The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir Page #6

---

Sure as you're born

I went to my house

My front door was locked

Yeah

Went 'round to my window

But my window was locked

Jumped right back

I shook my head

Big old rounder in my folding bed

Shot near the window

Broke the glass

Never seen that little rounder

run so fast

He's on the road again

Sure as you're born

Natural born easement

on the road again

On the road again

Sure as you're born

The late '80s,

the whole situation changed a lot.

The "Touch of Grey" album came out,

they got really big.

And I think the dynamic changed.

In the late '80s, Grateful Dead shows

became a destination.

"Touch of Grey"

was their first hit single

and this assault on the mainstream

that was unthinkable

in the Grateful Dead world.

Must be getting early

Clocks are running late

Faint light of the morning sky

Looks so phony

Dawn is breaking everywhere

Light a candle

Curse the glare

Draw the curtains

I don't care 'cause

It's all right

I will get by

I will get by

I will get by

I will survive

The crushing part of fame

is just boring.

Being famous is boring,

and it's confining.

We were kind of hoping

to be successful on our own terms

and maybe sidestep fame.

Whistle through your teeth and spit

'cause it's all right

We hit a peak of popularity

in the late '80s.

It had gotten to the point where

it was hard to walk down the street

without getting just mobbed, basically.

We had a hit single and

a video that was played a lot.

Jerry was singing the song,

and he was good on camera,

and he was evocative on camera.

That brought a focus to Jerry

that we hadn't seen before.

- Yeah, Jerry's God, man.

- Yeah!

It gives you something to look forward to,

you know.

There was a cult of people

and they deified Jerry.

The temptation, I guess,

or the tendency was there

to equate it with religion or

something like that, which it isn't.

It's just music.

It's just art.

We weren't high priests

or anything like that.

And to have that thrust on Jerry,

for instance, it was unsettling to him.

It's a weird thing to try and

understand what it must be like

for someone like Jerry

to be in the position

to have all these people deify him.

He was a great, mellow,

you know, humble guy.

The stress of being someone

so idolized like Jerry...

It's a big burden for anyone

to have to be that person, I think.

We had a gig, as I remember,

at RFK Stadium.

We played with Dylan and it was hot.

108 degrees or something,

and humid.

And Jerry wasn't real good

with hot weather to begin with.

We went home and, uh...

a couple of days later, he was in a coma.

You know, Jerry once told me that heroin

takes all your troubles,

all your concerns, all your worries,

and ties them neatly together

into one little, tiny little package.

"Where's my next hit?"

You don't think about diet,

you don't think about exercise.

He was grossly overweight,

and I'm just gonna go ahead and assume

that he had a cholesterol situation

that you wouldn't wish on a mad dog.

While he was in the coma,

he couldn't be taking drugs

and they didn't give them to him.

And so by the time he came out,

he was cleaned up,

and he stayed that way

for a couple of years.

And he was a lot of fun

when he was straight.

Those were the funnest times

we had together

since we were much, much younger.

- It's your verse, man.

- No, it's your verse.

- You didn't do "She never stumbles."

- You come in after.

- Oh, that's true.

- No, you didn't do "She never stumbles."

It's true, you didn't do

"She never stumbles."

We only did two verses

before the instrumental.

Yeah, you did two verses.

I did the second one

- and then you did the instrumental.

- Oh, right.

You used to do the third verse,

then we did the instrumental.

- We'll have to do this perhaps again.

- Okay. Keep rolling.

Keep on rolling.

Yeah, well, here we go.

Let's see.

Bob. Bob.

What are you looking at, man?

What are you looking at?

The chances are

I spent more time standing on stage

playing guitar and singing

than any human that ever lived.

How many shows

did the Grateful Dead play?

Something like 3,000,

and then you at least double that.

It's a lot of time singing

and playing guitar.

We can share the women

We can share the wine

We can share what we got of yours

'Cause we done shared all of mine

Night after night on stage,

I spent a lot of time thinking about

my life and my adoptive parents.

They were proud of me

by the time they wrapped it up.

And they were real happy.

And I loved them and they loved me,

and I knew that.

But for adopted kids,

you're always gonna wanna know

where you come from.

So I finally hired a private eye

to look into my birth.

But the private eye guy

could get nowhere with it.

And so I didn't think

I was gonna get anywhere.

Jack Straw from Whichita

Cut his buddy down

Dug for him a shallow grave

And lay his body down

A half a mile from Tucson

By the morning light

There's one man gone and another to go

My old buddy

You're moving much too slow

We can share the women

We can share the wine

On Sunday in Indianapolis,

a Grateful Dead concert

had to be canceled.

As many as 4,000 people

stormed gates behind the stage

and later threw rocks

and bottles at police.

Hundreds of Grateful Dead fans

tried to push their way

into a concert in Orlando last night.

Police lobbed tear gas and pepper gas.

In the early '90s, there was so much

crowd control difficulty at our gigs.

People crashing gates

and there were so many people

getting hurt, and that kind of thing.

It got to be a bit much.

Big problems

with the Grateful Dead.

Two deaths from apparent drug overdoses.

It's dirtier.

People are grosser and they're

much younger than I ever remember.

And much higher.

People weren't going

to the shows for music,

they were going to the shows as...

just to party down

and to get as wasted as they could.

And this was not exactly

what we were all about.

But be that as it may,

that's what we kind of got pegged with.

Most of the real true Deadheads

weren't that way.

They went for the music.

The Dead, well,

their music is a form of communication

of the highest of the ideals of the '60s,

which is peace, joy,

bringing people together.

But the whole thing, it's the concert,

it's the party, it's the band.

I don't know.

And you can't really describe it.

It's just a feeling you get

when you're with all these people.

What do I do once I'm in there?

I dance. We all dance.

- Yeah!

- We all dance.

If they can make it work

making falafels,

or tie-dyes in the parking lot,

so that they can get into the shows

and squirrel enough away

so that they can live between tours...

You know, if it rings

those lofty bells for them...

uh, what's wrong with that?

At the same time,

if it takes your life down,

then that's another story.

So that's a double-edged sword.

It's a pretty iffy thing to be doing.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes