Ace Forever
Guitarist says Weir’s insistence on playing three nights was amid his health battle “one of the greatest acts of heroism I will ever see in my lifetime”
John Mayer commemorated the one-year anniversary of Dead & Company’s shows at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park — the last time late guitarist Bob Weir performed onstage.
The three evenings were in celebration of the Grateful Dead‘s 60th anniversary, and featured surprise appearances that included Grahame Lesh (son of the late bassist Phil Lesh), Sturgill Simpson, Trey Anastasio, and more.
“Today marks a year since Dead & Company played our last of three shows in Golden Gate Park helping to celebrate 60 years of Grateful Dead,” Mayer wrote on Instagram. “It would also become Bob Weir’s last appearance onstage. I wanted to take a moment to share with you just how incredible those concerts really were.”
He continued, “Bobby’s insistence on standing on that stage in the midst of a complex health battle to perform nine hours of music over three nights was one of the greatest acts of heroism I will ever see in my lifetime. I watched him sidestep every traditional burden of entertainers — ego, superficial pride, vanity, to name a few — and sing his songs with pure heart and grit. He transcended his physical limitations by ignoring them.”
“Bobby Weir, ever the contrarian, laid down his ultimate act of defiance; he was going to play these shows on his terms,” he added. “He could have explained his situation in one online post, and the crowd would have lifted him like a giant wave up to glory. Fuck that. That wasn’t Bobby. Deal the cards. By the end of Sunday night, we’d created as many musical sparks as we ever had over a three night run. What he had to overcome in order to pull that off won’t ever be fully known to anyone.”
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Dead & Company’s San Francisco run, which took place after their second residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, occurred during the Days Between, a week of remembrance that honors Jerry Garcia’s birthday (Aug. 1) and the day he died in 1995 (Aug. 9). In March 2025, Weir sat down withRolling Stone in what would be his last major interview; he died in January 2026 at 78. “I tend to think of death as the last and best reward for a life well-lived,” he said.
Mayer concluded his post with a heartfelt sendoff. “The man you loved, whose music has given a more expansive inner life to us all, never backed down,” he wrote. “In his final shows, after 60 years, he lived up to every measure of a person he’d ever stood for. It’s a master class of a life lesson, and I’ll take it with me forever.”
