“That’s changed my playing a lot”: The most important lesson John Mayer has learned from his Dead & Company bandmate Bob Weir
John Mayer has opened up about the invaluable lesson he’s learned from his Dead & Company bandmate, Bob Weir, and how it has shaped his approach to music.
The two first jammed together in February 2015 when Mayer was hosting The Late Late Show, a performance often credited for sparking the formation of Dead & Company.
Reflecting on their musical partnership in a recent chat with Guitar World, Mayer says there’s one important lesson he’s taken from Weir over the years.
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Asked what he’s learned from the Grateful Dead legend, Mayer replies: “That’s a good question. And don’t think my taking a while to answer it means I have to fight to come up with something. It’s just that there’s so much.”
“But the thing I’ve learned from Bob is to let it breathe. And that’s changed my playing a lot,” he says. “I feel like the two of us now have a very deep relationship, almost like a telepathic relationship. I know where I stand with him in the best of ways. He knows where he stands with me in the best of ways. And we don’t have to talk about it.”
Weir, in turn, shares his own perspective on their dynamic and what he’s learned from Mayer as his guitar partner.
“‘Don’t sweat the small stuff.’ I don’t know if there’s more to it than that,” Weir says. “I’m constantly evolving, and so is he. And I can’t tell if it’s on account of what I’m getting from him, or if it’s something he’s getting from me, but we sort of make room, make allowances, for those kinds of developments.”
“And you know, he is a legendary guitarist. So I might be inclined to be a little bit under-spoken about what I express through my instrument. [pauses] But probably not.”
“Because I remember the first night I played with him, when we were on TV [on The Late Late Show]. I was surprised at how easy and how natural it was, right from the start. He had already mastered the kind of vocabulary I was used to on the instrument, to the point where we readily interacted. I don’t remember any moments where I was thinking to myself, ‘what the hell is he trying to get at here?’”
The post “That’s changed my playing a lot”: The most important lesson John Mayer has learned from his Dead & Company bandmate Bob Weir appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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