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Fans of the Grateful Dead marked the rock band’s 60th anniversary during a recent celebration at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco
John Mayer and Dead & Company performed for fans during a weekend-long celebration, beginning Friday, Aug. 1, and through Sunday, Aug. 3
After the festivities, the Grammy-winning guitarist thanked the band and its fans for accepting him as a stand-in guitarist for Dead & Co.
John Mayer and his fellow Dead Heads are celebrating the Grateful Dead’s 60-year legacy.
On Tuesday, Aug. 5, the Grammy winner paid tribute to the legendary rock band and shared his gratitude for his experience with the spinoff band Dead & Company.
From Friday, Aug. 1, through Sunday, Aug. 3, Dead & Company performed a series of concerts in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to commemorate the six decades of the Grateful Dead. Mayer, 47, posted an Instagram, thanking the band’s fans for celebrating with him and accepting him into the group’s ongoing legacy.
Mayer performed alongside core founding members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, as well as Dead & Company’s bassist Oteil Burbridge, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and drummer Jay Lane. Mayer began performing with Weir, 77, Hart, 81, and Bill Kreutzmann in 2015. Kreutzmann, the Grateful Dead’s founding drummer alongside Hart, stopped touring in 2023.
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“Night 3 in Golden Gate Park celebrating 60 years of @gratefuldead will be a one we’ll never forget,” he wrote.
Mayer also celebrated playing alongside Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio.
“I finally had the chance to play with @treyanastasio, and beyond the full-circle moment of it all, the lock we had going was instant. Trey’s ear-to-fretboard data transfer time is unparalleled. I’m still blown away,” he wrote.
Anastasio, 60, performed with Dead & Company on Sunday, Aug. 3, for renditions of “Scarlet Begonias” and “Fire on the Mountain.”
He also thanked Graheme Lesh, son of the Grateful Dead’s late bassist Phil Lesh, for performing alongside the band the whole weekend, writing, “Extra special thanks to @grahamelesh for joining us all three nights.”
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John Mayer and Dead & Company on January 31, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
“No matter how many shows we play as a band, I will always be a guest in this musical world, and I’ll never lose sight of what is the great honor of my life,” Mayer continued. “Happy 60th, Grateful Dead, and long may you run, @bobweir, @mickeyhart, and @billkreutzmann.”
In the end, Mayer honored the legacy of the late Jerry Garcia. “It must be said… I’ll never come close to playing like @jerrygarcia.”
“But if I can somehow get you closer to him – and to the spirit he created 60 years ago – then I suppose I’ve done my job,” Mayer wrote. “Thank you for accepting me. ♥️.”
The 60th anniversary celebration follows the band’s Kennedy Center honor in December 2024. In July 2024, at the time of the announcement, the chairman saluted the Grateful Dead for being “a social and cultural phenomenon since 1965,” adding, “Grateful Dead’s music has never stopped being a true American original, while inspiring a fan culture like no other.”
“To be recognized alongside the artists who have in the past received this honor is beyond humbling,” the band’s surviving members wrote in a collective statement.
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John Mayer and Bob Weir on January 31, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
“We’ve always felt that the music we make embodies and imparts something beyond the notes and phrases being played — and that is something we are privileged to share with all who are drawn to what we do — so it also must be said that our music belongs as much to our fans, the Dead Heads, as it does to us. This honor, then, is as much theirs as ours.”
The musicians also said that they’re “beyond grateful for this recognition,” concluding, “Thank you, Kennedy Center, and to all the folks who had a hand in bringing us here, for this incredible honor.”
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