Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann has written a heartfelt tribute to his late bandmate Bob Weir.
In a lengthy statement posted on social media, Kreutzmann wrote about meeting Weir back in the mid-Sixties, when Weir and Jerry Garcia were playing in Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions. “Together, we embarked on a journey without a destination,” he said. “We didn’t set out to change the world, or to become big stars, or to have our own counterculture — we didn’t know any of those things were actually possible and we wouldn’t have been very interested in them even if we did. Well, not too much, anyway. Just enough to dream.
“During those first rehearsals, which were in the back of a music shop, Bob and I would smoke joints in the back alley, before, during, and after — we had to be careful because it was still taboo back then,” he added. “Also, Bob and I were the younger guys in the band, so we liked to do weird shit. By that I mean, we just liked to play pranks and be silly and not take ourselves too seriously.”
Kreutzmann continued through the years, describing his memories of the Dead’s Haight-Ashbury days and onward. “Bob and I used to enjoy throwing water balloons at each other, so one day we started throwing them at the tourist buses,” he said. “That didn’t end well, but it’s making me smile all these years later thinking about it, because it was a time when every day felt like a great American adventure.”
He concluded the statement by quoting lyrics to the Grateful Dead’s “Bird Song,” adding, “There are so many people who can rightfully say that their life would not have been the same without Bob Weir. That’s been true for me since I was 17. And through it all, the high times and the low tides, my love for him will not, indeed can not, fade away.” (Read the entire tribute above.)
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Kreutzmann is the latest musician to pay tribute to Weir, who died last weekend at age 78. The drummer founded the offshoot band Dead & Company alongside Weir, John Mayer, Mickey Hart, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti in 2015. Kreutzmann left the band in 2023 and was replaced by drummer Jay Lane.
Dead & Company released a statement on Weir’s death, and the group’s members each paid tribute to him individually.
