BOBBY WEIR 'I'VE NEVER MADE PLANS.I'M TOO BUSY'

Bobby Weir has been on the road virtually without a break since 1965, but the past few weeks have been crazy even by his standards.

- ANGIE MARTOCCIO

Bobby Weir has been on the road virtually without a break since 1965, but the past few weeks have been crazy even by his standards.

In December, he and his band the Grateful Dead were honored at the B Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Now, in late January in Los Angeles, the jam-band legends are being celebrated as MusiCares' Persons of the Year. In a couple of days, Weir will attend the 67th Grammy Awards, posing for a photo with Taylor Swift that will make Deadheads trip out even more than usual. In the photo, Weir stands next to the superstar and her sparkling red dress, smiling through his massive white beard and black bolo tie as if he time-traveled from an Old West saloon. In March, he'll return to Las Vegas for another Dead & Company residency 18 more shows at the Sphere. His solo project Wolf Bros. also plans to continue performing with symphony orchestras around the country. “That’s what I do,” he says. “That’s what I’m here for.”

Weir, 77, isn’t the least bit overwhelmed by any of these accolades. “If you hang in there long enough, people start paying attention to you,” the singer and guitarist says nonchalantly. “I guess if I ever have grandkids, they’ll probably take me a bit more seriously. But really, I’m the same guy. I still have to get out of bed in the morning, and my back’s cranky. Nothing much has changed.”

Weir was famously the little brother in the Grateful Dead, joining after he met Jerry Garcia in a Palo Alto, California, alleyway in 1963, at age 16. But he’s now one of the band’s few remaining members, alongside drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. Just before bassist Phil Lesh died (or, as Weir likes to say, “checked out”) in October 2024, the four bandmates were discussing reuniting in honor of the Dead’s 60th anniversary this year. Now that Lesh is gone, Weir isn’t so sure.