Breakfast of Champions (The 2018 NAMM Show): Bob Weir

Bob Weir, singer, songwriter, guitarist and co-founder of the Grateful Dead, stopped by “Breakfast of Champions” at The 2018 NAMM Show. There, NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond spoke with him about the role of risk-taking in the Grateful Dead, early viral marketing and his creative process.

Here are highlights from the interview. (Watch the video to see the full segment.)

What it really boils down to is it’s all an exercise of faith, of some sort. For us, it was faith in our footsteps. We were up to something. We were questing sort of folks. We just assumed that nothing was going to come easily to us, particularly the meaningful stuff. And we were going to have to take chances and trust our footsteps to find the path through everything.

If you’re always going for it, whether it be musical ideas — melody, harmonic development or rhythmic development, or the sound of the instrument itself — the muse is always leading you. The muse is always leading you in some direction. If you have faith in your muse, then you listen to her and you take her direction, and you put your shoulder to the wheel and make it happen.

I’m working on an opera now, and it’s keeping me up at night. The story keeps unfolding, and it gets deeper and deeper and all that kind of stuff. C’mon, what else is there to live for?

Every artist of any stripe is first and foremost a storyteller, whether it be with a paintbrush, typing or playing and instrument. You’re telling a story. The way you weave that story together and what the story presents is what makes life worth living.