Bob Weir’s Unfinished Rock Opera. Tiger Sells for $11.56 Million. MMJ’s Dead Residency at the Fillmore. Cal Wears the Stealie. John Mayer Now at 21 Sphere Dates. Don’s Pick Is Carolina Coliseum 1985.
Dave’s Picks Vol. 60 is Hampton 1984. Grahame Lesh announces fall tour and New Year’s. Live Dead and Brothers on the road. The Music Plays The Band Radio Show is on tonight.
Thanks for listening, everyone. We have had the most listeners ever by far over the past month, but what I want to do is apologize for not adding the second installment of the Halloween series. I got really sick over the weekend and slept my way through all of Saturday. When I awoke, I realized that I had never added or changed the show. I am sorry for that. I will broadcast the second Halloween show installment the week after the final one, which will be the first weekend in November. Thanks again for understanding. Thanks to the people who gave me the heads up, and I am sorry for not handling it correctly. I was literally passed out for hours on Saturday and saw the emails early Sunday and was like, “Oops” — which was the worst day during this flu thing, or whatever it was that hit me this week. But I am through it and rolling like a machine again. Enjoy the music and stay in touch.
Bob Weir Was Writing a Psychedelic Rock Opera About His Own Life, Mapped to Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, Destined for the Met and Broadway
Details have emerged regarding one of the most ambitious projects Bob Weir was quietly working on in his final months. Working out of RCA Studio A in Nashville, Weir was collaborating with Grammy-winning songwriter Aaron Raitiere, producer Dave Cobb, Rival Sons vocalist Jay Buchanan, and the legendary singer-songwriter J.D. Souther on an autobiographical psychedelic rock opera structured around Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey. The revelation was first made public by Raitiere following his appearance on Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast, and it made waves across the music community immediately.
The opera was conceived as a musical retelling of Weir’s life story, meticulously mapped across the mythic stages of Campbell’s framework. He envisioned the project debuting as a grand performance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, with the long-term goal of taking the production to Broadway. The scale of the ambition was entirely consistent with the way Weir had always thought about what music could do in the world — not as entertainment alone but as something capable of carrying genuine mythological and cultural weight.
The current state of the material: there are five or six fully completed tracks featuring Weir singing lead vocals, backed by over seventeen songs in various stages of development and hours of raw studio tapes. The surviving collaborators and the Weir estate are currently facing the complex decision of whether to preserve the recordings as an archival time capsule or recruit his peers to complete the unfinished pieces. The tragedy runs in layers. J.D. Souther passed away in late 2024. Bob Weir passed away on January 10, 2026, at age 78, following a private battle with cancer and underlying lung issues, while still actively tracking the music. The project exists in a form that only the people who were in that Nashville studio can fully account for, and what happens to it next is one of the most significant unresolved questions in the Grateful Dead universe right now.
The Collaborators · RCA Studio A · Nashville
Aaron Raitiere (Grammy-winning songwriter, who revealed the project publicly), Dave Cobb (producer), Jay Buchanan (Rival Sons vocalist), and J.D. Souther (legendary singer-songwriter, who passed away in late 2024 before the project could be completed).
What Exists · What Happens Next
Five or six complete tracks with Weir on lead vocals. Seventeen-plus songs in various stages of development. Hours of raw studio tape. The estate is weighing whether to release it as an archival document or pursue completion. No decision has been announced.
The Monday night home for Bob Weir’s solo work and the full RatDog catalog — the right place to hear his music this week in the context of everything the rock opera story reveals about where he was headed.
My Morning Jacket’s Seven-Night Fillmore Residency Was a Faithful, Color-Coded Tribute to the Grateful Dead and San Francisco
“I have been in a deep Grateful Dead period of my life,” Jim James told Rolling Stone on the final night of the residency. “Ever since Bobby passed away, a portal opened and I stepped through, into the land of the Grateful Dead. It’s such a beautiful place to be, and I spend quite a lot of time here.”
My Morning Jacket concluded a seven-night run at the original Fillmore in San Francisco, using rainbow-themed artwork to structure the dates — seven shows, seven colors, no song repeated on back-to-back nights. The band had revealed the residency seven months earlier with color-coded artwork and a promise that the shows would celebrate “every color of the rainbow and all of the beauty, diversity, and magic in this wild, wonderful world.” What emerged over the course of the run was a sustained, deliberate tribute to the Grateful Dead, the Fillmore, and the Bay Area’s musical legacy.
Keyboardist Bo Koster explained the approach to Rolling Stone: “Jim has been going through his Grateful Dead moment recently, and feeling emotionally connected to the music. So he picked a bunch of songs that we could do that he was connecting to. The idea was to do one per night to honor the city and its cultural legacy.” The Dead covers were paired with Bay Area legends Sly Stone, and the Band’s famous Winterland recording of Marvin Gaye’s Baby Don’t You Do It — recorded just down the street from the Fillmore — was also in the mix.
MMJ even pulled a Grateful Dead-style prank, debuting Scarlet Begonias on Green Night and then playing Fire on the Mountain at the following show — the traditional Scarlet-Fire segue spread deliberately across two separate nights. The special guest list spanned Molly Tuttle, Karina Rykman, Mikaela Davis, Grace Cummings, Tyler Ballgame, and Grahame Lesh. Rykman, playing the Fillmore stage for the first time, flew in for one night during a break in her own tour to play Franklin’s Tower and Radiohead’s National Anthem. “The history of the room is not lost on me,” she texted Rolling Stone from the road. My Morning Jacket has now played 18 shows at the Fillmore. The Dead played 51 there between 1965 and 1969. It’s where Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart first met, at a Count Basie concert in 1967.
Read the full Rolling Stone piece →Jerry Garcia’s “Tiger” Guitar Sold for $11,560,000 at Christie’s. The New Owner Loaned It to Derek Trucks the Next Day.
Jerry Garcia’s legendary custom-built Tiger guitar sold for $11,560,000 at a Christie’s auction in New York on March 12, 2026, completely obliterating its pre-auction estimate of $1 million to $2 million. The sale solidifies Tiger as the second most expensive guitar ever sold at auction, right behind David Gilmour’s Black Strat, which brought in $14.55 million at the same event. The instrument was put up for sale by Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, who had originally purchased Tiger in 2002 for $957,500. The 2026 auction price represents a twelvefold increase over 24 years.
The winning bid came from Chicago guitar collector Bobby Tseitlin, co-founder of the historic instrument preservation company Family Guitars, associated with the Timeless Gem collection. Rather than locking the guitar away in a vault, the new owners committed immediately to keeping Tiger as a living collection. Proving that promise within 24 hours of the auction, the guitar was loaned to Derek Trucks, who played the iconic 13.5-pound instrument live on stage during a Tedeschi Trucks Band performance at the Beacon Theatre in New York. Fans heard Tiger’s signature tone live again for the first time since Garcia’s passing.
About Tiger · Built by Doug Irwin
Custom-built by master luthier Doug Irwin, who spent six years designing it after Garcia requested the most elaborate instrument possible. Heavy, meticulously laminated, featuring exotic hardwoods, intricate brass bindings, and a signature pearl tiger inlay. It served as Garcia’s primary stage guitar from 1979 to 1989 and was the last guitar he ever played in public before his passing in 1995.
The Sale · The New Owner · The Commitment
Sold March 12, 2026 at Christie’s New York for $11,560,000. Buyer: Bobby Tseitlin, Family Guitars, Chicago. Loaned to Derek Trucks at the Beacon Theatre within 24 hours of the auction. The instrument is being kept in active use rather than sealed in storage — exactly what Garcia would have wanted for it.
Garcia’s solo work with the Jerry Garcia Band — the music Tiger was built to play, every Sunday night on the channel.
Dave’s Picks Vol. 60 · Hampton Coliseum · April 13, 1984 · The Only Time “Keep Your Day Job” Ever Opened a Show
On April 13, 1984, the Grateful Dead kicked off the East Coast leg of their Spring ’84 Tour at Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. This show is uniquely famous among Deadheads as the only concert in Grateful Dead history to feature Keep Your Day Job as the opening song — a piece of trivia that tells you something about how loose and confident the band was feeling that night.
The show started sluggishly by some accounts, until Brent Mydland forcefully woke everyone up with his organ solos during It’s All Over Now, turning the momentum of the entire night around in a single song. The second set’s central transition stretching from Scarlet Begonias into Fire on the Mountain is particularly highly regarded, featuring Mickey Hart experimenting with a synth drum and marimba setup that gave the jam a texture completely different from what the band typically produced in that sequence.
The California Golden Bears Are Wearing Grateful Dead Helmets Saturday Night. The Stealie, the Dancing Bears, and a Tie-Dye Stripe.
The California Golden Bears unveiled Grateful Dead-themed helmets for Saturday’s game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, all part of the university’s first-ever Grateful Bears night at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley. The helmet is a gold and yellow shell with a matching facemask. On each side sits the Grateful Dead’s Steal Your Face skull design recolored to match Cal’s navy and gold, with the scripted Cal wordmark across the top. The center stripe is blue with white trim, filled with a blue tie-dye pattern, topped with a chain of white lightning bolts running front to back. On the back, circling the rear bumper, is a parade of the Dead’s dancing bears, one of which is wearing a navy Cal sweater and cap.
The connection runs deeper than aesthetics. The Grateful Dead formed in Palo Alto in the mid-1960s and, according to the university, played more concerts on or near the Cal campus than at any other university in the country. The Dancing Bears design was drawn by artist Bob Thomas in honor of the band’s sound engineer Owsley Bear Stanley — the same Bear who co-designed the Steal Your Face logo with Thomas. Cal is also leaning into the Bears nickname directly: the dancing bears motif fits a football team called the Bears in a way that requires no explanation.
Cal is not the first program to go this route. Oregon wore tie-dye uniforms with a Steal Your Face reimagined as a Duck for their Tie-Dye Out game against Wisconsin, leaning on Eugene’s status as what Dead archivist David Lemieux called the band’s home away from home, with more than twenty shows played there. The Grateful Bears merchandise line released alongside the helmets includes tie-dye T-shirts, hoodies, caps, and jackets. Kickoff against Wake Forest is Saturday October 17 at 7:30 PM PT on ESPN2.
John Mayer Adds Three More Sphere Dates, Bringing the Run to 21 Shows Through June 12, 2027
John Mayer has added three more dates to his 2027 Las Vegas Sphere residency — June 9, 11, and 12 — bringing the total run to 21 shows spanning April 8 through June 12. Having previously played 48 shows at the Sphere with Dead and Company, this marks his first time headlining the venue under his own name. Every night features a unique three-part format: a solo acoustic set, a John Mayer Trio set reuniting him with legendary bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Steve Jordan, and a full-band performance. One dollar from every ticket sold benefits his Back To You Fund, and a portion of premium seats are being auctioned to support veterans’ health through the Heart and Armor Foundation.
Ticket Information · New June Dates
Artist Presale began Wednesday October 14 at 10 AM PT — existing presale codes are valid for the new dates. SiriusXM Presale begins Thursday October 15 (Life with John Mayer channel). General public on-sale opens Friday October 16 at 10 AM PT via Ticketmaster. Concert and hotel experience packages via johnmayer.vibee.com.
Full 21-Show Schedule
April: 8, 10, 11, 15, 17, 18, 28, 30 · May: 1, 5, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15 · June: 2, 4, 5, 9 (new), 11 (new), 12 (new)
The post-Garcia arc from RatDog through Dead and Company — the lineage that leads directly to Mayer carrying the catalog forward at the Sphere in 2027.
Seven Years Buried, One Werewolf Howl, and the Only Dead Show South Carolina Ever Got
South Carolina got exactly one shot at the Grateful Dead, and the band made it count. This Halloween night at the Carolina Coliseum remains the only time the Dead ever played in the state, and a crowd heavy with University of South Carolina students, most of them in costume, packed a room the band fully decked out for the occasion, carved pumpkins included.
The night’s defining moment landed right at the top of the first set. After a quick tuning doodle of the traditional Italian song Funiculì, Funiculà, the band drifted into a brief, eerie space jam before resolving into Warren Zevon’s Werewolves of London — a song they hadn’t played live in seven years, not since the summer of 1978. The crowd reaction was immediate and enormous. Sound engineer Dan Healy made the moment even more theatrical, running Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia’s microphones through a vocal harmonizer delay effect during the track, turning their howls into something that genuinely sounded like a full pack of wolves echoing through the coliseum. The 1985 fall tour is one of the most celebrated chapters of the mid-decade renaissance — Brent Mydland at his peak, Mickey Hart back in the fold, and a band playing with the confidence of musicians who knew exactly what they were doing. South Carolina only got one night. The band gave them the Werewolves.
Full show details on The Grateful Dead Live →Live Dead and Brothers · Fall Trippin’ 2026 · Acid Test Jams and Warlocks-Era Improvisation Through October
Live Dead and Brothers is an all-star tribute tour formed in April 2024, specifically designed to recreate the raw, psychedelic blues energy of the legendary co-billed concerts the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band played together between 1969 and 1973. The project features Berry Duane Oakley on bass and vocals — son of founding Allman Brothers bassist Berry Oakley — alongside Les Dudek, Mark Karan of Bob Weir’s RatDog and the Other Ones, Scott Guberman of Phil Lesh and Friends, and Pete Lavezzoli on drums. Tom Constanten and Steve Kimock rotate through as special guests.
Rather than standard cover sets, the band delivers fluid improvisational performances featuring massive hits and deep cuts across both catalogs — Jessica, Morning Dew, and everything in between. The unique feature of the current run is the Acid Test jams, where the band improvises over vintage 1965 audio recordings of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters and plays songs from the era when the Dead were still known as the Warlocks. The remaining Fall Trippin’ 2026 dates run through late October.
Live Dead and Brothers, JRAD, DSO, and every band keeping the music alive — the Wednesday night home for all of it on the channel.
Grahame Lesh and Friends Announce Full Fall 2026 Tour and a Two-Night New Year’s Run in Fort Lauderdale
Coming off a record-breaking 9,326-person crowd at Denver’s Levitt Pavilion, Grahame Lesh and Friends have announced their full fall 2026 touring calendar, culminating in a two-night New Year’s run at The Parker in Fort Lauderdale featuring Kanika Moore and the Wolfpack. The fall dates span both coasts and include club stops in Boston, Nantucket, Los Angeles, Asheville, and Nashville before the holiday run.
Tune in tonight for the Wednesday night home of live Grateful Dead cover band music on the channel — and catch Grahame Lesh and Friends on the road this fall.
