Life lessons on two wheels to the tunes of the
Grateful Dead
Robert Hall Weir, né Parber,
October 16, 1947 – January 10, 2026
Let the words be yours, I’m done with mine.
I first saw Bob Weir on October 19, 1974 with the Grateful Dead at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. I last saw Bob Weir on June 14, 2024 as a member of Dead & Company at The Sphere in Las Vegas. Over the course of almost 50 years, it was my privilege to see Bobby perform countless times as a member of the Grateful Dead, Kingfish, Ratdog, the Other Ones, The Dead, Furthur, Dead & Company, the Weir Robinson & Greene Acoustic Trio, and probably others that I have failed to remember.
Other Posts
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 12 - March 19, 1977
You‘ll never find another honest man
During a speech in Charlotte, VA on August 18, 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump stated (in his classic subliterate style), “But one thing I can promise you this: I will always tell you the truth.” But after being inaugurated as president on January 20, 2017, the man who promised to always tell the truth told ten lies on his first day in office and five more the following day. By the end of his term, four years later, Trump had spread such consequential falsehoods as that the COVID-19 pandemic would disappear “like a miracle,” and the 2020 presidential election had been stolen, due to fraud, inspiring his supporters to attack the Capitol on January 6, as the results of the election were being certified by Congress.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 21 - May 22, 1977
My time coming
During the ’70s, a member of the Grateful Dead family, Dick Latvala, heard “them voices,” and began collecting recordings of Grateful Dead shows. But unlike the rest of us Deadheads who built private stashes of concert tapes as a hobby, Latvala felt compelled to make a career of it. He maintained a catalogue of his ever-growing collection that went far beyond the set list, including such details as the date and venue, who made the recording, what equipment was used, and extensive personal critiques of the performances.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 1 – December 31, 1978
The storyteller makes no choice
The Grateful Dead were famous for their New Year’s shows, and played twenty-one times at the stroke of midnight on December 31, at six different venues, all in the Bay Area. Six of those shows took place at the Winterland Ballroom, an erstwhile ice skating rink which became a storied rock music venue with a capacity of some 5000. Sadly, Winterland was shuttered in 1979, but not until one final concert had taken place. For reasons ranging from its eight-hour length, to the line-up that included the Blues Brothers and the New Riders of the Purple Sage, to the almost-six-hour DVD – The Closing of Winterland – that was made to commemorate the event, this was easily the most famous of the Dead’s New Year’s shows, and the Deadhead Cyclist’s choice for T.W.I.G.D.H., as well as the best New Year’s Eve show of all time.
All Material Copyright 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 by Stewart Sallo