Don Was Reveals Song Dave Matthews & John Mayer Were Set To Play At Grateful Dead Tribute

As reported, the Grateful Dead was honored as MusiCares Persons Of The Year during a benefit gala held last Friday, January 31 in Los Angeles. Don Was discussed his role as curator and musical director of the all-star benefit in a new interview and shared the GD song Dave Matthews was slated to perform before he pulled out of the event.

The esteemed Don Was is a versatile musician who plays bass in Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros and has been president of Blue Note Records since 2011. Was assembled a diverse lineup of fellow collaborators and Dead devotees for the tribute that included My Morning Jacket, Sammy Hagar, Sierra Ferrell, Billy Strings, Maren Morris, Wynonna Judd, The War On Drugs, Vampire Weekend, Norah Jones and more.

Don Was also was a member of the house band for the concert along with Jeff Chimenti, Benmont Tench, Greg Leisz, Rick Mitarotonda, Kendrick Scott, Terence Higgins and Grahame Lesh. The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and Mickey Hart were on hand to receive the honor. Each spoke at the event and performed at the end of the night with Chimenti, guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge and drummer Jay Lane to wrap the gala with a three-song Dead & Company set.

Dave Matthews was originally scheduled to play the MusiCares gala and at the FireAid benefit the previous night but canceled his appearances citing “a critical illness in the family.” While Matthews was slated to perform with John Mayer at FireAid, it turns out he was supposed to do the same at the Grateful Dead tribute.

“He was going to do ‘Sugaree’ with Mayer acoustically, but had an illness in the family and had to cancel his appearance at MusiCares and at FireAid the night before,” Was explained to The Hollywood Reporter’s Shirley Halperin. Matthews played “Sugaree” with Susan Tedeschi last December at the 47th Kennedy Center Honors in Washington D.C. The Grateful Dead were among the institution’s 2024 honorees.

One of the big questions following the MusiCares gala is whether official audio or video of the tribute will be formally released as a concert film and/or live album. “Well, they’re all shot and recorded on multi-track, I think it’s just getting clearances from everybody,” Was revealed. “Sometimes people don’t give clearances for it, but every one of them I’ve done — Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Neil Diamond and Fleetwood Mac — was shot to be a TV show.”

Don Was also spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about how he put the setlist together. “I think you have to be sensitive to the artists who are going to sing the songs. We try to get them to choose a song that they feel an affinity for. And if they’re stumped, we could make suggestions,” Was said. “But the the difference between doing a karaoke version of a Grateful Dead show and doing something with soul and feeling is to allow the artist to choose a song they can sink their teeth into and find something new.”

Other topics Don Was hit upon in the chat were his highlights from the event, how the lineup was conceived and how John Mayer made it through some technical difficulties for his performance of “Terrapin Station.” Head to The Hollywood Reporter to read the full interview.