May 19, 2025 • 18 mins
Mike takes a look at Dead & Company and the Grateful Dead legacy as they complete another long run of shows at the Sphere in Las Vegas
Visit www.joeyssong.org to learn more about Joey's Song and the work we do and get details on our next set of shows. Also be sure to follow us on all popular social media platforms with our handle @joeyssong
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike Gomoll (00:01):
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of
Mic Drop.
Mike Gomoll, I am , founder ofJoey's Song.
This is my little forum to talkabout the stuff I want to talk
about, and today's topic is DeadCompany and the Grateful Dead.
So stick around for more of MicDrop.
Hey everybody, it's Mike.
(00:23):
As I mentioned, this is MicDrop, a chance for me to talk to
you about music, stuff that'sof interest to me behind the
scenes of Joey's song, lots ofother stuff.
We're really ramping up theeffort right now to get the
January 2026 Joey song in place,so this gives me a chance to
kind of wax poetic on othertopics that are important to me.
Today's topic is dead andcompany.
(00:45):
Now, most people that are intomusic are at least aware of the
Grateful Dead.
They have a picture in theirhead of dead heads and tie dyes
and maybe some pharmaceuticalsand long, extensive jams, and
the Grateful Dead were all ofthose things.
They're not that so muchanymore.
It's gotten a little morecorporate, a little more high
end, a little more notstructured, because the Grateful
(01:05):
Dead will never be calledstructured, but it is certainly
more on time.
Corporate, I guess, is the onlyway to say it and that's fine
because their audience has agedwith them.
It's a lot different whenyou're full of a bunch of 27
year olds and the people onstage are 27.
That's not the case anymore.
So the dead were icons.
(01:27):
They were breakthrough artistsback in the late 60s, early 70s
with that San Francisco Haydashvery scene.
I probably don't need to tellyou a whole lot about that
history and if you really dowant to know it, there's an
excellent six-part special onNetflix, produced by Bill
Kreutzman's son, that hasinterviews with all of the then
living members Phil Leschrecently died but was
(01:48):
interviewed for that as well asarchive footage of Jerry Garcia,
and it's really fascinating.
It tells you more about thestory and the ethos, right,
which is really important.
We'll talk about that a littlebit later here in Mic Drop about
why it is important.
I'm not saying you have to dohomework to understand the
Grateful Dead, but it does helpto understand what's going on
(02:08):
and what all the buzz is about.
No pun intended on that type ofstuff.
So Dead Company are two of thethree remaining live members.
It's Bobby Weir and Mickey Hart.
Bill Kreutzman was a part onthe final tour but I've heard
Bill's health is failing.
It's now Jay Lane, our pal JayLane, who has, let's just say,
hinted at coming to play Joey'ssongs.
He's on drums as well.
(02:30):
And of course there's John Mayerwho has taken the Jerry Garcia
role, both on guitar and a lotof the vocals, and John is just
spectacular in that role.
I know it took a while forDeadheads to kind of understand
what John brought to the tableand there was some pushback,
let's just say, on John.
Not everybody was super excitedabout having John.
(02:51):
Nobody could replace Jerry.
But I think over the last 10years of Dead and Company that
people have come to accept Johnfor what he is and I think they
kind of realized that if itwasn't for John the Dead
wouldn't be on the road.
And from my standpoint I onlysaw them once.
With Jerry John's spectacular.
He has turned a lot of thosesongs into his own, while paying
(03:13):
homage to Jerry, while, youknow, helping people still
relive those memories, and notturning it into a John Mayer
show.
(03:34):
As a matter of fact, at DeadCompany they do all dead songs,
either Grateful Dead songs orold songs that the Dead would
have covered.
There's no John Mayer materialin any of these shows, with
30-plus shows in 2024 at theSphere and so they just did
another run of shows and youcan't get tickets to them.
They're all sold out.
They do three nights in a row.
For those of you that don'tknow if you go see the Dead in
(03:54):
the same city in a run, theynever play the same song twice.
So for six weeks they didThursday, friday, saturday never
repeated a song on any of thoseruns in there.
So got to kind of go to all theshows if you want to hear all
your favorites.
That's what makes it, I thinkyou know, truly, truly
spectacular.
(04:20):
You know, to understand theDead's place in history, you've
got to kind of understand whenthey came through right.
It was in the 60s and the 70swhen there was a lot of
experimenting going on, just notin music.
And the Dead certainly tookthose thoughts, if you will, in
play.
I guess, if you really want totalk about their place in music,
I can think of no biggercompliment than this one.
I'm a huge Beatles fan.
(04:41):
They're the alpha and the omegafor me.
Somebody once asked PaulMcCartney what it was like to be
in the greatest band ever andMcCartney's response was I don't
know.
I was never in the GratefulDead.
There's a reason that Paulwould say that Because the dead
are one of a kind.
Yes, there's jam bands thathave followed them right,
(05:05):
there's Phish and there's Goose,and there's a lot of these jam
bands and they're all great intheir own way, but the Grateful
Dead really invented the genreand really created the whole jam
band vibe.
And I really again, I have nostake in this.
Netflix documentary brings thedeadheads in and why they come
back and why you would go seethree nights in a row or 18
(05:27):
shows in a year.
That will help you understand,because no two shows are the
same, not only the same set, butthe songs are never played the
same.
And I'm not talking about forthose of you that know a Bob
Dylan version it's not that theydon't, you know they'll play
the songs slower or faster or onpiano or kind of the stuff that
Dylan's doing these days.
It's that they're about beingimproviser and improvisational
(05:49):
band and they go where the musictakes us.
Some nights, a song, the samesong, will be six minutes.
Other times it'll be 12 minutesbecause inspiration strikes or
they're onto something.
And once you know their musicand you know their catalog,
that's really where the magichappens and there's something
about the Dead always said theywere a live band.
They weren't really a studioband and they kind of proved it
(06:10):
with some of their early records.
Some of those are a little bitof a tougher listen to than the
later records Once the band gotused to being in the studio and
how to do it and they moved awayfrom experimental in the music
and more as experimental in thearrangements, if that makes any
sense.
If you look at the live verses,what they did on record, they
(06:31):
didn't do long stretches ofimprovisational stuff on the
record but they absolutely didit live.
And then now when they're outon the road they certainly do
those same things.
But you never know where thesongs are going to lead, where
they're going to start, what'sgoing to meld into one or
another.
And if you're curious about thestyles of the Grateful Dead, any
(06:51):
style there is they will play,whether it's country, whether
it's psychedelic, whether it'srock.
I don't think I've ever heardhim play death metal, but
there's some elements of jazz init.
There's a lot of stuff in thereas well that you will find for
your taste and they can go inand out of those styles.
You know, in a single show.
That's not uncommon for them togo ahead and do.
(07:13):
I think you'll reallyunderstand the reference point
if you think about some of thecovers that they play during the
night.
One of the things that they'lldo is cover Dylan or the Beatles
or some old blues song orsomething.
That kind of gives you theirtouchstones, their musical
reference points, the kinds ofthings that they like to do and
(07:34):
has influenced their music.
So I really encourage you ifyou're not a deadhead, if you
are not never been into it anddon't think you would like it,
give it a try.
There's probably not many yearsleft for Bobby to go out on the
road.
I don't know if they're going todo more of these sphere shows
or not, but it's worth a weekendin Vegas, trust me.
With the setting alone, right?
(07:56):
If you don't know what thesphere is, google it.
It's the setting alone with thegraphics.
If you can imagine if there wasever a band that was meant for
wall-to-ceiling 360-degreegraphics, it's the Grateful Dead
, and the music in that contextI think will convert you as well
.
So I just wanted to recognizethe fact that, at 80 years old,
(08:16):
bobby and Mickey are out therestill doing their thing.
I wanted to recognize the factthat they're, you know, still
wowing audiences, still bringingthat music out there and still
worthwhile seeing.
They really are.
And I would just reallyencourage you, if you have never
witnessed a Grateful Dead showor a Dead Company show, now to
(08:37):
give it a try.
If not, just put on one of therecords or go to your music
platform.
They release almost all theshows, the audio of all the
shows on iTunes and Spotify andeverything, so you can hear what
I'm talking about.
So that's it.
It's another mic.
Drop Dead Company is the topic.
Drop Dead Company is the topicand I encourage you, if you're
hearing us for the first time,to stop by joeysongorg to find
(08:58):
out what the charity is about,to find out what our vibe is and
to really understand how youcan be a part of us helping
fight epilepsy with music.
So thanks everybody.
No-transcript.
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of
Mic Drop.
Mike Gomoll, I am , founder ofJoey's Song.
This is my little forum to talkabout the stuff I want to talk
about, and today's topic is DeadCompany and the Grateful Dead.
So stick around for more of MicDrop.
Hey everybody, it's Mike.
(00:23):
As I mentioned, this is MicDrop, a chance for me to talk to
you about music, stuff that'sof interest to me behind the
scenes of Joey's song, lots ofother stuff.
We're really ramping up theeffort right now to get the
January 2026 Joey song in place,so this gives me a chance to
kind of wax poetic on othertopics that are important to me.
Today's topic is dead andcompany.
(00:45):
Now, most people that are intomusic are at least aware of the
Grateful Dead.
They have a picture in theirhead of dead heads and tie dyes
and maybe some pharmaceuticalsand long, extensive jams, and
the Grateful Dead were all ofthose things.
They're not that so muchanymore.
It's gotten a little morecorporate, a little more high
end, a little more notstructured, because the Grateful
(01:05):
Dead will never be calledstructured, but it is certainly
more on time.
Corporate, I guess, is the onlyway to say it and that's fine
because their audience has agedwith them.
It's a lot different whenyou're full of a bunch of 27
year olds and the people onstage are 27.
That's not the case anymore.
So the dead were icons.
(01:27):
They were breakthrough artistsback in the late 60s, early 70s
with that San Francisco Haydashvery scene.
I probably don't need to tellyou a whole lot about that
history and if you really dowant to know it, there's an
excellent six-part special onNetflix, produced by Bill
Kreutzman's son, that hasinterviews with all of the then
living members Phil Leschrecently died but was
(01:48):
interviewed for that as well asarchive footage of Jerry Garcia,
and it's really fascinating.
It tells you more about thestory and the ethos, right,
which is really important.
We'll talk about that a littlebit later here in Mic Drop about
why it is important.
I'm not saying you have to dohomework to understand the
Grateful Dead, but it does helpto understand what's going on
(02:08):
and what all the buzz is about.
No pun intended on that type ofstuff.
So Dead Company are two of thethree remaining live members.
It's Bobby Weir and Mickey Hart.
Bill Kreutzman was a part onthe final tour but I've heard
Bill's health is failing.
It's now Jay Lane, our pal JayLane, who has, let's just say,
hinted at coming to play Joey'ssongs.
He's on drums as well.
(02:30):
And of course there's John Mayerwho has taken the Jerry Garcia
role, both on guitar and a lotof the vocals, and John is just
spectacular in that role.
I know it took a while forDeadheads to kind of understand
what John brought to the tableand there was some pushback,
let's just say, on John.
Not everybody was super excitedabout having John.
(02:51):
Nobody could replace Jerry.
But I think over the last 10years of Dead and Company that
people have come to accept Johnfor what he is and I think they
kind of realized that if itwasn't for John the Dead
wouldn't be on the road.
And from my standpoint I onlysaw them once.
With Jerry John's spectacular.
He has turned a lot of thosesongs into his own, while paying
(03:13):
homage to Jerry, while, youknow, helping people still
relive those memories, and notturning it into a John Mayer
show.
(03:34):
As a matter of fact, at DeadCompany they do all dead songs,
either Grateful Dead songs orold songs that the Dead would
have covered.
There's no John Mayer materialin any of these shows, with
30-plus shows in 2024 at theSphere and so they just did
another run of shows and youcan't get tickets to them.
They're all sold out.
They do three nights in a row.
For those of you that don'tknow if you go see the Dead in
(03:54):
the same city in a run, theynever play the same song twice.
So for six weeks they didThursday, friday, saturday never
repeated a song on any of thoseruns in there.
So got to kind of go to all theshows if you want to hear all
your favorites.
That's what makes it, I thinkyou know, truly, truly
spectacular.
(04:20):
You know, to understand theDead's place in history, you've
got to kind of understand whenthey came through right.
It was in the 60s and the 70swhen there was a lot of
experimenting going on, just notin music.
And the Dead certainly tookthose thoughts, if you will, in
play.
I guess, if you really want totalk about their place in music,
I can think of no biggercompliment than this one.
I'm a huge Beatles fan.
(04:41):
They're the alpha and the omegafor me.
Somebody once asked PaulMcCartney what it was like to be
in the greatest band ever andMcCartney's response was I don't
know.
I was never in the GratefulDead.
There's a reason that Paulwould say that Because the dead
are one of a kind.
Yes, there's jam bands thathave followed them right,
(05:05):
there's Phish and there's Goose,and there's a lot of these jam
bands and they're all great intheir own way, but the Grateful
Dead really invented the genreand really created the whole jam
band vibe.
And I really again, I have nostake in this.
Netflix documentary brings thedeadheads in and why they come
back and why you would go seethree nights in a row or 18
(05:27):
shows in a year.
That will help you understand,because no two shows are the
same, not only the same set, butthe songs are never played the
same.
And I'm not talking about forthose of you that know a Bob
Dylan version it's not that theydon't, you know they'll play
the songs slower or faster or onpiano or kind of the stuff that
Dylan's doing these days.
It's that they're about beingimproviser and improvisational
(05:49):
band and they go where the musictakes us.
Some nights, a song, the samesong, will be six minutes.
Other times it'll be 12 minutesbecause inspiration strikes or
they're onto something.
And once you know their musicand you know their catalog,
that's really where the magichappens and there's something
about the Dead always said theywere a live band.
They weren't really a studioband and they kind of proved it
(06:10):
with some of their early records.
Some of those are a little bitof a tougher listen to than the
later records Once the band gotused to being in the studio and
how to do it and they moved awayfrom experimental in the music
and more as experimental in thearrangements, if that makes any
sense.
If you look at the live verses,what they did on record, they
(06:31):
didn't do long stretches ofimprovisational stuff on the
record but they absolutely didit live.
And then now when they're outon the road they certainly do
those same things.
But you never know where thesongs are going to lead, where
they're going to start, what'sgoing to meld into one or
another.
And if you're curious about thestyles of the Grateful Dead, any
(06:51):
style there is they will play,whether it's country, whether
it's psychedelic, whether it'srock.
I don't think I've ever heardhim play death metal, but
there's some elements of jazz init.
There's a lot of stuff in thereas well that you will find for
your taste and they can go inand out of those styles.
You know, in a single show.
That's not uncommon for them togo ahead and do.
(07:13):
I think you'll reallyunderstand the reference point
if you think about some of thecovers that they play during the
night.
One of the things that they'lldo is cover Dylan or the Beatles
or some old blues song orsomething.
That kind of gives you theirtouchstones, their musical
reference points, the kinds ofthings that they like to do and
(07:34):
has influenced their music.
So I really encourage you ifyou're not a deadhead, if you
are not never been into it anddon't think you would like it,
give it a try.
There's probably not many yearsleft for Bobby to go out on the
road.
I don't know if they're going todo more of these sphere shows
or not, but it's worth a weekendin Vegas, trust me.
With the setting alone, right?
(07:56):
If you don't know what thesphere is, google it.
It's the setting alone with thegraphics.
If you can imagine if there wasever a band that was meant for
wall-to-ceiling 360-degreegraphics, it's the Grateful Dead
, and the music in that contextI think will convert you as well
.
So I just wanted to recognizethe fact that, at 80 years old,
(08:16):
bobby and Mickey are out therestill doing their thing.
I wanted to recognize the factthat they're, you know, still
wowing audiences, still bringingthat music out there and still
worthwhile seeing.
They really are.
And I would just reallyencourage you, if you have never
witnessed a Grateful Dead showor a Dead Company show, now to
(08:37):
give it a try.
If not, just put on one of therecords or go to your music
platform.
They release almost all theshows, the audio of all the
shows on iTunes and Spotify andeverything, so you can hear what
I'm talking about.
So that's it.
It's another mic.
Drop Dead Company is the topic.
Drop Dead Company is the topicand I encourage you, if you're
hearing us for the first time,to stop by joeysongorg to find
(08:58):
out what the charity is about,to find out what our vibe is and
to really understand how youcan be a part of us helping
fight epilepsy with music.
So thanks everybody.
No-transcript.
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