For those who want to know more – or for those who fit the oft-repeated adage, “If you remember the Sixties, you probably weren’t there” – the upcoming documentary The Other One: The Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir is on the way, hitting the Netflix streaming service on Friday, May 22.
“I’ve led a kind of unusual life,” Weir says in the official trailer for the film. “I was a 16-year-old kid when I started playing with the Grateful Dead. The music was an adventure…Our fans were a little bit different. We’ve got kind of a little gypsy entourage. You just had to see it.”
The film was directed by Mike Fleiss, whose resume surprisingly leans heavy toward an executive producer role on such reality fare as The Bachelor, High School Reunion, The Bachelorette and The Cougar. But Fleiss also directed the 2011 documentary God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, and said in a statement that he “unearthed a lot of buried treasure from the Grateful Dead archive while making this film.”
The documentary charts Weir’s childhood in Palo Alto, a young life that changed forever when he connected with Garcia. The Other One features interviews with Weir’s Grateful Dead bandmates, other musical collaborators and family members. It also features fellow Mill Valley rock stars Sammy Hagar and Jerry Harrison.
“If you don’t have an ego, you can be the best Number Two on the planet,” Hagar says in the trailer. “That’s kind of what Bob became. It makes him special.”
As for Weir, he and his fellow Grateful Dead bandmates – with Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio subbing in for the late Garcia – for a string of massive “Fare Thee Well” shows that will mark the ultimate end to the Grateful Dead as an active entity. The band is set to play two Bay Area gigs at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on June 27 and 28, followed by a three-night stand at Soldier Field in Chicago on July, 4 and 5.
