Tom Dunne: I'm thankful for the Grateful Dead, even if I'm not a big fan of their music
Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead died recently. Photo: Amy Harris/Invision/AP
I was saddened to hear of the passing of Bob Weir this week, a founding member of the Grateful Dead, their guitarist and writer of some of their best songs. He was a key mover in a story that is such a part of the 1960s American counterculture it’s hard to exaggerate.
He was the junior member of a founding trio that included Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh who were five and seven years older than him. At one point they fired him but, like George after he inadvertently resigned in Seinfeld, he just kept turning up as if nothing had happened. Eventually they took him back.
