Jim James of My Morning Jacket (left) and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco both went on to develop a deep relationship with the strange and psychedelic musicianship of the Grateful Dead.
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During this year's Days Between — from Aug. 1 to 9 — NPR Music is publishing a series of stories about what keeps drawing people to the Grateful Dead and how they plan to carry the band's legacy forward. When Jerry Garcia died in 1995, the Grateful Dead officially came to an end. But the surviving members — Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart — spent the next three decades playing songs with each other, and with a myriad of younger musicians. The Dead's influence, as a result, spread to new generations and new communities. In the world of indie rock, My Morning Jacket and Wilco were two bands who dipped their toes into the Grateful Dead extended universe through a singular experience: by sharing the stage with Weir.
Both bands went on to develop a deep relationship with Weir and, in turn, with the strange and psychedelic musicianship of the Grateful Dead. Wilco and My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James both eventually recorded covers of Dead songs for a 2016 tribute album called Day of the Dead. NPR Music's resident Deadheads spoke with James and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco about their evolving appreciation for the Grateful Dead. These interviews have been edited for length and clarity. Jim James Isabella Gomez Sarmiento: What's your relationship to the Grateful Dead's music? Jim James: As a younger person, all of the kids who liked the Grateful Dead in high school were such a******* that I hated the Grateful Dead. So I went through most of my early life like that. Then, when I was in my mid-20s, or so, I heard American Beauty for the first time and fell in love with songs like "Candyman" and with Workingman's Dead. So that was my first entry, the more song-based, acoustic side of the Dead. Then as time rolled on, different songs have spoken to me here and there. We got to have so many amazing experiences with Bobby [Weir]. It's so funny because when we played with him, I was so deeply honored and so unbelievably moved that we were getting to play with him. But I wasn't yet a superfan, so I wasn't flabbergasted, you know what I mean? I got to experience some beautiful one-on-one time with Bob, talking about songs or playing songs together and learning to love him that way. As time has gone on, My Morning Jacket [has played] "One More Saturday Night" a lot, which is a Bobby song, and that rockin' side of the Dead — once I started to get into their live shows, particularly the Veneta, Ore. show from 1972 — is phenomenal.
