Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann team up with Mayer, Allman Brothers' Oteil Burbridge and Ratdog's Jeff Chimenti for the new band which will make its debut on Halloween.
- Aug 6, 2015
AceShowbiz - The Grateful Dead wasn't really done after they played their "Fare Thee Well" shows last month. Three members of the group have announced that they're going to perform together again as part of a new band called Dead & Company which will feature John Mayer on guitar.
The three Grateful Dead members are guitarist Bob Weir and percussionists Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. Also joining the new group are Allman Brothers' bassist Oteil Burbridge and Ratdog's keyboardist Jeff Chimenti.
These musicians will make their debut as Dead & Company at a show scheduled to take place at New York's Madison Square Garden on Halloween night, October 31. More performances are expected to be revealed in the near future.
"Those songs weren't done with us," Weir told Billboard of resurrecting the Grateful Dead. "It was a matter of who wanted to get back out on the road and keep doing it." Of adding Mayer to the line-up, he said that his enthusiasm "was the cherry on the sundae that made this project look like a good idea."
Weir also shared to the publication his opinion on the backlash he might receive from people who spent hundreds of dollars to see what they thought would be the last Grateful Dead shows.
"None of us ever said we didn't want to play anymore," Weir explained. "We're gonna kick it around and see where it takes us. That's what we've always done and making plans is something we found out over the years is kind of a waste of time. The music tells us what it wants, where it wants to go, what it wants to do."
