Bob Weir Talks Phish Collaboration, The Future Of Dead & Company & Campfire Band
By Scott Bernstein Nov 25, 2016 • 9:54 am PST
Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir has had a busy year in 2016. Not only did he embark on a lengthy Summer Tour with Dead & Company, he released a new solo album and hit the road with a new band for a run dubbed The Campfire Tour. In addition, Bobby made plenty of guest appearances including a standout sit-in with Phish on October 18 at Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville. Weir spoke about his main projects, his Phish cameo and more in a new interview with Jambands.com.
In regards to the Phish appearance, Jambands.com’s Dean Budnick asked Bob how he came to sing Trey Anastasio’s “Miss You” as part of his sit-in. “It was actually suggested to me that we might want to do the tune and so I listened to it and I figured, ‘Well this might be fun to sing.’ So I proposed that to Trey. He liked the idea so we went ahead and did that. It was a matter of I was in the same town that they were in for an evening and I was off and they were playing, so I was there with bells on,” Weir said. When asked whether he anticipates another musical collaboration with Trey Anastasio, the guitarist responded “I’d be surprised if that doesn’t happen. But we both have to have a little time on our hands and both of us are hellaciously busy right now.”
Despite John Mayer focusing on his solo endeavours for the foreseeable future, Dead & Company isn’t finished. Budnick queried Weir on whether there are plans for D&C to tour and/or record. “We’re looking at all of the above. I’m more interested in recording I think than some of the guys—I just think it’d be fun to get into the studio with that outfit [laughs] But nobody buys records anymore so we’d have to view it kind as a hobby. That said I’d love to do that. We’re also looking at some dates in the not too distant future,” Bobby responded.
Earlier this fall Bob Weir supported Blue Mountain with a Campfire Tour in which he was backed by Steve Kimock, Jon Shaw, Scott Devendorf, Bryan Devendorf and Josh Kaufman. The Campfire Band has a gig booked in Cincinnati and it appears there’s more coming from the ensemble. “It was fun and we were just starting to get good toward the end of tour, predictably enough. We were having too much fun to just walk away from it so we’ll get back to that in a little bit. We’ll have some live shows coming up early-ish next year,” Bob Weir said of the tour.
Head to Jambands.com for the complete interview with Bob Weir.
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