San Francisco community saddened by passing of Grateful Dead's founding member Bob Weir
The San Francisco Grateful Dead community is coming together after it was announced that one of the founding members, Bob Weir, has died at the age of 78.
One gathering place was the Grateful Dead house on the 700 block of Ashbury. It's a private residence, but served as a makeshift memorial with hundreds of Deadheads stopping by all evening to remember Weir.
Fan Kelly Terzis described her feelings as intense sadness and grief, but also gratitude.
"Bob Weir was one of my best friends," Terzis stated. "I've never felt alone a day in my life since I found the Grateful Dead."
Terzis has been a fan for more than half of her life, attending more than 200 concerts over 20 years.
The band and their music shaped who she is today.
"I was telling my friend that the Grateful Dead was the first time I ever fell in love and ever since that day, my life has been nothing but filled with love," said Terzis.
Fans left notes, flowers, and grieved together.
Adam Buxbaum says Weir's music was always a part of his life.
"My mom told me when I was two at the Oakland Coliseum New Years eve shows, I crawled on top of a speaker and fell asleep," said Buxbaum. "This is the end of a huge chapter of a lot of people's lives."
He started going to Dead concerts with his parents as a kid. As an adult, he followed Dead and Company, a spinoff of the Grateful Dead featuring Weir.
He even sold pins at concerts, once giving one to Weir.
"It felt like in some ways Bobby was one of the community, just along for the ride with everyone else," said Buxbaum. "It was a brief, nice encounter. He shook my hand."
San Francisco-based musician Lebo also met Weir a few times, even playing with him on stage at the Fillmore in 2019
Lebo grew up listening to the Grateful Dead and admiring Weir. He says playing with him was a dream come true.
"He was such a warm spirit, and his artistry was huge," said Lebo. "He was tapped into the source."
The news of his passing was hard on everyone who had been touched by his life, but all can agree, his memory will never die, living on through his music.
"We're just going to keep going," said Terzis. "We're going to keep listening to the music. We're going to keep playing the music and most importantly, we're going to keep living the music."
Tributes continued Sunday
On Sunday, a group of local musicians played outdoors on Haight Street, a tribute to a man who helped inspire countless tribute bands. Musician Jordan Feinstein assembled the impromptu concert in less than 24 hours.
"When I found out, I just started sobbing. My friend and I were hugging, I couldn't believe how sad we were," he said. "It really feels like the changing of an era, or the end of an era. I mean, the Grateful Dead thing has been reinvented in so many ways since the actual Dead. But something seems different about this."
Phil Lesh died about a year and a half ago, leaving Weir as the remaining voice and songwriter of the Dead. He never seemed to tire of the lifestyle, playing hundreds of concerts with his subsequent band, Dead and Company. But he did appreciate the early days before the band got so big.
Weir created a small venue in Mill Valley called Sweetwater, where big stars like Bonnie Raitt, Robert Plant and Santana would come to play before small audiences of about 300 people.
"I think anybody who plays in front of thousands of people still craves that connection you get when you're playing in front of just a few hundred people," said Sweetwater's technical director, Michael Wilson. "It's a small stage and there's this exchange of energy that happens that's not as easy with a bigger place."
On Sunday, Brad Kava brought his young son Parker to the Haight. The editor of "Good Times Magazine" in Santa Cruz, Kava once wrote an article about Weir for "Rolling Stone." He said the power of the Dead's music lies in its unique sound.
"You can look at jazz, you can look at other things created in America, but the Grateful Dead was purely American folk/rock music. And they were our answer to the Beatles and the Stones, and things like that," he said. "Yeah, it's the end of an era. We'll keep it alive by listening to the music. You know, you still have the music, but we won't be able to see it live the way we did."
There was always a bit of irreverent humor to anything the band did. "Magic Mike" opened a museum called Psychedelic SF, where some of that is on display. He pointed out one large carving that shows a concert poster with the band's name in its typical hard-to-decipher psychedelic script.
"Here it says 'Grateful Dead' right there. Well, if you look at the top layer, cut off the letters right there, it says 'WE ATE THE ACID," Mike said, with a laugh.
Finally, Emilie Rohrbach is a music journalist and teacher who also works for KPIX. She was at the Haight concert and tried to explain the popularity of a sound that most people have a hard time defining.
"There's a freedom to the music," said Rohrbach. "There's a permissiveness to jam and be creative and be present. I think it's that spirit of community that means so much to all of us."
Weir's family announced he died from an "underlying lung issue" after a courageous battle with cancer. He was 78 years old.
Weir toured for about 60 years. Dead and Company was just in San Francisco in August, playing a series of concerts in Golden Gate Park.