the Grateful Dead went back several years before he joined Dead and Company, telling Rolling Stone in 2013: “This free expressive sort of spirit — I listen and I want to find a mix of that openness. I kind of want to go to [a show like a Dead] show, if it still existed,” Mayer said at the time. “But I wish that there were tunes that I was more familiar with. I wish that I could be the singer. I wish I could have harmonies.” Two years later, the band formed with him standing in for the legendary Jerry Garcia.
While Deadheads have often speculated how many more tours the band would embark on, rumors had been circling among fans recently that this tour would be the last. The band’s management declined to comment on the end of live touring.
Dead and Company’s most recent tour last fall had some shakeups as Kreutzmann missed several dates over non-Covid-related health concerns. At the start of 2021, he had to pull out of the later-canceled Playing in the Sand shows in Mexico citing health concerns related to his heart.
Dead and Company announced their 2022 summer tour at the end of March, and ticket sales for the shows went live Friday morning. The band will kick off their final tour on June 11 at Dodger Stadium, and their final show will be about a month later at Citi Field in New York on July 16th. Tickets for the shows are available on the band’s website.