John Mayer Reflects on Dead & Company’s Golden Gate Park Concert Series, Playing with Trey Anastasio, Grahame Lesh and More

Photo: Bill Kelly

Following Dead & Company’s three-night concert series at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in celebration of 60 years of Grateful Dead music, lead guitarist of the modern offshoot, John Mayer, reflected on the weekend’s events. In a post on Instagram, the world-class musician commented on trading licks with night three’s special guest, Trey Anastasio, and extended thanks to original bassist Phil Lesh’s son, Grahame, for his contributions before recognizing the original ensemble and his intended role in rendering the native spirit of the songs. 

Mayer wrote:

Night 3 in Golden Gate Park celebrating 60 years of @gratefuldead will be a one we’ll never forget. I finally had the chance to play with @treyanastasio, and beyond the full-circle moment of it all, the lock we had going was instant. Trey’s ear-to-fretboard data transfer time is unparalleled. I’m still blown away. Extra special thanks to @grahamelesh for joining us all three nights. No matter how many shows we play as a band, I will always be a guest in this musical world, and I’ll never lose sight of what is the great honor of my life… Happy 60th, Grateful Dead, and long may you run, @bobweir, @mickeyhart and @billkreutzmann. It must be said… I’ll never come close to playing like @jerrygarcia. But if I can somehow get you closer to him – and to the spirit he created 60 years ago – then I suppose I’ve done my job. Thank you for accepting me.

Notably, the blue-inspired player’s origin story with Dead & Company began shortly after the 2015 Fare Thee Well concerts, which marked the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s fortuitous activation, and included Anatasio on the bill. Dead & Company’s emergence ultimately arrived a handful of months later, in the fall of that same year. Despite the close timeline, it took a decade to bring Anastasio, Mayer, Weir, and the rest of the band under one spotlight. 

On Sunday, August 3, Dead & Company welcomed Anastasio to the stage during the latter half of the program, for the fused pairing, “Scarlet Begonias” > “Fire on the Mountain,” a set of songs known for their capacity to stretch and converge into an instrumental conversation between players–the outcome of Mayer and the Phish guitarist’s first-time Bay Area repartee. 

Mayer also extended recognition to Lesh, who took on double duty this past weekend, holding down the nightly concert series, The Heart of Town, at Pier 48, with a rotating lineup of 60 jam scene greats, and participating in nightly sit-ins with Dead & Company. During night one of the Golden Gate gatherings, Lesh used his dad’s signature “Big Brown” bass and helped deliver an ode to the late jam pioneer, who passed away in October 2024, on his father’s “Box of Rain” and “Playing in the Band.” 

Lesh returned during the night two, Saturday, August 2, slipping into the second set, after a four-song warm-up to play on “St. Stephen,” which Phil composed and sang on. At the final concert on Sunday, August 3, Lesh resumed his role assisting Dead & Company by swapping spots with fellow bassist, Oteil Burbridge, and playing on another Phil-associated cover, the Robbie Robertson original “Broken Arrow.” Previously, Dead & Company debuted the number during their 2025 Las Vegas residency as a nod to Phil, who favored the compositions during Phil & Friends gigs.

After recognizing the second-generation musician’s role in keeping the Dead legacy rampant, Mayer turned his attention to the original band. Particularly the remaining players, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann [who did not participate in the Gold Gate concert series], using Neil Young’s 1976 song title, and eliciting the message, “long may you run.” 

Going back to the roots of the music, the final segment of Mayer’s message called on the mastery of Garcia’s chops. Delineating the mission to seek a similar spirit when playing selects from the coveted songbook, while acknowledging the foundational groundwork Garcia laid for Mayer to bask in a moment that was 60 years in the making.

Scroll down to view Mayer’s Instagram post.