How Jim James and Jeff Tweedy learned to love the Grateful Dead

[CC]

Isabella Gomez Sarmiento: What's your relationship to the Grateful Dead's music?

Jim James: As a younger person, all of the kids who liked the Grateful Dead in high school were such a******* that I hated the Grateful Dead. So I went through most of my early life like that. Then, when I was in my mid-20s, or so, I heard American Beauty for the first time and fell in love with songs like "Candyman" and with Workingman's Dead. So that was my first entry, the more song-based, acoustic side of the Dead. Then as time rolled on, different songs have spoken to me here and there.

We got to have so many amazing experiences with Bobby [Weir]. It's so funny because when we played with him, I was so deeply honored and so unbelievably moved that we were getting to play with him. But I wasn't yet a superfan, so I wasn't flabbergasted, you know what I mean? I got to experience some beautiful one-on-one time with Bob, talking about songs or playing songs together and learning to love him that way. As time has gone on, My Morning Jacket [has played] "One More Saturday Night" a lot, which is a Bobby song, and that rockin' side of the Dead — once I started to get into their live shows, particularly the Veneta, Ore. show from 1972 — is phenomenal.


I feel like the reason people love the Dead so much is because they make you feel how you wish you could feel all the time. They make you feel what it is to be human in a peaceful way, in a beautiful way.
Jim James
Just in the last couple of months, a buddy of mine sent me the Grateful Dead in 1974 playing here in Louisville, Ky. at Freedom Hall, which I had never heard that show before. On that show, they played the song "Row Jimmy," which I had never heard. It is blowing my mind.

Gomez Sarmiento: How did you meet Bobby and how did that come to happen, when you played with him? What did you learn from sharing the stage with him and getting to know him in that way?

Just to try and be fearless. Bobby was fearless. He was always ready to play. The most hilarious thing about meeting Bobby was that we did this tour with Bob Dylan. The reason we did the tour was they told us that Bob Dylan wanted to play with other people. We're like, "Jesus, this is going to be insane." We pictured ourselves sitting around the campfire at night with Bob Dylan being like, "Let's play all of Desire tomorrow."

So we get on tour with Dylan. You don't see Dylan, you don't talk to him. He's never there. But the person that is there is Bob Weir, and Bob Weir is hanging out with everybody. Bob Weir's got his guitar out in the dressing room and he wanders over to our dressing room. Bob doesn't give a s*** what he looks like. He doesn't give a s*** if the notes are wrong or right. He's just there in the moment with the spirit, playing his heart out, making the most beautiful sounds. It makes me tear up even thinking about it.

I've really tried to remember that when I'm feeling insecure or when I'm playing a show and I feel like it's not going that well, or we're trying to jam or explore a space and it's not working out. I try to summon his spirit and just think about how he would wander in there. If you're in there trying, that's all that counts. I'm just so grateful I got to spend some time with him because he really did embody that effortless spirit of the Dead. I feel like the reason people love the Dead so much is because they make you feel how you wish you could feel all the time. They make you feel what it is to be human in a peaceful way, in a beautiful way.


Felix Contreras: As you get to know the songs, is there something from your musician's hat, your composer's hat, that you are paying attention to? What is your impression now of doing a deep dive into something like that?

I think for my Morning Jacket — as a band that has always been into jazz, and we've always been into jamming and exploring — I think that there's part of us that always wants to do a good job. I put that in quotes, as I say that: "We always want to really do a good job and make sure it really hits home."

I think there's a beautiful bravery and freedom in the Dead, because you can tell they didn't give a s*** if they did a good job or not. They were just trying to find what was there. Sometimes they don't do a good job. Sometimes it's a mess, and then they find it again. That's life, you know?

"The Dead really understood that and gave people a place to come be themselves, to be free and not feel judged." - Jim James

Gomez Sarmiento: The Grateful Dead has such a unique relationship to the fans and to the way they approached the community. My Morning Jacket has something similar — has seeing the band impacted the way that you view that relationship, between the people onstage and the people off stage?

Absolutely. Every band dreams of having that relationship with their fans. We think about that so much because we want to build a community of love and friendship and peace — a place where people can come not only because they like the music, but because they know there's going to be a lot of great people there. I think the Dead really understood that and gave people a place to come be themselves, to be free and not feel judged.

Full article:
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/08/nx-s1-5902068/grateful-dead-jim-james-jeff-tweedy