Watch John Mayer’s Moving Tribute to Bandmate Bob Weir

On Saturday, a public memorial was held in San Francisco honoring the late Bob Weir, where his friend and Dead & Company bandmate John Mayer delivered a moving eulogy and performed “Ripple.”

“Over the course of a decade, we came to trust each other,” Mayer said to the crowd. “He taught me, among many other things, to trust in the moment, and I’d like to think I taught him a little bit to rely on a plan, not as a substitute for the divine moments, but as a way to lure them in a little closer.

Dead & Company formed in 2015. Back then, there was some skepticism among Grateful Dead fans over whether Mayer was a good fit given his younger age and different style of playing guitar.

“I guess maybe what I was really doing was showing him he could rely on me,” Mayer continued. “Bob took a chance on me. He staked his entire reputation on my joining a band with him. He gave me musical community, he gave me this community.”

In August of 2025, Dead & Company celebrated the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary with a trio of concerts at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. At that time, it was not public knowledge that Weir had been diagnosed with cancer the month before. Weir’s illness would not be revealed until his death was announced on Jan. 10 of this year.

“I know right now it’s easy to feel as if time is speeding up and taking so much from us all,” Mayer said, “but I would remind you, as I have tried to remind myself this past week, of just how many nights we all lived so fully in each second, hanging on to every word of Bobby’s, following the music around twists and turns through forests and over majestic vistas, taking in the magnificent interviews and wondering how we all got so lucky to have been found by this music and invited into this dream together.”

You can watch Mayer’s speech, as well as his performance of “Ripple,” below.

“Thank you, Maestro,” Mayer concluded. “You changed my life. I will love you forever. Thank you.”