The long strange journey made his last stop.
Deadheads from all corners of the world gathered at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sunday night to see the long-lasting jam band, the successor to the Grateful Dead, Dead & Company, play the last show of their “Final Tour”.
The 2 surviving members of the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir and Mickey Hart—together with singer-songwriter John Mayer, former Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, and newly added drummer Jay Lane (who replaced certainly one of the unique band members ) drummers Bill Kreutzmann for a recent tour) – delighted fans in the town where the unique Dead band was formed in 1965.
Starting three nights of their final tour on Friday, greater than 40,000 fans packed the stadium each night, with all three shows sold out.
Deadheads were treated to among the band’s more popular but acclaimed tracks such as “Bertha” and “Althea” through the first set, and after the break they heard Mayer slide his guitar and bounce on stage to “Assistance on The Way” and ” Cumberland Blues.
![More than 40,000 people crowded the stadium to witness the band's final performance.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/dC-1.jpg?w=1024)
![Bob Weir, one of the founders of the Grateful Dead, began his career in 1963 at the age of 16.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/dC-3.jpg?w=1024)
The encore and the band’s final performance ended with “Truckin'”, “Brokedown Palace” and the ultimate farewell “Not Fade Away” – accompanied by a dazzling drone performance over the stadium – before Dead & Company bowed to the audience as a band for the last time.
For Deadheads tuning via live broadcast via Nug.net – the live concert streaming service that had exclusive rights to broadcast the show – the experience was removed from perfect, with many missing bits of the show as a result of login issues or being unable to access their accounts for the Hurrah Finals altogether.
“The Final Tour” began on May 19 in Los Angeles, covering major US cities such as Recent York and Chicago.
Showing love from the Big AppleThe Empire State Constructing soared into the sky, lighting up the constructing with rainbow colours in honor of their last performance.
Dead & Company breathed recent life into a vanishing culture after its 2015 founding.
He expanded his die-hard fanbase to recent lengths by adding the 45-year-old Mayer to fill the large boots left by legendary frontman Jerry Garcia, who died in 1995 of a heart attack at the age of 53.
Traditional Deadheads were initially against the thought of Mayer – widely seen as a billboard pop guitarist as a result of a few of his solo work – as certainly one of the faces of their decades-long lifestyle when it was first announced eight years ago.
![John Mayer became involved with Bob Weir after accidentally discovering the music of The Deads.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/dC-2.jpg?w=1024)
The guitarist first discovered the band in 2011 when he heard “Althea” during a random streaming session.
“When Grateful Dead music found me, it was the right moment,” Mayer said in 2016 interview with CBS Sunday Morning“For me, [Grateful Dead songs] brought the colour of music to life.”
After a few years of collaborating with Weir in 2015 at a jam session, the 2 rockers began laying the foundations for Dead & Company.
After the primary summer tour, it became clear to many who Mayer’s fluidity and freedom in guitar scaling, charismatic stage mannerisms, and bluesy voice were tributes to Garcia and have become a beloved and accepted addition to the scene.
![The venue was sold out for all three of the band's last three shows.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/1549922399.jpg?w=1024)
![(LR) John Mayer, Jay Lane, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Oteil Burbridge of Dead & Company perform at Oracle Park on July 16, 2023 in San Francisco, California.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/1550005998.jpg?w=1024)
Mayer brought with it an explosion of younger Millennials and Generation Z who were quickly exposed to the band’s extensive catalog of live performances and a few even connected with their parents over the music as a result of the band’s span of generations.
“I do know the music will proceed, however it breaks my heart to see ‘my’ version of a dead end,” Aidan Chism, 22, from Illinois, told The Post that he went to his first Dead & Company concert in 2016 with together with his dad and he’s 13 years old now.
“Memories will at all times be connected with my dad and the transitions in my life from highschool to COVID and now college. I met a lot of friends traveling to live shows, and I introduced my friends to the music and so they fell in love with it.”
The band has been touring usually every summer since 2015, except 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
![Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir performing with](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/GettyImages-114337762.jpg?w=1024)
Weir, 75, was just 16 when he met Garcia in Palo Alto in 1963 – forming a jug band with a banjo player turned guitarist that later evolved into the psychedelic rock band the Grateful Dead – announced in September 2022 that Dead & Company will suspend it after the 2023 tour.
“Well, it looks prefer it’s all in this outfit,” Weir tweeted. “But don’t be concerned, we’ll all be there in one form or one other until we fall.”
But Weir and drummer Hart are not any strangers to goodbyes.
In 2015, months before Dead & Company formed, the band, which included original bassist Phil Lesh and second drummer Kreutzmann, held the “Fare Thee Well” tour to rejoice the fiftieth anniversary of the Grateful Dead.
The tour would even be the last time all of the musicians performed together under the band’s original name.