gdead.berkeley.edu/gdead.berkeley.edu.tar/gdead.berkeley.edu/pub/gdead/interviews/Weir-May-4-2001

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Bob Weir: Balancing money music and causes
By Larry Getlen

The Grateful Dead were an incredible 30-year phenomenon, and
could probably claim the most loyal following in the
history of music. The fanaticism of Dead fans was legendary.

But while the Dead enjoyed their success and their
vagabond, party lifestyle, the actual devotion of the
Deadheads sometimes made them uneasy. Guitarist Bob
Weir says that many of the Deadheads misled themselves
about the band's significance and he even blames the enormous
responsibility felt by Dead leader Jerry Garcia toward
the fans as part of the pressure that continually
drove him back to drug abuse. Garcia's heart gave
out in 1995 during an attempt at detoxification.
He was 53, and his death meant the same for the Dead.

People often think of the Dead in terms of drugs,
partying, hippie lifestyle and the ever-present
Deadheads, there were some very serious aspects to the
band as well. Beyond just being environmentally
conscious, the members of the Dead were activists,
even testifying before Congress in 1992 on the
plight of indigenous Malaysians in the wake of
that country's deforestation. These days,
Weir is in touch with a powerful cadre of
environmentalist friends, including former leaders of
Greenpeace and the Green Forest Action Network, and
is strategizing a next step in the fight for
environmental awareness.

                                       That type of power has been
                                       an interesting
                                       contradiction in the band's
                                       life. On one hand, they
                                       were the epitome of mellow,
                                       clearly liberal beings who
                                       seemingly rejected
                                       traditional establishment
                                       in all its forms. On the
                                       other hand, especially
                                       toward the end, the Dead
                                       were a major corporation in
                                       their own right. They were
                                       one of rock's top touring
                                       acts, and as such brought
                                       in hundreds of millions of
                                       dollars every year. For a
                                       band so decidedly
                                       anti-establishment, they
                                       were an establishment all
                                       their own.


                                       After the band broke up,
                                       Weir toured with his side
                                       band Ratdog, and eventually
                                       built it into a full-time
                                       act. Bankrate spoke with
                                       Weir, currently on the road
                                       with Ratdog, about his
                                       friends in high places,
                                       some of his other
                                       endeavors, and the
                                       interesting dichotomy
                                       between the Dead's
                                       extremely liberal lifestyle
                                       and views and the
                                       tremendous corporate entity
                                       it eventually became.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: I've read
                                       that you're friends with Al
                                       Gore. Are you in touch with
                                       him at all?

                                       BOB WEIR: I just got a
                                       thank-you note from him
                                       today for helping out with
                                       the election. I'll be in
                                       Tennessee not too far from
                                       now, in a couple of weeks,
                                       and so I intend on looking
                                       him up.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: What do you
                                       think his next big
                                       political move will be?

                                       BOB WEIR: I hesitate to
                                       guess, but I'd love to find
                                       out what's on his mind.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: Tell me about
                                       the books you wrote with
                                       your sister Wendy Weir --
                                       Panther Dream: A Story of
                                       the African Rainforest, and
                                       Baru Bay.

                                       BOB WEIR: They're
                                       children's books. I
                                       attempted to bring kids
                                       into environmental
                                       awareness at sort of an
                                       organic level.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: How did they
                                       sell?

                                       BOB WEIR: They were pretty
                                       well received. I don't know
                                       how they sold because I
                                       never got any profits from
                                       it. I funneled the profits
                                       into environmental causes.
                                       So I never did actually
                                       look at the checks.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: The Dead were
                                       such a liberal, artistic
                                       entity, and yet at the same
                                       time they were a really big
                                       business. Did you ever find
                                       that the ideals of one side
                                       of the Dead conflicted with
                                       the realities of the other?

                                       BOB WEIR: All the time.
                                       That's the balancing act
                                       you're going to be doing
                                       unless you run the business
                                       like Coca-Cola or something
                                       like that, where the bottom
                                       line wags the dog. We never
                                       did that. We had conflicts
                                       of money, but that was kind
                                       of the fun of it. We had
                                       lots of board meetings and
                                       hashed it out. It was
                                       interesting, having a bunch
                                       of maniacs sit in a room
                                       for a few hours and try to
                                       get complicated issues
                                       straight.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: What was the
                                       biggest business conflict
                                       that you remember having to
                                       deal with?

                                       BOB WEIR: They were all
                                       that way. Every meeting we
                                       had monumental conflicts to
                                       negotiate. Some real bumps
                                       on the road -- there's no
                                       one I can think of that
                                       takes precedence over any
                                       others. They were all
                                       miserable, but we had fun
                                       dealing with them anyway.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: Considering
                                       the business aspects of the
                                       Dead, are you very involved
                                       in your own finances?

                                       BOB WEIR: Yeah. I'm
                                       Chairman of the Board of
                                       Grateful Dead Productions,
                                       and basically the same with
                                       Ratdog.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: Do you play
                                       the market?

                                       BOB WEIR: Not personally,
                                       no. I have a stockbroker.
                                       That's a little like
                                       gambling as far as I'm
                                       concerned. I have a
                                       philosophy about it that I
                                       only invest in stuff that I
                                       want to see happen. So I
                                       probably haven't done as
                                       well in the stock market as
                                       people who invested in
                                       stuff that they expect will
                                       make money.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: Who are some
                                       of the companies that you
                                       invested in that you
                                       believed in?

                                       BOB WEIR: You know, I can't
                                       ... for instance, a company
                                       that sells spring water,
                                       the best spring water I've
                                       run across. I bought stock
                                       in that.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: Do you
                                       remember their name?

                                       BOB WEIR: No, not really.
                                       It'll come back to me, I
                                       just haven't been thinking
                                       about it for a couple of
                                       months.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: Any stocks do
                                       really well for you?

                                       BOB WEIR: The Pernassus
                                       fund.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: All socially
                                       responsible stuff?

                                       BOB WEIR: They have a
                                       number of levels of it. In
                                       those funds I usually
                                       subscribe to the tightest
                                       directives, or whatever.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: Considering
                                       what's going on with the
                                       NASDAQ, have you had any
                                       stocks that you got killed
                                       on?

                                       BOB WEIR: I had one called
                                       E-Loan that did real well
                                       at first, and that was sort
                                       of a darling of that whole
                                       community, and then quite
                                       suddenly took a nosedive,
                                       and a spectacular one.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: Do you tell
                                       your broker what you want
                                       to invest in?

                                       BOB WEIR: Yeah.

                                       BANKRATE:COM: So you're in
                                       control?

                                       BOB WEIR: Yeah. Not
                                       specifics, though. I rarely
                                       give him specifics. I just
                                       give him directives. And he
                                       specializes in that,
                                       anyway.

                                            -- Posted: May 4, 2001

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