Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I am Allison Stewart. We are busy reading this month's Get Lit with All Of It Book Club event. It is just a week away, by the way. We are reading The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong. The story follows a 19-year-old Vietnamese American man named Hai, who is living in Connecticut. He's dropped out of college. He's lying to his mother about being at school, and one day, he considers ending his life until he is interrupted by an elderly woman named Grazina. She has an empty house, and Hai winds up moving in with her and becoming her caregiver. The Emperor of Gladness was named one of the best books of 2025 by The New Yorker, NPR, Kirkus Reviews, and more. We are so excited to be discussing it in person with Ocean Vuong and you next Tuesday. Plus, now we can reveal our musical guest, Quinn Christopherson.

[MUSIC - Quinn Christopherson: 2005]

I wanna go back to simpler times

Puka shells and Abercrombie

Fog machines and strobe lights

My friends couldn't get through the home phone

They knew to find me on MSN

It was normal to knock on doors

Even if it was outta the blue

Dating-

Alison Stewart: Christopherson is a songwriter from Anchorage, Alaska. He won NPR's Tiny Desk in 2019, and he was Ocean Vuong's pick to join us as a musical guest this month. You'll have to join the event to find out more. This is all happening on Tuesday, January 20th, at 6:00 PM at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation branch of the New York Public Library. Now, doors open at 5:30, and it is first-come, first-serve.

Tickets are sold out. Sometimes they shake loose towards the end, but you can follow along on the livestream. Head to wnyc.org/getlit to find out how. If you do have a ticket, reminder, the seats are first-come, first-serve. Doors open at 5:30, so get there early to make sure you get a seat. Now, let us get this hour started.

[MUSIC]

Alison Stewart: All over the weekend, fans mourned the loss of Bob Weir, the guitarist, songwriter, and founding member of the band the Grateful Dead. Weir was 78. Born October 16th, 1947, Robert Hall Weir was given up for adoption by a college student. He was raised in an affluent Bay Area suburb. As a child, he participated in local clubs like the Cub Scouts, but was reportedly kicked out.

Eventually, he would end up at Fountain Valley, a Colorado school for boys with behavioral problems, where he met John Perry Barlow, his frequent lyricist. In 1965, Weir formed a band alongside Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia. He was 17 at the time. The band was originally called The Warlocks, but changed their name to the Grateful Dead after discovering another band performing under the same moniker.

The group celebrated its golden anniversary with a concert tour in 2015 and went on a final tour in 2023, almost 60 years after its founding. Bob Weir, or Bobby, we'll get into that in just a minute, has been a touring musician and an essential face of the jam band tradition for almost six decades.

He has also been at the helm of many other Grateful Dead spinoffs and side projects, including Bobby and the Midnites, Further, RatDog, The Other Ones, and Dead & Company. The group Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros was formed in 2018 with Blue Note Records President Don Was and drummer Jay Lane. Bob joined me to discuss their album, Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros Live in Colorado, which was also released as the trio's first vinyl collection.

I spoke to Bobby about what it was like to come out of the pandemic in 2022, and some of you might be wondering why I referred to him as Bobby. That is who he credits himself as, so I began our conversation asking him about it.

Bob Weir: Back in, I think it was the late 60s, I got-- Most folks have called me Bobby for most of my life. A few folks have called me Bob, but that is how it got on the first record. I became Bob Weir for the general public from that point on, but most folks, most people call me Bobby, except for some folks who call me Bob, or except for my sister, who calls me Robert.

Alison Stewart: [laughs] Does she call you that when she is cross with you, or just you're Robert to her?

Bob Weir: Whether she likes me, when I'm up to or not, she calls me Robert.

Alison Stewart: I wanted to ask you about the original Wolf Bros trio. The experience is amazing. It is you, it is the great Don Was, who, of course, has this side gig as president of Blue Note Records, and Jay Lane, who is part of your band, RatDog. How did that original lineup happen?

Bob Weir: It came to me in a dream. I was dreaming that I was playing in that trio. I woke up, I rolled over, I picked up the phone, and called Don because I figured Jay would go for it. I called Don, and he was in, so we became a trio.

Alison Stewart: On the new record and for the shows, Wolf Bros added a fourth member, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti. When did you decide to bring him along, and what does he bring to the party?

Bob Weir: Wolf Bros is engineered, architected, if you will, to plug people in. We've got plenty of room. We know how to play with a plumper ensemble. We know how to play as a trio, but if we're going to, if we're going to plug people in, we're going to be picky and choosy about who we bring on. Then, at the same time, I have another project of which Wolf Bros is a part, and that's a concerto grosso, actually, that we're doing with the National Symphony Orchestra.

It was scheduled for coming up in a few days, or it was scheduled, I think, for now, but we got COVID, and it's been postponed till October. For that, one of the things we want to do with the Symphony Orchestra is see if we can-- We've got a couple of techniques that we want to explore that would have the various sections of the Symphony Orchestra improvising but of one voice. Everyone in the violin, for instance, would be playing the same line.

It's complicated how it could happen. As section improv leaders, we figured what we should best do would be to take some guys who play those instruments, we have a cello player, a string player, and some wind instruments, and travel with them and tour with them, which is what you have on this new record. Then we salt those guys into the various sections in the Symphony Orchestra and have them lead the charge when it comes to the improv sections.

Alison Stewart: That's such an interesting way to work. What do you like about that process?

Bob Weir: [laughs] I got to say, I like the fact that no one's done it, and someone has to. Here we are. Aside from that, we're just going to see how far we can get with getting a symphony orchestra to improvise.

Alison Stewart: I'd love to play a track of the album. Let's play a little bit of West L.A. Fadeaway.

[MUSIC - Grateful Dead: West L.A. Fadeaway]

I met an old mistake walking down the street today

I met an old mistake walking down the street today

I didn't wanna be mean about it, but I didn't have one good thing to say

West LA fadeaway

West LA fadeaway

Little red light on the highway

Big green light on the speedway

hey-hey-hey

Alison Stewart: That's from Bobby Weir & The Wolf Bros Live in Colorado. Bobby, for people who don't know, the songs are coming from some performances you did in Morrison and Vail, Colorado, in the summer of 2021. As someone who is so intimately aware of the power of live music and performance and community when live venues shut down in 2020, what were you thinking about?

Bob Weir: I had to switch gears. I leaned into this concerto project that we were working on, and I also got into Photoshop. I got basically into painting, because going out, hitting the road, and lighting people up wasn't a move on the board.

Alison Stewart: Tell me a little bit more about the paintings. Forgive me for not knowing this. Is this something new to you? Is this a longtime love?

Bob Weir: I've always known that I was going to end up doing this. I'm not using paintbrushes per se. It's more complicated procedure. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, I befriended a guy named Robert Rauschenberg, and we spent a lot of time hanging together.

Alison Stewart: I've heard of him, sure. [laughs]

Bob Weir: I think he left me with a part of his vision, I think. It just had to come out. It's got to come out. I found my way into visual arts. I'm doing it on a computer for the most part right now, but all that's going to change in the not-too-distant future when I start putting oil on canvas.

Alison Stewart: Is your hope to have an art show to go with a gallery, or is this just something privately for yourself?

Bob Weir: I would imagine I'm going to probably-- I do a lot of this, so there's no way I can hang all the stuff that I've been cranking out. I'm probably going to have to have some shows and stuff like that. This stuff also, it comes to me relatively easily. I don't know why. Given that I don't have to work so much for it, I figure that I probably ought to return the favor or meet the universe halfway and provide some benefit for the rest of creation. I imagine what I'm going to do is make some sort of arrangement where if I sell stuff, whatever payment will go to various charities.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Bobby Weir, the musician and painter, as we've just discovered. Let's listen to another track off of Bob Weir & Wolf Bros Live in Colorado. Let's take a listen to Only a River.

[MUSIC - Bob Weir & Wolf Bros: Only a River]

I'm going back to San Angelo

The ground is hard, and the county's dry

I'm gonna get my fill somehow

Rivers of corn, wheat, and rye

Woah, Shenandoah, I long to see you

Hey-hey-hey, your rolling river

Woah, Shenandoah, I long to see you

Hey-hey-hey, only a river gonna make things right.

Alison Stewart: That's from Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros Live in Colorado. Now, Bobby, that's a song from a previous album, correct?

Bob Weir: Yes, made that up in Upstate New York with Josh Kaufman and a little crew that we put together.

Alison Stewart: Why did you decide to play it and record it for these shows and for this record?

Bob Weir: Because it's fun to play.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: I like that answer. [laughs] Oh, that's so funny. You're like, "Yes, because I like it." When did you decide on the set list for these shows?

Bob Weir: I used to write set lists for our bands. I've taught Matt Bush, who shepherds us around. He is part of our management team. I taught him how to do that, and I'm so glad I did, because now we pay him to do that, and then I don't have to spend a couple hours a day writing a set list because he does a real nice job of it. There's a science and an art to writing a set list, and he's got it. He's pretty much got it down.

You'd have to ask him that question because basically, the thought that goes into a set list is, "When was the last time we played a given song?"

If we played a given song, like last night in that venue, then it's automatically out or in the last little while in that locale, then it's automatically out. We don't go there. Then there are songs that just-- We have a rotation. Some songs are in heavier rotation, some songs are in lighter rotation. It's a complicated procedure, but we got our set lists that way.

Alison Stewart: There's definitely an art to it, I would think. It's more art and science, I would guess.

Bob Weir: Yes, and there's an overarching, I don't know what you'd call it, to a given show. There's a contour to it that you have to construct. I'm working off the same-- My old pal Jerry, and I developed a taper for a show, a contour for a show over the decades that we were playing together, and I'm sticking with that because it works. If it all falls together properly on a given night, it's almost like opera. It's almost like there's a story behind the music that you're hearing and the singing that you're hearing.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Bobby Weir. The album is called Bob Weir & Wolf Bros Live in Colorado. I'd love to play another track. This is A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan. When you do a cover song, any cover song, not just particularly this one, what does a song have to have, or what's the vibe got to be for you to want to cover it?

Bob Weir: It's just got to grab me, is all one way or the other. It can be fun. It can be engrossing. It can be poignant. I don't know. It's just got to grab me.

Alison Stewart: Let's listen to A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall.

[MUSIC - Bob Dylan: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall]

I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains.

I’ve walked, and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways, stepped in the middle of seven sad forests.

I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans.

I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard.

And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

Alison Stewart: Bobby, you have been a touring musician for a really good long time, we'll say. What is something that you enjoy now or appreciate now about touring that you didn't really in the early days?

Bob Weir: Given the way things are, especially these days, we don't get out. We can't go out clubbing. We can't do anything because we're pretty much bubbled up. COVID is demanding that, because otherwise you're just not going to finish your tour. Somebody in your band is going to come down with it. You can't get there from here. These days, what I beginning to appreciate is the focus that I get from just hanging in my hotel room and woodshedding and just sticking with the music.

Alison Stewart: Something that's happened recently in your world is that you are on TikTok now.

Bob Weir: Oh, right. [laughs]

Alison Stewart: [laughs] I'm going to play the video from when you joined. Let's roll this tape.

Bob Weir: Okay, we are here, and here's the deal. My kids have been on me to do a TikTok clip, and so I'm going to have to try my hand at it. I got to see what this is all about anyway. I'm going to be coming at you with all kinds of stuff, but mostly music and tips on how to get the most out of life. Watch this space. Here we go.

Alison Stewart: I love the tips to get the most out of life.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: Would you share one with me? I would love to know one.

Bob Weir: As soon as one comes. They come when they come.

Alison Stewart: How are you feeling about this platform?

Bob Weir: Always fun. If it's not fun, you're not doing it right.

Alison Stewart: Something that's really funny is you teamed up with a musician named Petey for this video called Bobby Weir in the Mirror.

Bob Weir: Right.

Alison Stewart: How did this come about?

Bob Weir: Actually, one of my daughter's boyfriend manages that guy, Petey. One thing just led to another, and I ended up doing a TikTok with him. I think I'll probably end up doing more with him because it's kicking the ass. I enjoy doing that.

Alison Stewart: It's pretty funny. Let's, let's take a listen to a clip from Bobby Weir's in the Mirror.

Petey 1: What the--

Petey 2: What's up, man?

Petey 1: I'm looking in the mirror, but it's not me.

Petey 2: Who is it then?

Petey 1: I think it's me in the future. What?

Petey 2: No, man. I think that's Bobby Weir.

Petey 1: Holy. Man, you're right. It's Bobby Weir in the mirror.

Petey 2: A Bobby Weir mirror? That's trippy as hell, man.

Petey 1: How the heck did Bobby Weir get in the mirror?

Petey 2: I think he's here.

Petey 1: Oh, whoa. Oh. You're here, Bobby Weir?

Bob Weir: Yes, I'm right here.

Petey 2: Damn. What are you doing here, Bobby Weir?

Bob Weir: I'm just hanging out. I have no idea what I'm doing here.

Petey 2: Epic.

Petey 1: That is epic. Listen, man. Can I get you a glass of water or something?

Bob Weir: Yes, that'd be great.

Petey 1: Cool. I'll be right back.

Alison Stewart: It's been a big hit, more than 130,000 views. It gets me every time. Really funny. My guest is Bobby Weir. We've talked about live album. We've talked about touring. We've talked about painting. We've talked about TikTok. The last thing on my list to ask you about is a memoir.

Bob Weir: Oh, yes, that's in the works.

Alison Stewart: What does that mean?

Bob Weir: Well, I got to write the damn thing, and I'm doing that slowly. Actually, I've got a little downtime now, and I probably ought to get back on that. Come to think of it. Yes, I just got to write it.

Alison Stewart: I don't want to keep you from that. Your fans would be angry if I took up one more minute, if you can go and be writing that memoir. My guest has been Bobby Weir. The name of the album is Bob Weir & Wolf Bros Live in Colorado. Bobby, thank you for your time today. We really appreciate it.

Bob Weir: You bet. My pleasure.

Alison Stewart: We're going to go out on one more track from the new release. This is Looks Like Rain.

[MUSIC - Grateful Dead: Looks Like Rain]

Awoke today, felt your side of bed.

The covers were still warm where you been laying.

Alison Stewart: That was my 2022 conversation with Grateful Dead founding member Bob Weir. He survived by his wife, Natasha, and daughters, Monet and Chloe. We'll take your calls about the Grateful Dead and Bobby Weir. Next, after the break, David Browne from Rolling Stone joins us.