John Mayer has posted a letter on his socials ahead of the Dead and Company summer tour that can only be described as wonderfully self-aware of that feeling a musician can have when they’re simultaneously a fan of the music they’re playing.
Or a fan of the person they’re low-key “subbing in” for, i.e. Jerry Garcia.
He literally says “I wish I was going to a Grateful Dead concert tomorrow”. Don’t we all, my friend…. don’t we all….
Read what Mayer’s note says printed in full below…
(My annual post.) The night before a new DeadAndCo tour is always deeply felt. I wish I was going to a Grateful Dead concert tomorrow. I wish I was dancing with my friends while we listened to Jerry and the band play. But it’s the honor of a lifetime to convert my love for this music into the further telling of this beautiful, timeless story with some of its brilliant authors. I’m like anyone else who was ever moved by this music, who was discovered by it, and not the other way around. My love for the Grateful Dead is immense, but not extraordinary. I am in that crowd. Just represented from the stage. And I think of Jerry Garcia and his intentions with every song we play. I’m only there so that on my best of nights, you might get to him.
“The storyteller makes no choice
soon you will not hear his voice
his job is to shed light
and not to master”
See the band’s full set of summer tour dates here.
