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When Bob Weir gave his final public performance last August in Golden Gate Park with Dead & Company, Trey Anastasio set the stage. The Phish frontman opened the show, one of three gigs commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead. Following Weir’s death at 78, Anastasio remembered his friend and musical colleague in a lengthy tribute.
“This one really hurts. I really loved him. He was a sweet, kind, gentle friend, and I never believed this would happen so soon,” Anastasio wrote on Instagram, going on to reference the Dead’s goodbye shows in 2015, Fare Thee Well.
“I knew Bobby for many years, but it was in the lead-up to Fare Thee Well that we really became close,” Anastasio recalled. “I went out to his beach house, and we spent three nights there alone, just the two of us: playing guitar, cooking scrambled eggs, listening to records, working out, talking, and walking on the beach. We went out to dinner together, and he let me drive his new car.”
At Weir’s house, they talked in depth about the Grateful Dead member’s formative years. “He told me how he was still in high school when the first acid test happened. When it was over, the sun came out, and he had to do his math homework as he raced back to school on the train. He said after the second or third acid test, he looked down at his homework and said, ‘Nah.’ And that was it,” Anastasio wrote. “The rest of his life was on the road, in the Grateful Dead and other bands.”
“The more I got to know Bobby, the more I liked him,” he added. “I learned so much from him. He talked to me about all the loss around the Grateful Dead, so many friends who had died. He said that John Belushi was backstage at a Dead show the night before he died, looking very grey and unhealthy, and Bobby told him he might want to think about slowing down. I believe that all of that loss gave him a unique and beautiful perspective on life. Rest in peace, Bobby. Thank you for all the gifts you brought into the world, and for all the love you gave to so many of us.”
Anastasio is one of many musicians and public figures paying tribute to Weir. Don Felder, Micah Nelson, Bravo personality Andy Cohen, and Don Was, Weir’s bandmate in the Wolf Bros, all shared their tributes online.
“The music he helped create over the last 60 years will continue to be felt for generations,” Was wrote. “As he sang in one of my favorite Dead songs: ‘the music will never stop.’”
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