Born in San Francisco, California back in 1947, the guitarist and singer Bob Weir helped to form The Grateful Dead back in 1965 and even though the band officially came to an end (with that name) after Jerry Garcia‘s death in 1995, Bob continued to play with his bandmates in other spin-off groups like “Dead & Company”, besides also focusing on his solo career.
Since The Grateful Dead has always been known as a live band, more than a studio group, Bob is often praised by his playing and the ability to improvise, something that is part of the band’s style. In an interview with Alan Paul back in 2015, the musician recalled who his primary guitar influences are. He explained that everything started when he was 17 and tried to imitate the piano on the guitar.
Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and his primary guitar influences:
“Initially country and acoustic blues players. But my dirty little secret is that I learned by trying to imitate a piano. Specifically the work of McCoy Tyner in the John Coltrane Quartet. That caught my ear and lit my flame when I was 17.”
“I just loved what he did underneath Coltrane. So I sat with it for a long time and really tried to absorb it. Of course, Jerry was very influenced by horn players, including Coltrane. But I never really explicitly thought about that relationship. Because I didn’t really ever decide to pattern myself after McCoy Tyner’s piano. It just grabbed me.”
He continued:
“I’ve never had much of an idea of what I’m up to and I’m not sure that I do even now. But I have always been there to serve the music and believed that if you sincerely do so then your appropriate role will present itself. Then it’s just a matter of finding the perfect place to play that role and I’m very fortunate that this happened to me at a very young age,” Bob Weir said.
During the same conversation he agreed that he usually doesn’t play repetitive patterns and noted that is something that he was able to develop since he focused on being a rhythm guitar player. He also said that there is also an influence of Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh, since both of them usually didn’t “repeat anything”.
During the three decades they were active, the band released 13 studio albums that sold according to the Guinness World Records, an estimated amount of more than 35 million copies worldwide. However, bands with that amount of sales usually don’t get the chance to play to a completely sold out stadium, for example. They usually perform in smaller venues, but that’s not what happened with the Dead.
The only song by the group that entered the Top 40 or the Hot 100 charts during their entire career was the 1987 track “Touch of Grey” from their album “In the Dark”. So there was always a big difference between their record sales and their tours. Because for most part of their career, the group played to completely sold out stadiums in the United States and Canada, especially.