The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir Page #5

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chasing the muse, chasing the music.

They're the best fans

any band has ever had.

I mean, there's never been a band

that has attracted the same sort of

devotion on so many

different kinds of levels.

There are people who will...

who can actually sit there

and tell you the difference

between the "Scarlet/Fire" at 5/8 '77

and the one they played

three nights later at 5/11

and the one two nights later at 5/13.

- Gotta see what's happening.

- There's never been two shows alike, ever.

Ever!

The Deadheads have

a certain sense of adventure.

And it's tough to come by adventure

in America nowadays.

You know what I mean? It's a little

uptight and everything like that.

They are people who are strong enough

to seek adventure

in this new, lame America.

I need a woman 'bout twice my weight

A ton of fun who packs a gun

with all her other freight

Find her in a sideshow

Gonna leave her in LA

Ride her like a surfer

running on a tidal wave

When it was flowing and we were one with

the music and one with the audience...

And hell!

One more thing I just got to say

I need a miracle every day

...it was undeniable.

Went down to the mountain

I was drinking some wine

Looked up in the heavens

Lord, I saw a mighty sign

Written fire across the heaven

Plain in black and white

Get prepared

There's gonna be a party tonight

Uh-huh

Everybody had girlfriends.

Pigpen had a steady girlfriend,

Phil had a steady girlfriend.

Bobby didn't really

have steady girlfriends.

He had lots of girlfriends.

Hey!

It's Saturday night

He was

the best looking guy in the band.

Come on,

what are you gonna do?

Everybody's dancin'

down the local armory

With a basement full of dynamite

and live artillery

Bob Weir was the handsomest guy

in the Dead, okay?

I've been that guy in other bands before.

I know what it's like.

Hey!

It's Saturday night

Yeah, uh-huh

One more Saturday night

Ow! Saturday night

Jerry always said that they

needed one good looking guy in the band

to catch the ladies, and

that's why they put up with Weir's sh*t.

The band loved him

because A, he was really cute

and drew the girls.

And then the biggest part,

the most important part is

he was game for it all.

Here's beautiful Bobby

surrounded by the ugly brothers.

You know?

I mean, if you're gonna go to bed

with somebody from the band,

is it gonna be Pigpen?

Bob had the "party room" all wired.

He had a big boom box made.

Too big to get into the room.

So he had to split it in half

to get it in there.

And then, after the show, you know,

the quippies man the door, you know.

"No guys. Just gals."

And so we all used to take Bob's run off.

So I guess I got a reputation as being

kind of the heartthrob

of the Grateful Dead.

So after the show,

if there were folks backstage,

the girls were gonna come my way mostly.

And they did.

And...

What,

am I gonna complain about that?

I got to shop around a bunch.

The first time I met Bob,

I was in 10th grade.

My girlfriend at the end of the show,

she said, "I'm gonna get us backstage,"

and I really didn't believe her, but I...

She grabbed my hand

and ran me through the crowd

and then Lin said,

"Hi, we're here to meet Bob Weir."

And then, a minute later,

he was walking over.

They were 15 at the time.

So, you know, "Okay, I'm... You know..."

But they were a lot of fun.

We began a friendship

and then we remained friends.

I used to see him on the road

and I would sleep in the parlor,

but then he would have,

like, a woman in there or women.

I would wake up and then suddenly

there's lingerie in the bathroom.

The only kind of plans we ever made

were, like, going to Egypt

and playing under the Pyramids.

Those are the only kind of plans

we ever started out with.

And we actually got around to it.

- Some of 'em.

- It was in 1978.

Yeah.

Egypt was a hell of an adventure.

I felt the weight of the antiquity.

Time went away.

Future, past, all of it was right here.

We played at the Son Et Lumiere Theater,

an ancient, ancient amphitheater.

When the pyramid

was lined up with the Sphinx,

I would hear echoes in the sound

that seemed to go

far beyond this place and time.

At dusk,

the mosquitoes come out.

And I looked at my arm,

it was covered with mosquitoes,

and I'm thinking,

"Okay, welcome to hell."

And then something flies by my face.

It was a bat.

I look across the stage,

and the stage is swarmed with bats.

And they're taking out the mosquitoes.

They're saving our asses.

It was a rock and roll band

on a thousands of year old stage

at the foot of the Great Pyramid

surrounded by a cloud of bats.

And I think to myself, "Take me now, Lord.

I want to remember it just like this."

I can't believe that you both

started together, because you look...

- Forgive me--

- Well, I'm older than him.

Oh, oh!

I thought, maybe you both

started out the same age

and somehow you'd progressed a little bit

more rapidly than the rest of us.

I put more time in the years than he did.

Remember back in the '60s

when all the parents were afraid

that the kinds of music

their children were listening to

would somehow corrupt them

and make them forevermore not worthy

of living in the American society?

What was going through those

people's minds at the time?

Hard to tell.

Phil and I had to make a long speech

to Weir's mother back then

because Bob was

dropping out of high school

to play rock and roll, you know.

We had to make sure--

We had to assure her that everything

was gonna be okay, you know.

I knew something was fishy when I came

over to his house for practice one day,

and there were Phil and Garcia sitting

there like the cat that ate the canary.

"Finish school, Bobby."

What changes do you see

in what you've done over the years?

And how have you managed to be

evolutionary and stay current?

- I don't think we've stayed current.

- You don't?

I don't think we ever were current.

Yeah, right.

That's probably closer to the truth.

Yeah, we never were current,

I don't think...

I think we've been sort of singular

in our whole endeavor.

And probably stay that way.

I mean, all we try to do

is just satisfy our own standards.

- And they're pretty steep.

- Mmm-hmm.

Get on out of here!

Oh, the video simulcast.

It's a video simulcast. Yes.

The video simulcast on Halloween.

- It's gonna be very scary.

- Right on.

- So, you know what I mean?

- I mean, it's Halloween.

I mean, if you have the guts

to come to the video simulcast,

come on to the simulcast.

But I really don't think you can do it.

Friend come by

Say he's looking for his hat

Yes

Wants to know where your husband's at

Buddy

I don't know

He's on his way to the pen

But come on, pretty mama

Let's get on the road again

On the road again

Sure as you're born

Natural born easement

on the road again

On the road again

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