Dead & Company

I've seen two.

I saw, uh, Dead & Company, and I saw the Eagles.

Oh.

Before... 'Cause we were in rehearsals the first year we played there.

We were in rehearsals in Vegas, um, bef- right when, um, Dead & Company was getting done.

So we went over there to see them, and, uh, we were moving into the Sphere two days later, so we were kinda just going to scope it out to see what it was like, and I couldn't believe it.

We went, I went, "Oh my God, we gotta come in here and do this.

Yeah.

That's a, a crazy number when you think about just how popular they are in society now, or I guess for a very long time, and now you have Dead & Company and everybody else.

Mm-hmm.

But, like, that, it's wild to me that that was the pay discrepancy that these guys hit.

The music has played so fire away.

Jay Lane, noted drummer of Dead & Company for their last few years on tour, and he subbed in for Billy actually quite a bit from like 21 to 24.

But you also know him from literally every musical project that Bob launched from 1994 to 2024.

If you think about it that way, he played music with Bob not as many times, but for the same time period as Jerry Garcia did.

I would not have thought that he was old enough to have even been doing that.

But yeah, Jay was a member of Rap Dog and Further and the other ones.

And then Dead & Company, Bob Weir and the Wolf Bros. He's one of the named Wolf Brothers.

Yeah.

They've been around since 2011, and they're going to play a couple of tracks here.

One newer track, 10 Over 10, which is the lead single from their newest album, Dead Company, and a song called Figure It Out.

That's from 2014.

So we get a new song and an old song.

Actually, one of the most famous deadheads is NBA Hall of Fame center Bill Walton.

He reportedly has attended an astonishing 856 Grateful Dead concerts, but that's not counting the offshoot versions such as Dead & Company and RatDog.

That's pretty cool.

When asked about his deep love for the dead, Walton is effusive with his praise.

He's on tour with, uh, the guy that talks like this, Tater Salad Uh, Mike is a Deadhead, he's a Phish fan.

Is he a Phish fan? But he co-hosts a podcast, Comes a Time, alongside Dead & Company bassist, Hotel, I hope I said that right, Burbridge.

On Saturday, May 26th, his new weekly show, Saturday Night Shakedown, named after the '78 song, will launch on SiriusXM's Grateful Dead Channel.

Good for you, Mike.

Mike will take listeners on a weekly trip through the Grateful Dead universe as he curates personal theme-driven playlists while connecting with fans and notable voices from Dead community, bringing the music, the memories, and the culture to life.

And he's got on tour, MikeFinoia.com. That's F-I-N-O-I-A.

Every, every conversation's gonna be like, "I just like..." "This song, are you guys ready for another 45-minute guitar solo?" It's a great episode.

... you, um, Stevie Wonder jam bandy? Not really.

... stuff like that, unless you're, like, right there.

When Dead & Co. used to play baseball stadiums, sometimes you could hear it 'cause you'd really, you'd be, like, right behind.

Okay.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The Dead & Company.

Yeah.

Yeah.

In his latest film, Mountains of the Moon, he's assembled a small army of lighting experts, laser operators, engineers, fellow artists, plus a murderer's row of style-forward adventure athletes from across a wide swath of mediums to explore the brilliantly psychedelic ley lines at the harmonic convergence of action, adventure, nature, and imagination.

The result is a mind-bending visual experience unlike any other, all cut together and performed in homage to the free-spirited sonic extemporization of the Grateful Dead, whose music makes up the soundtrack.

Chris and I discuss making a film this ambitious in this day and age, how he discovered the Dead and the role they play in his life, painting with Mickey Hart, what it takes to light up mountains, his pursuit of perfection, being open to opportunity, and a lot more.

Mountains of the Moon is still making the rounds in theaters, and if you're lucky enough to live in the Bay Area, you can catch it live scored by the Terrapin Family Band with special guest Eric Krasno on October 1st and 2nd at the Presidio Theater.

Check out more of Chris and his work at www.crispinchetler.com or @crispinchetler on social media.

Details at www.fruitbatsmusic.com or @fruit_bats on social media.

So first of all, going back through not just this project, but other projects that you've done, you kind of have a style developing here.

Why combine all of these outdoor passions so overtly with the Grateful Dead? Like what is the crossover there for you?