anical father.
Phil Lesh, Grateful Dead's bassist, met Weir
through Garcia. Lesh knew Weir as a teen and
a skilled guitarist. They were all into music and
smoking pot, like so many other teenagers out
there who hang out with friends and jam.
Weir tells the game plan--his idea was to
always just flow with Garcia when it came to
guitar playing, enhancing the beauty with his
own unique style and interweaving the two guitars together. Weir explains that he would listen to jazz pianists like Coltrane and how they
were able to just embellish the lead. He used
this method to do the same for Garcia. Sammy
Haggar says in the film, "If you don't have an
ego, then you can be the best number two on the
planet, and that’s kinda what Bob became."
Like other bands, the Grateful Dead members
all lived together, along with their friend and
the inspiration for "The Other One", Neal Cassady. Cassady was an unusual and unique man
that Weir was impressed by in awe of. While
Weir was writing that song and playing it for
the first time, Cassady died. Weir believed Cassady was with with him, having left time and
space, and was free. He was deeply influenced
by Cassady and his way of being and thinking.
He was unworldly.
Weir really brings us back to the old stomping
grounds. He shows the audience around his old
apartment where he lived with Cassady and the
band. Where Jerry used to practice and where
he used to sleep. Quite an inside peak to such an
extraordinary life.
Trixie Garcia (Jerry Garcia's daughter), with
tears in her eyes, discusses how the death of
her father impacted Weir in a profound way. He
was forever bonded with Jerry Garcia. So much
of Weir's adult life was lived beside Jerry. When
Jerry died Bob used his side project, Ratdog, as
a way to cope with the loss of his brother. He
used the music to heal him; music was his medicine.
Through this film, even though Weir quit
school and went on the road with a band, we
learn that he is cerebral and existential. He did
not marry until later in life, when he knew he
could be faithful. He did the drugs, all of them,
but he rode bikes, hiked, and remained healthy
otherwise. He believes in other dimensions and
transcending time and space. He is an insanely
famous performer and yet just seems to be a cool,
sweet older gentleman with an adorable family.
And, just Z