John Mayer on Playing With Dead & Company: ‘It’s Like Catching Air’
“It’s 2016, and a lot of things are gone,” singer-guitarist John Mayer told Rolling Stone in advance of his current tour of amphitheaters and stadiums with the Grateful Dead-offshoot band Dead & Company. “A lot of the norms, as we know them, are gone. A lot of things that were comforting to people are gone.”
But at least one great American tradition, Mayer insisted, is still in effect: “You can go see the Dead in the summer of 2016. These are the guys from the Dead. You get to hear the music and have the spirit of that music come alive in the summer with your friends.” Mayer’s first open-air run with Dead & Company – launched in arenas last fall by Dead guitarist Bob Weir and drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart with Mayer, ex-Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge and keyboard player Jeff Chimenti – kicked off June 10th. “As much as I’m committed to making it work from the inside,” Mayer said, “I’m just excited to be there and in that spirit.”
During an hour-long conversation, Mayer recalled his earliest impressions of the Dead as a high-school student; his subsequent, obsessive immersion in the music and culture; the weight and honor of his role in the new band, in the spot and spirit established by the Dead’s late singer-guitarist Jerry Garcia; and his hopes for Dead & Company as a continuing enterprise, on stage and possibly in the studio.
Mayer also expressed one improbable dream for the summer tour. “I’m a masochistic optimist,” he said, laughing. “I hope one night Phil comes down and grabs the bass,” referring to original bassist Phil Lesh, who performs with his own Dead-repertory band, Phil Lesh and Friends. “No disrespect to Fare Thee Well” – the surviving members’ final run of shows last summer – “but that would be fun, wouldn’t it?”
When I first heard you were going to play Grateful Dead songs in a band with original members of the Dead, I thought it was an interesting choice. You weren’t the first one that came to mind either.
I was self-aware enough to know it was going to be a head-scratcher. But I thought it was cool. And it was going to make people go, “What?”
Dead fans are very protective of the legacy.
They guard the gate closely. I understood that from the beginning. I wanted to honorably introduce myself. And I got the sense that as hard as they guard the gate on the way in, they defend you that hard once you’re through.
What are some of the songs you would like to see in the summer-tour set lists, that you didn’t get to play in the shows last year?
I’m really keen to check out “Dire Wolf” and “High Time” [both on 1970’s Workingman’s Dead]. Bob mentioned “Box of Rain” [on 1970’s American Beauty], and I said, “Do I need to reach out to Phil, get his blessing?” [Lesh co-wrote and originally sang the song.] And he said, “Absolutely not. Phil would love it.” The great thing is that its one of those rock-solid core songs that happens to be in my range vocally – but also in my range metaphysically.