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It was great while it lasted: Dead and Company has concluded final tour in California

The Grateful Dead's offshoot band, Dead and Company, concluded its final tour in California on Sunday. For fans and vendors who have been following the bands for decades, it's the end of an era.

ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:

The Grateful Dead's offshoot band, Dead and Company, played its final shows in San Francisco over the weekend. It's the end of an era for fans like Colorado Public Radio's Vic Vela, who have been following the Dead's music for decades. It's also a big change for vendors and merchants who travel with the band and thrived on a scene called Shakedown.

VIC VELA, BYLINE: When the pandemic shutdowns were lifted and live concerts returned, Tony Seigh did something downright crazy. He left a career at Tesla to sell Grateful Dead bumper stickers in parking lots. But if you're a Deadhead, you totally get it.

TONY SEIGH: It almost was like for, like, two years, when you're thinking, like, oh my gosh; it's the end of the world; we're all going to die - like, we better go on tour with the Grateful Dead before it's over, you know?

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "UNCLE JOHN'S BAND")

DEAD AND COMPANY: (Singing) Well, the first days are the hardest days. Don't you worry anymore.

VELA: Dead and Company has been the most successful Grateful Dead spinoff since Jerry Garcia died almost three decades ago. Now that the band is calling it quits, a lot of folks whose livelihoods literally depend on Dead shows are wondering what's going to happen to a place called Shakedown.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SHAKEDOWN STREET")

GRATEFUL DEAD: (Singing) Nothing shaking on Shakedown Street.

VELA: Named after the Grateful Dead song "Shakedown Street," the epic traveling emporium of merchandise, music and madness is simply known as the Shakedown lot.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: I got marigolds.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

VELA: It's a little bit farmers market, a little bit county fair, a little bit "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." It's where a fan can buy a Grateful Dead hoodie, a grilled cheese sandwich and, yes, even LSD. With this band's demise, vendors on Shakedown have some anxiety over what's next for the music they love and their own bank accounts. Seigh says a significant chunk of his income is from selling merchandise on Dead tours.

SEIGH: I don't know - maybe, like, half.

VELA: That's a lot.

SEIGH: Oh yeah, yeah. Oh no, it's a total gamble. But, you know, it takes a lot to win, but even more to lose.

VELA: Coleus Langer of Los Angeles sells clothing on Shakedown. He says losing that customer base is going to hurt.

COLEUS LANGER: It definitely makes me very sad because there's no other place like a Grateful Dead Shakedown lot. You know, as far as vending and just meeting people and networking and hanging, you know, there's just - it's such a special place.

VELA: Nowadays, a lot of vendors sell their goods online, so their incomes aren't totally dependent on Dead shows. But for many, there's nothing like that personal connection with other Deadheads. Stephen McMennamy is the owner of Grateful Fred, a company named after his dog. He sells metal stickers with Dead imagery.

STEPHEN MCMENNAMY: It's very different when you're standing across from somebody and they have tears in their eyes talking about how much this thing meant to them because it was the name of a pet or a loved one or a grandmother or something like that.

VELA: Some vendors say they'll continue to sell outside Phish shows or other jam bands where there's a lot of crossover appeal. And here's the thing. A lot of folks on Shakedown firmly believe there'll be a new Grateful Dead offshoot to follow post-Dead and Company. After all, there's been several versions of the Dead over the last couple decades. So the hope is that the music of Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir will continue to thrive alongside fresh faces, or in the words of the Grateful Dead, the music never stops. For NPR News, I'm Vic Vela in San Francisco.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Dead and Company Announce Final Tour

By Ethan Millman

Ethan Millman

Dead and Company are officially gearing up for its final tour.

John Mayer posted a tour poster on his Instagram page that read “The Final Tour: Dead & Co. Summer 2023” and noted the group would have details on tour dates soon.

“As we put the finishing touches on booking venues, and understanding that word travels fast, we wanted to be the first to let you know that Dead & Company will be hitting the road next summer for what will be our final tour,” Mayer wrote. “Stay tuned for a full list of dates for what will surely be an exciting, celebratory, and heartfelt last run of shows. With love and appreciation, Dead & Company.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by John Mayer 💎 (@johnmayer)

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Dead and Company started in 2015 with three of the band’s original members: Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann, along with Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, and Jeff Chimenti. The band has been one of the more prolific live acts since their formation, playing each summer (minus 2020 during the pandemic). More recently, though, there’s been some lineup shakeups over some health issues surrounding Kreutzmann. He had to pull out of the later-canceled Playing in the Sand shows in Mexico over concerns related to his heart. Then, during the summer 2022 shows a few months ago, as Variety noted , he missed several dates over a back issue, then a positive Covid test.

Mayer, for his part, had praised the Dead for years before Dead and Company started. As he told Rolling Stone in 2013: “This free expressive sort of spirit — I listen and I want to find a mix of that openness. I kind of want to go to [a show like a Dead] show, if it still existed,” Mayer said at the time. “But I wish that there were tunes that I was more familiar with. I wish that I could be the singer. I wish I could have harmonies.”

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Published: 2023/07/19 by Hana Gustafson

Dead & Company Break Down Final Tour by Numbers, John Mayer Shares Comment on Band’s Future

Photo Credit: Jay Blakesberg

On Sunday, July 16, Dead & Company concluded their 2023 Final Tour with three sold-out concerts at Oracle Park in San Francisco, drawing a crowd of 120,000 fans. Their final tour was the most successful in the band’s eight-year history, bringing 840,000 attendees out during the cross-country trek. To mark their triumphant finale, the group shared their record-setting numbers.

Since the band’s 2015 debut, Dead & Company has completed 10 tours and performed in front of more than 4 million fans. During the Final Tour, they ran through 112 songs, including “Drums” > “Space” and the newly formed “Dark Star on the Big River Jam.” Since the band’s inception, they have delivered 145 unique songs during their 235 show history.

Beginning with Folsom Field in Boulder, Colo., the group shared that their three-night stand sold 130,000 tickets. Dead & Company currently holds the record number of performances at the venue, with 13 shows. The previous record for most shows played at Folsom by a single artist was three, held by both the Grateful Dead and The Rolling Stones.

Pertaining to their Wrigley Field dates, Dead & Company is the all-time leader in the number of shows played at the famed ballpark, with 10 performances across five tours (2017, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023), as well as the all-time leader in overall paid attendance with 360,000 tickets sold across these shows. Additionally, they reign on top for single-show paid attendance when they set the record in 2017 with more than 40,000 tickets sold.

The band also holds the record for number of performances at Citi Field in Queens, N.Y., with 11 shows. In 2023 Dead & Company returned to Citi Field to perform for almost 74,000 fans during two sold-out concerts. The band also broke Boston’s (Fenway Park) all-time attendance record for the most tickets sold in a single night, previously held by Aerosmith.

In addition, Dead & Company also shared that its charitable initiatives since 2015 have raised more than $13 million to support nonprofits, environmental and social causes such as Parks Conservation Association, The Jerry Garcia Foundation, Heart And Armor Foundation, Gorilla Doctors, Seva.org , OXFAM, MusiCares, Surfrider Foundation, WhyHunger, iGiveTrees, Positive Legacy, Further Foundation, Conscious Alliance, Rainforest Action Network, Last Prisoner Project, HAPA, SPLC, and dozens of local and regional nonprofit groups.

Participation Row auctions, in partnership with nonpartisan and nonprofit voter registration organization HeadCount, surpassed $2,033,000 raised for charity during this year’s Final Tour. The count includes $355,000 from the Mickey Hart fine art auctions held in NYC and over the three nights at Oracle Park.

Moreover, their positive impact has resulted in 25,000 fans registering to vote. On the topic of sustainability, Dead & Company continued their work with longtime partner REVERB to reduce the tour’s environmental footprint and encourage fans to take action, resulting in 1.6+ million dedicated to greenhouse gas reductions and climate justice projects, 51,000 tonnes of CO2e neutralized and more positive change.

John Mayer summarized his time with the group, leaving room for the future, and noting: “@deadandcompany is still a band – we just don’t know what the next show will be. I speak for us all when I say that I look forward to being shown the next shaft of light… I know we will all move towards it together.” Click here to read the guitarist’s full post via Instagram.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by John Mayer (@johnmayer)

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Oteil ☥ (@oteil_burbridge)

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Dead and Company Announces Summer 2023 Tour Will Be the Group’s Last

By Chris Willman

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Bob Weir and John Mayer Dead and Company 2022

After earlier hedging on whether the group might be coming to an end, Dead and Company issued a statement on social media Friday announcing a farewell tour for summer 2023.

The wording of the announcement suggests that details of the tour are far from final but that group members wanted to get out ahead of the news leaking with an official declaration that Dead and Company is coming to an end.

Popular on Variety

The group’s Instagram post was accompanied by a dewy rose graphic and the words “more information coming soon.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dead & Company (@deadandcompany)

Early in 2022, there had been rumors that the band — a contemporary offshoot of the Grateful Dead, with John Mayer as co-frontman — would be hanging it up after this past summer’s tour. It turns out the speculation was off by a year, with one more extended chance to see the band still ahead.

In response to an April 2022 report in Rolling Stone that the group would cease touring after this year, the band pumped the brakes on that news, saying then that “Dead & Company has made no official decision as to this being their final tour.” Bob Weir even posted on Twitter: “News to me.”

Health concerns have been an issue in keeping the full lineup intact, with original Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann sometimes having to miss shows. On the summer 2022 tour, he was out of the lineup for six straight shows before delighting fans by returning for the tour-closing shows at New York’s Citi Field.

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Dead & Company – The Final Tour

Launches Friday, May 19 th & Saturday, May 20 th in Los Angeles at The Kia Forum

Through friday, july 14 th & saturday, july 15 th in san francisco at oracle park, seated presale fan registration open now here, tickets on sale friday, october 14 th @ 10 am local time.

DEAD & COMPANY is launching its 2023 summer tour on Friday, May 19 th and Saturday, May 20 th in Los Angeles at the Kia Forum with dates running through Friday, July 14 th and Saturday, July 15 th when the tour ends in San Francisco at Oracle Park. The band – Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, John Mayer, and Bob Weir, with Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti – will perform two sets of music drawing from the Grateful Dead’s historic catalog of songs. Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, October 14 th @ 10 AM local venue time through deadandcompany.com . A full listing of tour dates can be found below.

The highly-anticipated 2023 summer tour, produced by Live Nation, will be the band’s final tour since forming in 2015. Highlights include the tour-opening back-to-back concerts at the KIA FORUM in Los Angeles (Friday, May 19 th & Saturday, May 20 th ), as well as doubleheaders at WRIGLEY FIELD in Chicago (Friday, June 9 th & Saturday, June 10 th ); SARATOGA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER in Saratoga Springs, NY (Saturday, June 17 th & Sunday, June 18 th ); CITI FIELD in NYC (Wednesday, June 21 st & Thursday, June 22 nd ); and THE GORGE in George, WA (Friday, July 7 th & Saturday, July 8 th ); an epic return to FENWAY PARK in Boston, MA (Sunday, June 25 th ); the band’s first-ever three-night stand at FOLSOM FIELD in Boulder, CO (Saturday, July 1 st , Sunday, July 2 nd , & Monday, July 3 rd ); and the tour finale – a two-night debut at ORACLE PARK in San Francisco (Friday, July 14 th & Saturday, July 15 th ). A full listing of the 2023 tour dates can be found below.

To ensure that tickets get directly into the hands of fans, advance presale registration is now available HERE powered by Seated. The Artist Presale begins Wednesday, October 12 th at noon local venue time and runs through Thursday, October 13 th at 10 PM local venue time. Advance registration does not guarantee tickets. Supplies are limited.

Guests who prefer an enhanced experience for this memorable Dead & Company tour can purchase a variety of VIP and Travel Packages. Packages include seamless venue access, early GA entry, pre-show lounge with food and a cash bar, exclusive merchandise, or travel packages for multi-night runs in various cities. Packages from 100X Hospitality will go on sale October 12 th at noon local venue time. For full details, click HERE .

Dead & Company and Activist will continue their work with longtime sustainability partner REVERB to reduce the summer tour’s environmental footprint and engage fans to take action for people and the planet. More details at REVERB.org .

Dead & Company was formed in 2015 when the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir joined forces with artist and musician John Mayer, Allman Brothers’ bassist Oteil Burbridge, and Fare Thee Well and RatDog keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, and quickly became one of the most successful touring bands year over year. Since its formation, the band has completed seven tours and became a record-breaking stadium act when it set Wrigley Field’s all-time concert attendance for a single concert, which still holds to this day. Having toured consistently since its 2015 debut, the band has held 164 concerts, performed 143 unique songs and has played to nearly four million fans.

Dead & Company has headlined iconic stadiums across the country including Fenway Park, Citi Field, Gillette Stadium, Folsom Field, Dodger Stadium, Wrigley Field, and Autzen Stadium, as well as multiple night-stands at Madison Square Garden, the Forum, Hollywood Bowl, and Shoreline Amphitheatre. Between tours, Dead & Company hosts its annual “Playing in the Sand,” an all-inclusive concert vacation that features multiple nights of Dead & Company on an intimate beach in Mexico.

Across all tours at the band’s legendary Participation Row, the Dead & Company community has taken more than 100,000 actions in support of various local non-profits and national social impact organizations and causes including voter registration with HeadCount and environmental actions with REVERB. Since 2015, efforts on tour have eliminated the use of 100,000 single-use plastic water bottles at shows and raised funds to support climate justice and carbon reduction projects which prevented 33,700 tonnes of CO2e from entering the atmosphere, the equivalent of 83.5 million miles driven by gas-powered cars. Throughout the seven tours the total raised directly from the band as well as fan auctions and other efforts is now over $3 million, providing direct support to HeadCount, REVERB and the Dead Family non-profit organizations, as well as the non-profit ocean conservation organization Oceana and MusiCares among others.

About Live Nation Entertainment

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com

For a high-res band photo and tour artwork, click Dead & Company 2023 Summer Tour .

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Live Nation Concerts

Monique Sowinski | [email protected]

Dead & Company

Anna Loynes | [email protected]

Dead & Company will end after their final tour next year

John Mayer, Bob Weir and their bandmates in the Grateful Dead offshoot will play a string of send-off shows in summer 2023

Dead & Company, the spin-off supergroup that features John Mayer and members of The Grateful Dead, have announced they will be disbanding next year.

It’s also been revealed the popular offshoot, which also features Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti, will perform their final shows in summer 2023 before calling it a day for good.

Announcing the news via social media, the band said a full list of dates for what will be their farewell tour will be announced in the future.

A statement read, “As we put the finishing touches on booking venues, and understanding that word travels fast, we wanted to be the first to let you know that Dead & Company will be hitting the road next summer for what will be our final tour.

A post shared by Dead & Company (@deadandcompany) A photo posted by on

“Stay tuned for a full list of dates for what will surely be an exciting, celebratory, and heartfelt last run of shows.”

Dead & Company was first conceived back in 2015, when John Mayer – who at the time was serving as guest host for The Late Late Show – invited Bob Weir onstage to perform Althea : one of the first Grateful Dead tracks that Mayer had ever heard when he first discovered the band on Pandora.

After impressing with his performance, Mayer was then invited to join Weir in Dead & Company, which was formed from Grateful Dead members Weird, Hart and Kreutzmann, as well as guest musicians Chimenti and Burbridge.

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Mayer has been kept plenty busy by Dead & Company over the past seven years, touring annually while still updating his solo repertoire with the releases of The Search for Everything and Sob Rock .

Well it looks like that’s it for this outfit; but don’t worry we will all be out there in one form or another until we drop… pic.twitter.com/3RZzLRXBYI September 23, 2022

The new band experience was also an opportunity for him to experiment with his rig and setup. 2015 more or less coincided with Mayer’s switch to PRS, with whom he developed the Super Eagle II – the guitar that initially became his main touring instrument.

Mayer also started using headphones while playing live with Dead & Company, as he said they helped him become a more dynamic guitar player.

The guitarist has developed a strong connection with his Dead & Company bandmates, particularly Weir, who recently joined Mayer for the latter’s Rise for the River charity concerts .

In his own statement, Weir wrote on Twitter, “Well it looks like that’s it for this outfit; but don’t worry we will all be out there in one form or another until we drop…”

Visit Dead & Company to keep up to date with future tour announcements.

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Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World , Guitarist and Total Guitar . He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.

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Dead & Company Fading Away After Most Successful Tour in Spin-Off Band’s History

More than 840,000 fans saw the last lap of the spin-off jam band's final run.

By Gil Kaufman

Gil Kaufman

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Dead & Co.

Trending on billboard.

More than 130,000 tickets sold during the groups first three-show run at Folsom Field in Colorado, where Dead & Co. hold the record for most performances at the venue (13).
The all-time record for shows played at Chicago’s venerable Wrigley Field (10), along with all-time paid attendance mark with 360,000 tickets sold. The group also has the record for single-show paid attendance for more than 40,000 for a 2017 gig.
Most performances at New York’s Citi Field (11), including two sold-out shows this year to nearly 74,000.
The all-time attendance record at Boston’s Fenway Park for most tickets sold in a single night, which was previously held by hometown heroes Aerosmith.
The Final Tour found the band playing 112 unique songs; since their 2015 launch, Dead & Co. played 145 unique songs during 235 shows.
Since 2015 the band has raised more than $13 million for nonprofits and environmental and social causes — including $4 million donated through charity auctions and online raffles. Among the beneficiaries were: Headcount, Reverb, National Parks Conservation Association, The Jerry Garcia Foundation, Heart And Armor Foundation, Gorilla Doctors, Seva.org, OXFAM, MusiCares, Surfrider Foundation, WhyHunger, iGiveTrees, Positive Legacy, Further Foundation, Conscious Alliance, Rainforest Action Network, Last Prisoner Project, HAPA, SPLC, and dozens of local and regional nonprofit groups.
Working with Reverb since 2015, the band dedicated more than $1.6 million to greenhouse gas reductions and climate justice projects, avoided use of 125,000 single-use plastic bottles, neutralized 51,000 tonnes of CO2 and saw 100,000 environmental actions taken by fans.
Registered more than 25,000 fans to vote.

With the final curtain appearing to close on the nearly 60-year road run by the Dead (and its various incarnations’) Weir, 75, has already announced a fall run of shows by his Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros featuring the Wolfpack group.

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What Does The End Of Dead & Company’s Final Tour Really Mean?

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When Dead & Company ‘s final tour was announced last October , it left fans with a mix of emotions: surprise at the unexpected decision to stop, excitement for one last tour, and above all, puzzlement as to why they would suddenly call it quits. When drummer Bill Kreutzmann subsequently announced that he would sit out the final tour, it raised even more questions. Now that the final shows of the final tour have come and gone, fans are still unsure what the future of the band might hold. Is this the end? Are they done for good, or was this just the last proper tour? And the question remains, why stop now? What precipitated this decision, and is it too late to change their minds?

Members of the band have individually hinted at their thoughts on the band’s future throughout the final tour. Mickey Hart , for instance, said in a recent interview , “Who knows what the next page is, we’re just turning the page,” adding, “It’s not final anything. We never said we’ll never play again, but we’ll never tour again.”

Oteil Burbridge later commented when asked why the band was stopping, “Excellent question. And one that no one seems to have an answer for.”

John Mayer wrote in his post-tour reflections that “Dead & Company is still a band – we just don’t know what the next show will be.” He went on to say, “I speak for us all when I say that I look forward to being shown the next shaft of light… I know we will all move towards it together. This band changed my life, and I love you all for it. An incredible tour, an unforgettable ride, and a beautiful world of memories to visit. I’ll be seeing you….”

Despite these scattered clues, the band itself has left few breadcrumbs to aid speculation—but screw it, let’s speculate.

Farewell tours typically serve as last hurrahs, offering fans one last chance to see their favorite artists perform before they retire for good. Dead & Company’s Final Tour was never billed as a farewell tour, however, just the “final tour.” That means the band could perform individual shows, multi-night runs, extended residencies ( Sphere, perhaps? ), festival appearances, or even its annual Mexican destination event, Playing In The Sand —anything that couldn’t be called a tour—and still be within that theoretical boundary. The prospect of future Dead & Company performances seems pretty good given what members of the band have said, which begs the more fundamental question, why stop touring?

It is likely that the band’s decision to stop touring and Bill’s decision to sit out the final tour were somehow related. He indicated that he would not participate in the tour due to “a shift in creative direction,” which is puzzling since he and his Grateful Dead bandmates have been playing the same music together for nearly 60 years, and with Dead & Company since 2015. Fans have speculated that the band’s slower tempos in recent years were due to Bill’s influence, and that that had something to do with the split, citing the quicker tempos on the final tour as proof, but it’s quite possible that he had completely different reasons. We may never know for sure.

If Bill was the sole or main reason for the band’s decision to stop touring, then it is possible that the group could change course and decide to continue on without him, as it did on the final tour. Jay Lane did a stellar job filling in on the band’s last outing, and while the loss of Bill’s singular drumming style should not be glossed over, the tour proved that the band could conjure improvisational magic just as easily with his replacement, so why not continue touring?

Another possibility is that John Mayer decided he has had his fill of the whole Grateful Dead trip and/or is ready to focus on his career as a solo artist. Last year he mounted his first-ever solo acoustic arena tour , which turned out to be a bit of a breakthrough for him, allowing him to connect with his fans more intimately than ever before (one wonders how his experience improvising for Deadheads might have influenced his approach to that connection). If Mayer, not Kreutzmann, was the sole or main reason behind Dead & Company’s decision to stop touring, the band could theoretically continue on without him too, though that might require forming a new project with a new name due to his standing as a major shareholder in the business.

Bob Weir also may have decided it was time to move on. He has shown multi-faceted ambition with his recent creative endeavors, including improvising with a full orchestra and leading his ever-evolving Americana outfit, Wolf Bros . While we can be sure he’ll continue playing Grateful Dead songs, he could be done playing them to stadium crowds as he did decades ago with the original band. He is one member that Dead & Company probably could not survive without, though he himself has suggested otherwise .

One last obvious factor is the band members’ advanced age. In a candid new interview , the band’s co-manager, Irving Azoff explained, “Touring is physically hard and nobody wants anybody to get really sick out there.” He went on to reference Bill Kreutzmann’s absence at several shows in recent years due to health issues.

“Billy (Kreutzmann) got really sick last year, and I think that freaked [co-managers] Steve (Moir) and I and Bernie (Cahill) out,” he said before admitting, “If it would have been this year, rather than last, you’d look at it and say, ‘Hey, maybe this shouldn’t be over,’ but look, Mickey is a wonderful soul and a lovely guy and he can say, ‘I can go forever,’ and Bob would say the same thing, but the rigors of 30-some nights with trucks and buses and airplanes and all the moving around, probably for both the quality of the music and the health/safety it was time to at least put an end to the touring.

“These guys love each other and the music stands for itself,” he continued before suggesting that the band would be open to future offers to perform. “The touring parts are over, but there are still special events I’m sure will get offered to them, and you never say never. I’ve learned from managing the Eagles all these years that you never ask that question while the tour is going on. You’ve got to let them finish it, get some rest and get back to their lives and the future will bring what it brings.”

Bob, Mickey, and Bill show no signs of giving up life on the road despite their age, but it is possible they intend to follow the lead of their core four compatriot Phil Lesh and dial back their travels. That said, Bob Weir didn’t even wait 48 hours after Dead & Company’s final bow before announcing new tour dates with Wolf Bros . The sledge hammer-wielding Instagram fitness guru that Bobby’s become is a far cry from the feeble guitarist who collapsed on stage with Furthur in 2013 . His health might have made him a liability back then, but at 75, he seems more focused than ever and perfectly capable physically and musically, as he proved over the past few months.

Dead & Company’s final tour was their most successful to date, grossing $115 million and breaking numerous records. More importantly, the band reached new musical heights and strengthened its connections to its fans. There are creative reasons to continue on, then, in addition to the obvious financial incentive. Of course, another tour would inevitably be perceived as a “cash grab” since they made a big deal about this being the final one, but maybe things are significantly different now, after the final tour, than they were back in 2022. Or maybe the band really is done touring, but with some other plans up its sleeve. Or maybe Dead & Company has just run its course, though it sure doesn’t feel like it.

Only one thing is certain. The Grateful Dead, its fans, and its legacy are better off now than they were in 2015. Eight years of Dead & Company have elevated the band to new cultural relevancy, strengthened the Deadhead community, and helped ensure that the band’s music will endure for generations to come—and that’s a lot to be grateful for.

With rumors of a GD60 anniversary celebration in 2025 and Bob Weir & Wolf Bros tour dates on the horizon, there is plenty of music to fill the air, and no matter what the future holds, you know this band will not fade away.

Dead and Company final tour: Where they'll be in 2023, including NYC and Philadelphia

It's time for one last trip.

Grateful Dead legacy act Dead and Company have confirmed the itinerary for their final tour, which launches with a two-night stand at the Forum in Los Angeles on Friday, May 19, and Saturday, May 20, 2023.

The 27-date tour will travel across the country and back again before wrapping up with performances on Friday, July 14, and Saturday, July 15, at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

Dead and Company returns to our region to play Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Thursday, June 15, and Citi Field in New York on Wednesday, June 21, and Thursday, June 22.

Presale fan registration is now open at deadandcompany.com . Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. local time on Friday, Oct. 14.

Featuring Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, with John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti, Dead and Company launched in 2015. The band announced on Sept. 23 that the 2023 outing would be its last.

Dead and Company: The Final Tour dates

May 19 and 20, 2023, Forum, Los Angeles

May 23, Ak-Chin Pavilion, Phoenix

May 26, Dos Equis Pavilion, Dallas

May 28, Lakewood Amphitheatre, Atlanta

May 30, PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte, N.C.

June 1, Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, Raleigh, N.C.

June 3, Jiffy Lube Live, Bristow, Va.

June 5, Pavilion at Star Lake, Burgettstown, Pa.

June 7, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, St. Louis

June 9 and 10, Wrigley Field, Chicago

June 13, Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati

June 15, Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia

June 17 and 18, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

June 21 and 22, Citi Field, New York

June 25, Fenway Park, Boston

June 27, Ruoff Music Center, Noblesville, Ind.

July 1 to 3, Folson Field, Boulder, Colo.

July 7 and 8, Gorge Amphitheatre, Gorge, Wash.

July 14 and 15, Oracle Park, San Francisco

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A Requiem for the Dead

Dead and Company—the most successful and longest-running post-Jerry configuration of Grateful Dead members—has purportedly given up the road. We took one last trip to Shakedown Street to make sense of what it all meant and what it means if they’re done.

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The Grateful Dead have died many times. Depending on whom you ask, their first death came only a few years after their 1965 formation, as the raunchy organ jams and all-night raves of their psychedelic days gave way to statelier songwriting and more sophisticated playing. The transition was punctuated by the 1973 death of Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, the harmonica player and vocalist whose ability to command a room and yelp out blues ad-libs for half an hour on “Turn on Your Lovelight” made him an intensely personable figure; at one point, he was so recognizable, the band’s label ran a Pigpen look-alike contest. But as the Grateful Dead’s exploratory ethos inevitably led them to new territory and better drugs, Pigpen was left behind. He avoided psychedelics, drank bottle after bottle of wine, and stopped touring a few months before his death. Though Jerry Garcia was already the band’s intellectual center, Pigpen had been its major draw and frontman, until he wasn’t. His final show, at the Hollywood Bowl in 1972, marked the last time a truly charismatic singer performed Grateful Dead music with any of the band’s original members.

Until October 29, 2015. That was when Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann took the stage at Times Union Center in Albany, New York, for the first gig with their new guitarist and co-vocalist: John Mayer. The surviving members of the Grateful Dead have reconfigured themselves several times since Garcia’s 1995 death, playing under a variety of names both together (the Other Ones, Furthur, the Dead) and solo (Phil Lesh and Friends, Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros., RatDog). Plenty of guitarists have been put in the unenviable position of stepping into Garcia’s role as the band’s primary musical force, to varying degrees of success. But with all due respect to Warren Haynes, there has never been anyone quite like Mayer involved with this music before.

The Dead and Company lineup didn’t make immediate musical sense in 2015 and was, quite frankly, very funny for people who didn’t care about Mayer or the Dead. Enlisting Mayer, with his bankable face and blandly virtuosic blues-scorching style, seemed like an extraordinarily obvious cash grab and an artistically suspect decision; it seemed equally impossible to imagine Mayer fans wooking out to the red-eyed reggae of “Estimated Prophet” and crusty Deadheads savoring slicked-back versions of old Pigpen songs.

But over the course of eight years and 235 shows, Dead and Company performed several miracles. They lasted longer than any post-Garcia configuration of Grateful Dead members—a genuine feat considering the level of animosity and manipulation among those surviving players—and consistently played to crowds that rivaled those the Dead drew in the heady gate-crashing days of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when they were the biggest touring act in the country. Those bigger crowds in turn rekindled the parking-lot scene that has been part of Dead culture since the late 1970s at a scale not seen since the days of Garcia. Though they fastidiously refused to expand it, Dead and Company developed a genuinely new way of performing and presenting what is almost certainly the greatest and most dynamic songbook any American rock band has ever produced.

But perhaps most important, they maintained and ultimately solidified the legacy of the Grateful Dead—not so much as a band but as the originators of a distinct form. Though it may seem unlikely when artists of their generation are selling off their catalogs for nine digits, no rock band of any era will be remembered as fondly as them. Most musicians understand their primary medium to be the studio recording, which makes sense—you can maintain control in the studio, and the songs are placed on a gallery wall and can be admired like paintings. They are, essentially, finished. But by understanding their music as something that should be made fresh night after night for new fans, year after year and decade after decade, the Grateful Dead suggested that their songs are never complete. There is no final version; there’s not even a definitive live version.

In 2023, even the most proficient Beatles tribute acts are working the college-bar circuit, and it’s impossible to imagine anyone daring to take up the mantle of the Lennon-McCartney catalog with any credibility once Sir Paul calls it quits. But in 100 years, there will still be bands who are able to tour the country playing Grateful Dead music in new and inventive ways, bringing the old corpses to life once again, and there will be crowds eager to hear them do it. But I’m getting ahead of myself. These are all solidified thoughts, intellectual end points, and even if they’re where we’ll end up, there’s no telling how we’ll get there.

Which is, as you’ve probably heard, the whole point. I set out to see as many Dead and Company shows as I could this summer, ultimately catching 10 concerts in four states, from the warm-up at Jazz Fest to the three-night finale in San Francisco. I wasn’t in search of the true meaning of America or after any of the other very literary reasons people often give for going on the road; we have more than enough writing from white people who are trying to figure out why they don’t feel at home here. I am a Deadhead. I sigh as I say so, for I see the paisley-patterned connotations that spill out of that word the moment I type it. I was 9 years old when Garcia died, and my natural taste runs between slippery jazz and blackened death metal. But the music of the Grateful Dead has a hold on me that I cannot explain. I wanted to figure out why I’m not the only one.

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival has run nearly every year since 1970, and it has almost always had terrible weather. There is really no good time to stage an outdoor festival in New Orleans, or at least not one that spans seven days of on-site performances over two weeks. For hours leading up to Dead and Company’s set on May 6, it rains hard—pelting, driving, tropical rain, the kind that obviates any rain gear—and, perversely for New Orleans at this time of year, it’s cold . I clutch my link of boudin and shiver, resigned to being physically miserable in a way that is at least novel, while my battle-hardened local friends and warm-blooded midwestern spouse laugh and place bets on what the band will open with. A shirtless guy in a crumbling cowboy hat wanders past selling enamel pins of the Steal Your Face skull and lightning bolt logo (a.k.a. the Stealie), the Terrapin Station turtles, and Garcia’s Wolf logo. I mention to him that I’d seen him at the Hollywood Bowl in the past and ask whether he still has any of his “Gayer for Mayer” pins. He shakes his head and tells me he’s out of “Queer for Weir,” too.

Then, finally, with very little fanfare, Dead and Company wander onto the stage. Drummer Jay Lane, a one-time member of Primus and frequent Weir collaborator, has replaced Bill Kreutzmann. Decked in an Ancient Aliens T-shirt, he takes his place behind the kit as Weir and Mayer play a few tentative sideways notes. They resolve into “Truckin’,” and the clouds part, and the rain stops, and the sun shines. I know how unlikely that sounds; all I can tell you is that it’s true.

“Truckin’” is the final song on 1970’s American Beauty , which is, alongside the same year’s Workingman’s Dead , the Grateful Dead’s high-water mark as a studio band. Both albums are filled with country tunes with deceptively complex chord changes, stacked harmonies that defy the individual singers’ occasionally pitchy individual performances, and a rustic charm that feels more attainable than, say, the baroque folk-pop of their friends in Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Every song on both albums feels like it could have been written in the 19th century.

Dead and Company play “Cumberland Blues” at Jazz Fest. They play it again in Phoenix a few weeks later, and again in Bristow, Virginia, and at Wrigley Field. They cannot stop playing “Cumberland Blues” on this tour. It’s fairly straightforward, at least for a Dead song: a two-stepping shuffle that moves a touch faster than the rhythm seems to be comfortable with. The music is a nice mirror of the narrator’s exhaustion after being kept up all hours of the night by his beloved Melinda, who seems not to respect the physical and emotional rigors of his life in the mine. The narrator pointedly does not want to dance—or whatever else Melinda’s trying to get him into. But the song doesn’t care, and throughout the summer, the band seems to side more and more with Melinda. Dead and Company long ago developed a reputation in the wider Deadhead community for their slackened tempo—Dead and Slow, they’re called—but all tour, they play the song at a blistering pace that they’ve never even tried before. Mayer reels off lines in the breaks, getting notes out like he’s bailing out a boat. By the time they get to San Francisco in mid-July, “Cumberland Blues” has transformed from a lovely bit of electric bluegrass into a country dervish, a spinning, hyper-rotating hurricane of a song. This early performance in New Orleans is the first indication that—whether because of the addition of Lane or the stakes of the tour itself—the band is finding new life in the material.

If you consider yourself a discerning music person, the kind who has to call themselves a “music person” instead of a “fan,” it’s easy to get into Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty . All you need is a general appreciation for sturdy songs and a willingness not to think too much about how much Marcus Mumford probably likes them. But to get into the band’s live tapes—and thus into the essence not only of the Grateful Dead but of Dead and Company, as well—is much more difficult. You have to listen to a lot of 1950s rock covers. You have to listen to a lot of George Jones songs sung by someone who isn’t George Jones. You have to be able to look at a track list, see a 12:57 version of “Dancing in the Streets,” and have faith that whatever’s on the other side of the first two and a half minutes will be worth hearing Weir sing a disco version of a soul song.

I came to the Dead as a music person. I was going to pop-up record sales and buying rare Brazilian vinyl. I had a granular understanding of the modal differences between East African and West African music; I could typically tell whether a song had been recorded in Mali. I was “not really interested in the guitar anymore.” Most important, I was listening to a lot of Herbie Hancock and a lot of Can. In the mid-1970s, the jazz heavyweight and the free-spirited German weirdos were both pursuing a form of funk music that rippled with grooves and dissolved into space. You could dance to it, but it could also catch you up the way driving through the mountains sometimes does: You keep moving, but your mind is suddenly still.

At the same historical moment, the Grateful Dead were in pursuit of the same kind of sound. There are versions of “Dancing in the Streets” and especially Weir’s “Playing in the Band” from the mid-’70s that pulse and shimmer, where all sense of the original melody and tone has been completely scraped away and the band is intently exploring the foundation on which it was built. Kreutzmann liked to say that his goal as a drummer wasn’t to keep time but to keep mood, and once you begin to tune in to the mood that’s being cultivated by any form of the Dead, their ability to find new ways of expressing it becomes astonishing. The jam that leads “Scarlet Begonias” into “Fire on the Mountain” on the May 8, 1977, tape—probably the band’s most famous jam—is mind-boggling at a technical level; there are moments in which all five musicians seem to be playing both songs at once. But it’s no less admirable for the way it sustains a feeling of buoyancy, of pleasant surprise, of a seemingly unlimited number of happily beguiling opportunities around every corner.

You have enough moments like this, and you eventually find yourself through the looking glass. You become someone who appreciates how the zapping laser of Garcia’s guitar gooses Weir’s vocal in “Dancing in the Streets,” who dreams about cracking open a few cold ones and listening to “El Paso.” You might completely forget that the thing that got you into this music was the wild-eyed, experimental nature of it. When you sing along in full throat to “U.S. Blues” with tens of thousands of people who aren’t aware or don’t care that the original band was being ironic when it sang the “wave that flag” chorus, you’ve come a long way toward being cured of the need to use music as a way to differentiate yourself. The appeal becomes simple: It feels good to drink beers in the daytime and sing songs with your spouse and your friends and fall in love with a band. And then you watch them spend 15 minutes turning “Bird Song” inside out until it feels like tissue-paper-soft jazz, and you look around and go, My God, there are 40,000 people at Mayer’s experimental music concert .

L.A.! The Fabulous Forum! Where Magic and Kareem went back-to-back! Where Nicholson was always courtside! Where Harry Styles went on a run of 15 sold-out shows, as the only banner hanging from the rafters proclaims! Outside, half the city of Los Angeles is crammed into the narrow channel of Shakedown Street, the vendor market that runs through the parking lot and is as ubiquitous a sight at Dead shows as tie-dye. (It is, in fact, the source of much of that tie-dye.) And onstage, Mayer is making his guitar twinkle and hum; he’s going textural and pursuing blue moods. Yes, he’s ripping a few mondo solos and making the faces as he does so. You can only redeem so much of a man.

Dead and Company would not be playing to this many people this often if Mayer weren’t onstage. But his celebrity doesn’t solely account for the group’s swelling popularity. In 2016, the first full Dead and Company trek made $29.4 million, according to industry standard keeper Pollstar, good for only the 59th-highest-grossing tour worldwide. By 2021, they took in $50.2 million and finished fifth, one spot below the Eagles and two above Guns N’ Roses—even though they didn’t even leave the United States. Were Mayer’s name the driving force behind ticket sales, you’d expect them to have been higher at the outset, before the novelty of seeing a superstar slumming it with wooks had worn off.

Instead, his image allowed the band to more easily capitalize on the momentum created by the 2015 Fare Thee Well concerts, in which Weir, Hart, and Kreutzmann performed for the last time with bassist Phil Lesh. Dead and Company entered the world as both a curiosity and an excuse to keep the party going, but the strong performances—and the response from aging Gen X Deadheads starved for the massive stakes of the Grateful Dead’s late ’80s and early ’90s run—instantly made them into something bigger.

When the band was put together in early 2015, Mayer was only a couple of years removed from the lowest days of his career. In 2010, he’d given an interview to Playboy in which he called his ex-girlfriend Jessica Simpson “crack cocaine,” used the n-word, and compared his penis to David Duke. (His heart, though? “Benetton.”) In 2011, he was swimming in his pool and heard the knotty, questioning, guarded opening riff of the Grateful Dead’s “Althea” on Pandora. As he tells it, he sprinted into the house sopping wet to find out what he was hearing.

“Althea” didn’t cure Mayer—the next year he’d give another infamous interview, this one to Rolling Stone , in which his claim to be able to hold his breath for four minutes and 17 seconds was probably the least noteworthy tidbit—but it did set him on a new path. In that same piece, Eric Clapton called Mayer a “bedroom” guitarist and said, “I wasn’t sure if John was aware of the power of playing with other people.” Perhaps aware he was supposed to be burnishing the younger player’s image, he added, “Though I think he is now.” The power of playing with other people is central to what makes the music of the Grateful Dead work. Garcia knew this intuitively. Though he possessed the skills to shred, he rarely did. His playing was rarely showy. Rather than draw attention to himself, he stoked the flames of what his bandmates were doing, hinting at directions they might take together or else allowing himself to soak in the mood they had collectively created. Every line seemed to end in a question mark; he didn’t make assertions, he made suggestions.

This is only part of the reason Garcia became an icon to many. Despite the Grateful Dead’s sunshine-daydream image in the popular mind, their music is deeply suffused with pain and confusion. Robert Hunter’s lyrics feint toward salvation without being able to offer it, and they’re deeply informed by the fact that each individual is ultimately responsible for navigating the fog of life. “If I knew the way, I would take you home,” goes the band’s defining statement, from “Ripple.” The scholar Brent Wood surveyed the band’s lyrics and discovered that about three-fourths of the songs Garcia sang are about suffering, and a full half of those songs are about death. Garcia played guitar in a way that perpetuated these feelings—the persistent reality of pain and the desire to find a little happiness anyway are both present in so much of what he did. With Dead and Company, Weir allows the songs to move more slowly, until the jams begin to take on an almost painterly quality. When it works, the jam becomes as much a part of the story as the lyrics, a sigh of emotion spontaneously exhaled by the six guys onstage.

It took Mayer a moment to understand how he fit into the music; witness him trying to play roadhouse blues in the twilit silence of a “Space” jam in 2015. But as he found his footing, and particularly as he developed his musical relationship with keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, his ability to meet the songs on their own terms deepened. “I’ve always said that if I’m doing my job right, I bring the crowd closer to the music they love while disappearing from the equation a little bit,” he wrote on Instagram a few days before the Forum shows. Indeed, it’s a minor miracle that his star power vanishes the moment he steps onstage, where he appears to be just some dude in an expensive-looking T-shirt and with very bad tattoos. While the jokes about 17-minute versions of “Your Body Is a Wonderland” never subside from some corners of the Dead world, by the time the 2023 tour arrived, Mayer was fully integrated into the cosmos. There have been “John Mayer Is Dead to Me” shirts on the lot for years. In San Francisco, I see one that says, simply and provocatively and sincerely, “He is my Jerry.”

Onstage at the Forum, he’s restrained and tasteful. He plays “Althea” as if he, too, is awed by the oracle at the song’s center, and by the oracle the song has been for him. It’s not hard to understand why. The titular character functions as a mirror for the narrator, telling him he’s been “honest to the point of recklessness” and “self-centered in the extreme.” He says he’s “lacking in some direction,” that “treachery” is “tearing me limb from limb.” “Ain’t nobody messing with you but you,” Althea tells him, and the truth cools his head.

The most commonly asked question on tour: “Where is Shakedown Street?” Named for the Dead’s disco-funk song, it’s ostensibly a tailgate, but that descriptor is wildly insufficient. The most common answer, also taken from the song: “You just gotta poke around.”

This is probably true in some places. In New York, at Citi Field, you do not have to poke around. Shakedown Street pokes you. It is impossible to miss, taking over a fenced-in parking lot under the elevated train tracks across the street from the stadium. Dozens of people are pushing through the narrow gate at all times, and instantly they’re surrounded by people with ice chests selling domestics, microbrews, White Claws, you name it for $5 a can. Grills hiss in the distance. Nitrous tanks hiss nearby. Balloons pop constantly. “Mushrooms, K, acid” is whispered loudly by dudes making conspicuous eye contact. A sign advertises BULK FEMINIZED SEEDS in bold type. There’s a booth selling Jerry rolls, which seem to be some kind of sandwich and not a drug. Everyone has their own version of grilled cheese: vegan cheese, gluten-free bread, but no sight of the guy from 2022 who promised “bacon in every motherfucking bite.” From every direction, tapes of old Dead shows—both Grateful Dead and Dead and Company—blast from portable stereos and car sound systems.

People started selling things in the parking lots at Grateful Dead shows as early as 1973, author Jesse Jarnow reports in Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America , around the same time they started following the band on tour. It makes sense: sell a few limp burritos, make enough money to get to the next show. By the 1980s, Shakedown became its own attraction, as its cheery lawlessness drew in crowds of college students anxious to party, runaways escaping the latchkey lifestyle, white kids with dreads claiming their parents still lived in Babylon, and genuine Deadheads, too. The psychologist Joseph Campbell, who lived next door to Weir, once took in the parking-lot scene in Oakland and declared it an “antidote for the atom bomb.” By 1989, it had expanded so much it made the Dead unwelcome in places they’d played for years, with riots and general mayhem leading the band to prohibit vending outside gigs. Did it work? Come on.

There is much to buy on Shakedown Street. Not just drugs, though definitely drugs. There are crystal sellers whose wares have gone dusty from years of exactly this, and those who are selling fragile $1,000 specimens that should probably not be out on a folding table with this many wasted people around. There are head-shop-quality patches and pins tacked to a corkboard. A guy calling himself Grateful Fred is selling metallic plaques of Dead iconography you can put on your trunk to make it look like Toyota is offering up a limited-edition Wookmobile; he has the hatchback door of a brand-new Volkswagen set up in his booth so that you can see how they look in situ.

But mostly there is versioning. In the same way that a dub producer takes the elements of a traditional reggae track and reframes it into something more wigged out, artists have been fucking with the iconography of the Grateful Dead and selling it back to Deadheads for decades. A pre-fame Keith Haring sold shirts on the lot in 1977, his characteristic line work already apparent in the doodles that fill the blank space in the Stealie. A guy calling himself New Springfield Boogie exclusively makes merch that references both the Dead and The Simpsons , and with the charisma of Lyle Lanley selling Springfield on the Monorail , he gleefully shares the names of his creations. Homer disappearing into the roses of the band’s Bertha skeleton is given the “St. Stephen”–referencing title “In and Out of the Garden He Goes.”

Anything worn onstage by Mayer gets a boost. In 2022, an official shirt designed by bootlegger Jeremy Dean with a dancing bear face and the word “California” in a straightforward script was sold out before the end of the first set at the first show of the tour. When I ask one vendor how many of his $80 sweatshirts (which have a BMW logo in the Stealie) he sold after John wore one in June, he demurs, telling me only, “A lot.” I ask another vendor whether he’s concerned the band will force him to stop selling his shirts, which violate the only enforced rule of vending by having the words “Dead and Company” on them. He laughs and tells me he’ll just text Mayer and have him sort it out.

This is commerce, plain and simple, and there are obvious points to be made about the co-opting of the counterculture and the frenzy of consumerism. Dead and Company themselves certainly aren’t shy about accruing capital. But in the moment, as the beers flow and the trips come on, it feels like a convincing illusion of everything Heads project onto the band: freedom, joy, bright abandon. Unlike at a sporting event, there is no sense of aggression because there is no opponent. Unlike at a mass church gathering, there is no sense of propriety or even reverence; the enthusiasm is ungated. At least until the sun goes down and the chemicals start to curdle, it is a bright, warm—druggy, paranoid—dream, the California ideal appearing like a mirage in the heart of New York City.

We spend two days at the Gorge, mostly sitting in a scrap of shade beneath what must be the only row of trees in all of eastern Washington, and the view never begins to seem real. Maybe you’ve seen pictures of the scenic natural amphitheater on the other side of the Cascades from Seattle and wondered what it’s like to see a show there. It is beyond picturesque. It is difficult—genuinely difficult—to take it all in. The stage is placed perfectly, right in a crook of the Columbia River, and for the first set of both nights, before the sun goes down, it is more or less impossible to pay attention to the band onstage. The rugged cliff faces and soft turns in the landscape are the only things around that look older and more weathered than Weir.

Other than the surprisingly robust cell service, there is nothing convenient about the Gorge. It’s literally in the middle of nowhere, equally remote from Seattle and Spokane. Getting in Thursday night takes three hours owing to increased security. The campsites, where thousands of Deadheads are posted up from Thursday night through Sunday morning, are a rugged mile or so trek from the entrance to the amphitheater itself. Even though the venue is nearly 40 years old, there are no permanent bathrooms.

The heat is so bad on Night 1, the band seems to check itself. They cut their tempo and ease their way through the songs, whether to discourage ecstatic dance in the crowd or to ensure they make it through the evening themselves. We are near the end of the road now, a week from the end of the tour, and everyone seems to be slightly distracted by that knowledge. Weed smoke clings to the ground as the sun pours into the amphitheater.

After the show, Shakedown stays open late. There are multiple bands playing in the campground, one of them working on a pacy jam that sounds like it’s on its way toward a Talking Heads song. In the morning, there are what appear to be Hare Krishnas playing a trance remix of chant music with live finger-cymbal accompaniment. I wander into Shakedown in search of iced coffee and find two kids in their 20s playing guitar, working their way through the Dead’s “Estimated Prophet” with no vocals, just wavering in the heat vision of one of Weir’s best songs. Someone is advertising a yoga retreat “for Deadheads ONLY” in Costa Rica. Another guy is hawking some kind of Dead-adjacent red wine despite the temperature. “What a long, strange trip it’s been for these grapes,” he cries. “But they’re here now, and so are you.”

So are we. “At this point, two and a half months in[to the tour], I’m exhausted,” Michael Koppinger Jr. tells me the next weekend in San Francisco. Koppinger is a vendor in his early 20s who went to his first show in Raleigh in 2018, was given LSD by a friendly beer salesperson before he even made it to Shakedown, and never looked back. “It blew my mind,” he says. “I was raised Catholic and in this strict upbringing and culture. If people did drugs, it was like, you were bad. So to just be in a space where you could do whatever and it was normalized, it kinda blew my shit.” He printed up his first shirt in 2021, with plans to sell a hundred or so over a weekend run, then come home. Instead, he pulled out of a plan to buy a house with his (now ex-)girlfriend, put everything he owned in his parents’ attic, and split. “I’ve been on the road pretty much since,” he tells me.

Besides the profound bodily exhaustion, the biggest struggle of being a touring Deadhead in 2023 is scraping together gas money. “Once you get to Shakedown, you can make things work,” Koppinger says. “You can get into the show, you can get fed, you can get a drink. The community takes care of itself. But getting show to show, spot to spot, it’s rough.” As they cross the country, Heads panhandle for gas money, pile into the backs of buses and sleep in piles, and do what it takes to get to the next show. “I don’t live in this amount of love and community in everyday life,” Koppinger says. “In 2023 America, alienated, atomized, no one does.”

It is easy to get caught up in this. Even as I roast away in Washington, I’m clinging to what remains of this tour, of the fiction that you can simply zone out of everyday life in the name of having a good time and bring the people you love with you. Nobody knows where this energy will go next summer, whether to jam upstarts Goose or to bluegrass hero Billy Strings or, as it did in ’95, back to Phish. What’s certain is that it won’t be destroyed, even if it transmutes. Even if it lies dormant.

Nobody believes that what happens on tour or at a Dead show is a truly sustainable lifestyle. Like the music itself, it’s ephemeral, being created and destroyed in the same moment. It takes up space in real life, but it exists outside it, in the carnivalesque. The trick, when it all finally ends, is to remember that and not get rolled up in the tent when the circus leaves town.

But first, we have to go to San Francisco.

There are many rumors. The obvious ones involve the last living members of the Grateful Dead who aren’t in Dead and Company: Lesh is going to sit in. Background vocalist Donna-Jean Godchaux will step in to sing. Kreutzmann will join in for “Drums” (Billy himself stokes the last one by tweeting, “You know what would be cool …” a week before the final show; he never elaborates). Bob Dylan toured with the Grateful Dead in 1987 and has been covering “Brokedown Palace” lately, plus he has a break in his tour. Neil Young is in the area and has a conspicuous hole in his itinerary, too. Some people shoot for the stars and insist Paul McCartney will come out for the twinned covers of Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” and “Hey Jude.”

In the end, none of this happens. Dead and Company set up in center field at Oracle Park and play six sets over three nights, about 10 hours of music, with no repeats. When they launch into “Bertha” to open Night 3, there is a prickling in the air. Bassist Oteil Burbridge’s wife has painted Garcia’s famous four-fingered handprint onto her husband’s face, and when the cameras focus on him during a cover of the Rascals’ “Good Lovin’,” the roar from the crowd is staggering. There have been so many big-time Dead shows in stadiums like this, and in the fresh daylight and cool early-evening San Francisco breeze, time collapses, and it feels like we’re inside each and every one of those shows; I’m fully conscious of the fact that for something to be timeless, it has to exit time, it has to die.

Weir was 16 when he joined the Grateful Dead. He grew up in Garcia’s shadow and never grew out of it. Garcia gained a kind of gravitas as he aged, even as heroin and diabetes ravaged his body and made him look 20 years older than he was. Weir courted silliness, wearing polo shirts tucked tidily into very small jean shorts. The Spinners, a religious movement that sprung up around the band and gained enough traction to warrant serious anthropological study, took as dogma what many fans felt: “Jerry Garcia is sacred and Bobby Weir is profane,” as Jarnow sums it up in Heads .

Another thing: “Bobby Weir makes me weep,” Jarnow tells me over Zoom one afternoon. He makes me weep, too. Somehow, in his old age, Weir has become a stately presence, a figure of poise. He carries with him the entire history of the counterculture, and he seems to feel its weight. When he sings Marty Robbins’s “El Paso” or Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried,” he inhabits the weariness of longing and guilt. There are Garcia songs that, thanks to age and wisdom or maybe just sheer repetition, Weir sings better than Jerry ever did: Witness him reel off the names of Billy Sunday and Jack the Ripper in “Ramble on Rose.” He sings with a far-off focus, as powerful and distant as a spaceship cruising through the cosmos. On Night 2 in San Francisco, he sings the postapocalyptic “Morning Dew” drenched in green light, his voice ragged and heartbroken as he surveys what’s left of the world after it ends.

Weir didn’t write the majority of the Grateful Dead’s best songs. “Ripple,” “Eyes of the World,” “Terrapin Station,” “Brokedown Palace,” “Sugaree,” “Althea”—they’re all Garcia’s. But over the 30 years they played together, Weir gained a better understanding of how those songs worked than anyone else possibly could. When he plays them, it’s hard to argue that they’re not in some way his.

The Grateful Dead keep dying. And regardless of whether Dead and Company are truly done right now, they will die one day, too. (Mayer set off a firestorm online by saying Dead and Company is “still a band—we just don’t know what the next show will be” a couple of days after the last show at Oracle Park; theories abound.) But written into the music is the notion that songs themselves don’t need their creators to live. This is hardly revolutionary in the world of jazz, where standards frequently outlive the people who wrote them, or in classical music, where most composers are incapable of performing their own works in the first place. But in rock ’n’ roll, where the cult of authenticity insists that meaning comes mostly in creation, rarely in interpretation, the music and ethos of the Dead are an anomaly. Dead and Company are far from the only group keeping this music alive, but Weir, convinced of the power of the songs as forms of expression and not simply vehicles for dancing or virtuosity or even experimentation, frames his band’s catalog with the dignity it deserves.

It is but one way of keeping the Dead alive. There are so many ways to express yourself, so many paths into and out of this music. Everyone has the right to desire their own expansion, to test their edges and see what else they might be able to contain. I see so many people on Dead tours who can’t possibly dress this way in their everyday lives. On tour, or at the one show they can afford to hit, or watching the livestream at home, or catching some local Dead band struggle through the “Slipknot!” changes, Deadheads enact the answer to a simple problem. The alienation we all feel is real and unavoidable. What if we learned to understand it as good?

Sadie Sartini Garner has written music criticism for Pitchfork , The A.V. Club , The Outline , and many other places. She lives in Long Beach, California, with her partner Rachelle.

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Dead & Company Announce Final Tour

By Matthew Strauss

Dead & Company —the group featuring John Mayer and members of Grateful Dead —have announced their last tour. The shows will take place in summer 2023. The band will share the tour itinerary at a later date. Find Dead & Company’s announcement below.

Dead & Company got announced in August 2015, with the band’s first concert taking place that October. Since then, the group has toured annually. Ahead of this year’s summer tour , there was speculation that Dead & Company would quit touring after 2022. The band’s Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann, however, was surprised to hear the rumors .

Dead & Company have had many notable moments at their concerts. For instance, back in 2018, they performed with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon . Also that year, the band showed support for the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during a Florida concert. And, this past July, while on tour in Virginia, Dead & Company shared a message in support of abortion and reproductive rights.

Dead & Company:

As we put the finishing touches on booking venues, and understanding that word travels fast, we wanted to be the first to let you know that Dead & Company will be hitting the road next summer for what will be our final tour. Stay tuned for a full list of dates for what will surely be an exciting, celebratory, and heartfelt last run of shows. With love and appreciation, Dead & Company

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Dead and Company Play Final Show: Videos and Set List

Dead & Company played their final show on Sunday night, delivering a sprawling performance across two sets at San Francisco’s Oracle Park.

The night began with "Bertha," the opening track from the Grateful Dead 's 1971 album Skull and Roses . From there, the group -- made up of former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart , alongside singer-guitarist John Mayer, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, bassist Oteil Burbridge and drummer Jay Lane -- rocked through an array of classic material, along with several covers.

Highlights from set number one included a rendition of the Rascals’ “Good Lovin’,” beloved Deadhead favorite “Althea” and a pair of songs the band’s late leader, Jerry Garcia , released on his 1972 solo album : “Loser” and “Bird Song.”

Dead & Company stuck exclusively to Grateful Dead material for their second set, delivering an array of tunes from throughout the band’s long and influential career.

Just as impressive as the music were the visuals. Dead & Company have earned rave reviews for their drone shows during the farewell tour, and the final stop really was something to behold. At different points, the famous Grateful Dead Logo could be seen high above Oracle Park. At the end of the show, a giant skeleton in the sky tipped his hat to the fans.

The night ended with a three song encore made up of “Truckin’,” “Brokedown Palace” and “Not Fade Away.” See videos and the full set list from the concert below.

It was Mayer who was originally the driving force behind Dead & Company’s formation. The singer-songwriter, who was already a hugely successful solo artist, became a massive fan of the Grateful Dead sometime around 2011. In 2015, he befriended Weir, and soon the musicians began collaborating at occasional shows. Mayer was invited to join the surviving Grateful Dead members for a series of 50th anniversary shows, further setting things into motion.

Dead & Company was officially announced in fall of 2015, and the group would embark on their first tour that year. The band has remained active ever since, regularly heading out on summer treks and performing at some of the biggest festivals in the world.

"Well, it looks like that's it for this outfit," Weir noted when the 2023 tour was unveiled, announcing that this tour would be Dead & Company’s last. "But don’t worry, we will all be out there in one form or another until we drop."

Dead & Company, Oracle Park, San Francisco, 7/16/23 1. “Bertha” 2. “Good Lovin'” 3. “Loser” 4. “High Time” 5. “Samson and Delilah” 6. “Althea” 7. "Dear Mr. Fantasy" 8. "Hey Jude" 9. “Bird Song” 10. “Help on the Way” 11. “Slipknot!” 12. “Franklin's Tower” 13. “Estimated Prophet” 14. “Eyes of the World” 15. "Drums" 16. "Space" 17. "Days Between" 18. "Cumberland Blues" 19. "Sugar Magnolia" 20. "Truckin'" 21. "Brokedown Palace" 22. "Not Fade Away"

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We’ve got the windy city covered., dead & company wave goodbye to wrigley field capturing “what a long strange trip it’s been”.

Posted by Andy Argyrakis

When the Grateful Dead mounted the mammoth “Fare Thee Well” at Soldier Field in 2015 to honor its 50th anniversary, demand to see the show was so unprecedented, Deadheads camped out downtown for days in hopes of at least hearing a slice of what truly wound up being the last time all the surviving core members performed together.

The time has come for its equally appreciated offshoot act, Dead & Company, to do the same, anchored by guitarist/singer Bob Weir and percussionist Mickey Hart, plus longtime co-leader/guitarist John Mayer, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, bassist Oteil Burbridge, along with newer drummer Jay Lane, who officially took over following the amicable departure of co-founder Bill Kreutzmann.

On opening night, Dead & Company divided the well over three-hour excursion into two sets with the almighty Mayer and the veteran Weir swapping leads, gradually getting into the groove by sculpting the selections to match the mood of the setting sun.

“Playing In The Band” allowed everyone to get their wheels oiled, while “Tennessee Jed,” “Ramble On Rose” and a cover of Martha And The Vandellas’ “Dancing In The Street,” complete with the beloved line “they’re dancing in Chicago,” locked into the improvisational essence of a band that’s often imitated but will never be duplicated.

Following a roughly 30-minute intermission, Dead & Company delivered what felt like a whole other concert, and thanks to darkness of the night sky, the stadium-sized light show and accompanying screens only enhanced the multi-sensory experience.

The increasingly adventurous “Drums” and the more subdued “Space” transported the masses into another plane of existence all together, though “Sugar Magnolia,” “Scarlet Begonias” and “Sunshine Daydream” picked up some serious but nonetheless bittersweet steam knowing the “long strange trip” was yet again coming to an end, but will no doubt continue to be passed down to future generations just as ready to jam.

For additional information on Dead & Company, visit DeadAndCompany.com .

For a list of upcoming Live Nation concerts, visit LiveNation.com .

Upcoming concert highlights at Wrigley Field include Dead & Company (Jun. 10); Fall Out Boy (Jun. 21); Morgan Wallen (Jun. 23); Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band (Aug. 9 and Aug. 11); Pink (Aug. 12); Guns N’ Roses (Aug. 24) and Jonas Brothers (Aug. 25). For additional details, visit MLB.com/Cubs/Tickets/Concerts .

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Breaking news, dead & company plays their final show as a band in san francisco at deadhead-packed oracle park.

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The long strange trip made its final stop.

Deadheads from all corners of the world flocked to San Francisco’s Oracle Park Sunday night to see iconic jam band the Grateful Dead’s successor, Dead & Company, play the last show of their ‘Final Tour.’

Two of the surviving members of the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir and Mickey Hart — along with singer-songwriter John Mayer, ex-Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and newly added drummer Jay Lane (who replaced one of the band’s original drummers, Bill Kreutzmann, for the final tour) — thrilled fans in the town where the original Dead was formed in 1965.

Kicking off their last run of shows on Friday, over 40,000 fans had packed into the ballpark each night, with all three shows sold out.

For their final show, Deadheads were treated to some of the band’s more popular but cherished tunes, like “Bertha” and “Althea” during their first set, and after the intermission, heard Mayer slide on the guitar and bop around on stage to the likes of “Help on the Way” and “Cumberland Blues.”

Over 40,000 people crammed into the stadium to bare witness to the bands final performance.

The band’s encore and final performance ended with “Truckin’,” “Brokedown Palace,” and closed with “Not Fade Away” — accompanied by a dazzling drone performance above the stadium — before Dead & Company gave their last bow to the audience.

For Deadheads tuning in via live stream through Nug.net — a live concert streaming service that had the exclusive rights to broadcast the show — the experience was less than ideal, with many missing segments of the show due to login issues or not being able to access their accounts altogether for the final hurrah.

‘The Final Tour’ started in Los Angeles on May 19, spanning to major US cities like New York and Chicago.

Showing love from the Big Apple , the Empire State Building took “tie dye to the skies,” illuminating the building in rainbow colors in honor of their final performance.

Dead & Company breathed new life into a fading culture after its formation in 2015.

It expanded its already diehard fan base to new lengths when adding Mayer, 45, to fill in the enormous shoes left by legendary frontman Jerry Garcia — who died in 1995 from a heart attack at 53 years old.

Traditional Deadheads were originally against the idea of Mayer — commonly perceived as a popish, billboard guitar player due to some of his solo work — being integrated as one of the faces of their decades-old lifestyle when it was first announced eight years ago.

John Mayer linked up with the Bob Weir after discovering the Deads music by chance.

The guitarist first discovered the band in 2011 when he heard “Althea” during a random streaming session.

“When Grateful Dead music found me, it was the perfect moment,” Mayer said in a 2016 interview with CBS Sunday Morning , “For me, [Grateful Dead songs] rekindled the color of music.”

After linking up with Weir years later in 2015 for a jam session, the two rockers began laying the groundwork for Dead & Company.

After the first summer tour, it became apparent to many that Mayer’s fluency and freedom with scaling the guitar, charismatic mannerisms on stage, and blues-toned voice played homage to Garcia and became a beloved and embraced addition to the scene.

The venue was sold out for all three of the band's final performances.

Mayer brought with him an explosion of younger millennials and Gen Zers, who were quickly exposed to the band’s thick catalog of live performances, with some even connecting with their parents over the music due to the band’s span through multiple generations.

“I know that the music will continue, but it’s heartbreaking to see ‘my’ version of the Dead end,” Aidan Chism, 20, of Indiana, told The Post — saying he went to his first Dead & Company show in 2016 with his dad, and has been to 13 since.

“The memories will always be tied to bonding with my dad, and the transitional periods of my life from high school, through COVID, and now college. I’ve met so many friends traveling to shows, and have introduced my own friends to the music and they’ve fallen in love with it.”

The band has toured regularly each summer since 2015 — except for 2020 due to the pandemic.

Drones during Space. #DeadandCompany #DeadandCoFinalTour #drones pic.twitter.com/P5npxs7a2K — Freedom (@sfmuller73) July 17, 2023

Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir performing with 'the Grateful Dead' in Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California on October 9, 1976.

Weir, 75, was only 16 years old when he met Garcia in Palo Alto in 1963 — forming a jug band with the banjo player-turned-guitarist that would later transcend into the psychedelic rock band the Grateful Dead — announced in September of 2022 Dead & Company would be hanging it up after the 2023 tour.

“Well, it looks like that’s it for this outfit,” Weir tweeted . “But don’t worry we will all be out there in one form or another until we drop.”

But Weir, along with drummer Hart, is no stranger to goodbyes.

Months before Dead & Company’s formation — Weir, Hart, original bassist Phil Lesh, and Kreutzmann performing as ‘The Dead’ had their ‘Fare Thee Well’ tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead.

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Mandisa remembered. Fans, music industry, friends pay tribute to 47-year-old singer

Grammy-award winning musician and "American Idol" alum Mandisa was found dead at her Nashville home on Thursday.

The 47-year-old Christian singer dazzled audiences when she hit the stage of "American Idol" in 2005 and made it through to the final nine. From there she released her debut album, but dealt with pain from the loss of a beloved friend and having a personal crisis of faith. Her journey through heartache and depression to finding her faith again inspired many that were going through similar situations.

"Mandisa was a voice of encouragement and truth to people facing life’s challenges all around the world," was written on an Instagram post announcing Mandisa's death.

Since the news of her death, family, fans and friends in and out of the music industry, have paid tribute to the singer.

What happened to Mandisa?

On Friday, The Media Collective, Mandisa's rep, issued this statement confirming her death, but did not disclose how the songstress died.

"We can confirm that yesterday Mandisa was found in her home deceased. At this time we do not know the cause of death or any further details. We ask for your prayers for her family and close-knit circle of friends during this incredibly difficult time."

Mandisa's story and journey to 'Overcome' touched many

Mandisa crisis of faith was an inspiration not only for an album, but inspired others who were going though hardship. Fans shared their stories on the Instagram post announcing her death.

"I’m devastated 💔💔💔 Overcomer help me healed when I loss my daughter at 16. She gave hope even when she didn’t have any to give herself. Mandisa is truly one of God’s Devine. I hope she finally has the peace she struggled so long to find. We have truly really loss one of God’s truest and purest creatures… I love you now and forever on Mandisa. God speed on your journey to heaven….," wrote user keishacraftsmith.

Mourning her loss: TobyMac remembers Mandisa after Christian singer's death, 'I know her battle is over ...'

Other's shared how her music and writing helped them through some of the toughest times in their lives. Actress Candace Cameron Bure shared broken heart emojis under the post, while Christian rap artist Wande offered condolences.

Fellow Christian musician and friend Colton Dixon, shared memories of being on the road with Mendisa and Toby Mac.

"Mandisa is the sweetest, kindest soul that @anniedixon__ and I have met on the road. After hearing she went to be with the Jesus last night I was reflecting this morning on the times we had together," Dixon wrote.

Singer and songwriter Matthew West paid tribute to his longtime friend and collaborator with lyrics from their song "Only the World", stating that they "hit differently" now that Mandisa was gone.

"I am so incredibly saddened to hear about the loss of my friend Mandisa. I will always cherish the memories of times we spent together hosting award shows, going on tour, and most of all helping her tell her story in the songwriting room," West also wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts also paid tribute to the late singer.

"My heart is heavy hearing about Mandisa. Incredibly blessed that she was there my first day back on ⁦ @GMA ⁩ following my long medical leave. Her beautiful music & spirit lifted me and countless others," Roberts wrote on X.

Fellow musician Don Moen provided a statement to The Tennessean, saying Mandisa was not only a powerhouse of a talent, but that she also possessed a genuinely kind spirit.

"We ministered together several times, she sang background vocals on my album 'Thank You Lord' and joined me on several tours," the statement read. "On one particular tour, notes kept appearing in everyone's bunk on the bus or in their instrument cases. These were encouraging messages like: 'You are blessed and highly favored,' or 'You're such a blessing on this tour.' Only at the end of the tour did we discover it had been Mandisa. Whether behind the scenes or center stage, her presence always brought joy and hope.

Where was Mandisa from?

Mandisa was born in California, but her home was in Tennessee.

She graduated Fisk University in Nashville in 2000 and was a member of the famed Fisk University Jubilee singers. She called Tennessee home after her graduation, through her "American Idol" tenure, a Grammy win, multiple albums and until her death on Thursday.

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The Dead Don't Hurt

Two pioneers fight for the survival of their lives and their love on the American frontier during the Civil War. Two pioneers fight for the survival of their lives and their love on the American frontier during the Civil War. Two pioneers fight for the survival of their lives and their love on the American frontier during the Civil War.

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The Stark Reality of Israel’s Fight in Gaza

Israel has failed to achieve its two primary goals of the war, while the suffering of Palestinians erodes support even among its allies.

Six months into the conflict in Gaza, the question of what Israel has achieved is creating ever more intense global strains. Credit... Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times

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By Julian E. Barnes , Adam Goldman , Eric Schmitt and Adam Rasgon

Reporting from Washington and Jerusalem

April 22, 2024

Israel’s military operations in Gaza have weakened Hamas. Most Hamas battalions have been degraded and are scattered. Thousands of its members have been killed, and at least one senior military leader has been eliminated.

Yet Israel has not achieved its primary goals of the war: freeing hostages and fully destroying Hamas.

The war and the tactics of the Israel Defense Forces have come at a great cost. Vast numbers of Palestinian civilians have been killed in the Israeli campaign; hunger is widespread in Gaza; and deaths around relief efforts have generated condemnation.

Six months into the conflict, the question of what Israel has achieved — and when and how the fighting could come to an end — is creating ever more intense global strains around a war that has cost Israel support from even close allies.

Israel’s own military casualties have begun to climb, with about 260 killed and more than 1,500 injured since its pulverizing ground assault began in the weeks after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7.

Israeli officials say that about 133 of the hostages taken remain in Gaza. But talks to secure the return of at least some of them in exchange for a halt in the fighting and the release of Palestinian prisoners have hit a snag. Hamas has rebuffed the latest proposal and claims it does not have 40 hostages who meet the terms of the first part of the proposed deal, raising questions about how many are still alive and how many are held by other groups.

The war has settled into a deadly pattern of skirmishes and airstrikes as Israeli forces continue to operate in Gaza, targeting Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters. Last week, with tensions between Israel and Iran increased, the Israeli military said it struck more than 100 targets and killed dozens of fighters in the central part of the enclave, including a Hamas security officer who served in the group’s intelligence wing.

A coffin draped with the Israeli flag is viewed from above during a funeral for a soldier.

The Israeli military says Hamas casualties continue to mount but that no Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in Gaza since April 6 . That suggests that the pace of the fighting and Hamas’s capabilities have waned for now.

But both sides are bracing for a larger operation in the southern city of Rafah, Hamas’s last stronghold that Israel has not invaded.

And there is more uncertainty about what will follow Rafah, with questions about who will govern Gaza and provide its security if the fighting is to end.

This article is based on interviews with American and Israeli officials, members of Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza. Some spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military planning, sensitive diplomacy or secret intelligence assessments.

Despite Hamas’s heavy losses, much of its top leadership in Gaza remains in place, ensconced in a vast underground network of tunnels and operations centers, calling the shots in the hostage negotiations. Those tunnels will allow Hamas to survive and reconstitute once the fighting stops, current and former U.S. officials say.

“Palestinian resistance to Israel, manifested by Hamas and other militant groups, is an idea as much as it is a physical, tangible group of people,” said Douglas London, a retired C.I.A. officer who spent 34 years at the agency. “So for as much damage Israel might have inflicted on Hamas, it still has capability, resilience, funding and a long line of people most likely waiting to sign up and join after all the fighting and all the destruction and all the loss of life.”

In an annual intelligence assessment released in March, American spy agencies expressed doubts about Israel’s ability to truly destroy Hamas, which the United States has designated a terrorist group.

“Israel probably will face lingering armed resistance from Hamas for years to come,” the report said, “and the military will struggle to neutralize Hamas’s underground infrastructure, which allows insurgents to hide, regain strength and surprise Israeli forces.”

After six intense months, the war has come down to Rafah.

The Israeli military believes four battalions of Hamas fighters are based in the city and that thousands of other fighters have taken refuge there, along with around a million civilians.

The Israeli military says those battalions must be dismantled.

Israeli officials said the only way to destroy those battalions is with a major push into Rafah by ground forces. Israeli security experts contend that destroying the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt that supply Hamas with arms will also be a critical goal.

But the planned invasion has become a point of friction between the United States and Israel.

Israel has not developed a plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah, U.S. officials said. Without one, the death toll in Gaza — already about 34,000, according to health officials there — will climb even higher. The Israeli government disputes those numbers, saying they do not distinguish between Hamas fighters and civilians killed during the war.

“I have not yet seen a credible and executable plan to move people that has any level of detail about how you not only house, feed and provide medicine for those innocent civilians, but also how you deal with things like sanitation, water and other basic services,” Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters earlier this month.

U.S. military officials say that Israel should model its plan on the siege of Mosul, Iraq, in 2017 by Iraqi forces and the U.S. Air Force. The operation destroyed large swaths of what was once Iraq’s second-largest city. While roughly 3,000 civilians were killed as a result of Iraqi or U.S. military action, by some estimates , the coalition successfully evacuated a million residents from the city ahead of the assault on the city.

For Rafah, American military planners want Israel to carry out targeted raids on Hamas strong points, but only after civilians have been relocated.

Israeli officials say they expect civilians to move to safer areas. But U.S. officials have said that with much of the strip nearly uninhabitable, Israel needs a better plan.

“This is an opportune time for Israel to transition to a new phase focused on very precise counterterrorism operations, particularly given the situation of 1.2 to 1.3 million Palestinians all clustered within Rafah and its environs,” said Lt. Gen. Mark C. Schwartz, a retired U.S. Special Operations commander who served as the American security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The movement of civilians within Gaza, and the Palestinians taking refuge in Rafah, is a major sticking point not just between the United States and Israel but also in the talks about a temporary cease-fire to secure the release of hostages.

On Thursday, William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, placed the lack of progress in the talks squarely at the feet of Hamas and its negative reaction to a U.S.-backed proposal presented this month.

“It’s a big rock to push up a very steep hill right now,” Mr. Burns said. “It’s that negative reaction that really is standing in the way of innocent civilians in Gaza getting humanitarian relief.”

U.S. officials say privately that the only way to get Israel to stop the Rafah operation is through a hostage release deal.

But Israeli officials say they believe it is only the looming operation in Rafah that has kept Hamas in negotiations.

As the talks continue, there is rising anger among families of hostages about Israel’s failure to bring their loved ones home.

Gilad Korngold, 62, whose son Tal Shoham is one of the hostages, said he was overcome with feelings of “despair, frustration, anger and fear” because of the government’s failure to strike a deal to free the hostages.

“They abandoned them,” he said in an interview. “Time is running out. We don’t know how they’re doing, if they’re eating or drinking, or if they’re getting medicine. We don’t know anything about them.”

Mr. Korngold said three members of his family were killed on Oct. 7 and that six others who had been abducted were released during a short-lived cease-fire in late November.

“Hostage recovery comes down to thoughtful and unified negotiations, and that will likely not happen until Israel withdraws the hammer,” said Jay Tabb, a Marine officer who fought in Iraq and served as a top F.B.I. executive working on counterterrorism and hostage issues.

Since the beginning of the war, Israel has tried to destroy the extensive tunnel network below Gaza.

The system runs for hundreds of miles, at points reaching 15 stories below ground, according to Israeli and U.S. officials. It contains larger complexes of underground rooms, used for command posts and refuges. Hamas has used the tunnels to hide its leaders, hold hostages and allow fighters to escape Israeli attack.

Israel has not been able to destroy the tunnels, which Hamas has spent years building. But Israeli officials say they have taken out most of the key nodes, the underground strategic complexes that Hamas has used to command its forces. About 70 percent of the complexes have been eliminated, said an Israeli military intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comply with army protocols.

Israeli officials also say their military has killed as many as 13,000 Hamas members, though experts caution that any figures are probably imprecise given the chaos of the war. And in March, Israel killed Marwan Issa, who was the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing and a presumed planner of the Oct. 7 attacks. He is the highest-ranking Hamas military leader eliminated during the war.

As a result of the fighting, 19 of Hamas’s 24 battalions are no longer functioning, the Israelis say.

Between the losses and damage to the underground complexes, Hamas’s ability to command its forces has been severely reduced.

But veterans of the United States’ wars say the number of enemy soldiers killed, or command posts destroyed, has proved a totally irrelevant fact and a deeply misleading measure of success in a military campaign.

To be sure, American intelligence agencies assess that Hamas has lost a significant amount of combat power, and that rebuilding will take time.

But that does not mean Hamas has been destroyed. Israeli officials said the group and other militant organizations still have many forces above and below ground. In northern Gaza, 4,000 to 5,000 fighters have held out, the Israeli military intelligence official said.

U.S. officials and analysts say Hamas is likely to remain a force in Gaza when the fighting is over. But how quickly it can rebuild will depend on Israel’s decisions in the next phases of the war and in its aftermath.

Both the Israeli military and the Palestinians are bracing for what comes next.

While Israel has continued to conduct strikes on Rafah, several Palestinians said they were struggling to survive.

“We’re going through a dreadful experience,” said Khalil el-Halabi, 70, a resident of Gaza City sheltering in a tent in Rafah. “Why do we have to live through this misery when we had nothing to do with Oct. 7? We just want to go back to our homes.”

Despite American pleas for restraint, Palestinians, Israelis and military experts expect that Israel will go into Rafah. The real question is what will happen after that.

Israel’s attacks have devastated Gaza. Palestinians returning to the southern city of Khan Younis after the Israeli military pulled out this month were confronted with an apocalyptic scene — endless islands of rubble, destroyed roads and the smell of human remains.

“I feel like Khan Younis was hit by a magnitude-50 earthquake,” said Mohammed al-Hassi, a medic from the city. “Entire neighborhoods have been erased, and people can’t even recognize where their homes once were.”

Some Israeli officials say grinding down Hamas may take years.

Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, told a group of Israelis in January that the war could last “a year, a decade or a generation,” according to a person who participated in the meeting.

American officials blanch at suggestions that intense Israeli operations could go on for two more months, let alone two more years.

They say Israel should declare victory over Hamas and move to a different kind of fight: one that targets senior Hamas leaders but does not brutalize civilians; one focused on preventing Hamas from resupplying and rebuilding, rather than pummeling the fighters that remain.

Equally critical, American officials say, is coming up with a plan to return the governance of Gaza to Palestinians. U.S. and Arab officials are pushing to announce steps toward a demilitarized Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and his government are against such moves. But Israeli officials have been reluctant to engage with Americans on their plans for Gaza, including who they intend to hand power over to, and what proposals for security and governance they would accept.

On Thursday, the United States vetoed a Palestinian bid to be recognized as a full member state at the United Nations, saying the step requires negotiations.

In the absence of Israel allowing a functioning Palestinian government to take charge, chaos and lawlessness have taken over as Israeli troops have withdrawn from parts of Gaza.

Current and former U.S. officials said that while Israel has not, and cannot, destroy Hamas, it has made the likelihood of a repeat of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack remote.

Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli military intelligence chief, agreed. “We’ve already achieved the most important thing: dismantling Hamas as an organized army capable of an Oct. 7 attack,” he said. “It can’t do it again.”

Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades. More about Julian E. Barnes

Adam Goldman writes about the F.B.I. and national security. He has been a journalist for more than two decades. More about Adam Goldman

Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times, focusing on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism issues overseas, topics he has reported on for more than three decades. More about Eric Schmitt

Adam Rasgon reports from Israel for The Times's Jerusalem bureau. More about Adam Rasgon

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

The tents that failed to keep out the cold when many Gazans first fled their homes have now become suffocating as highs surpass 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Here’s how the heat is exacerbating already dire problems from Israel’s war in Gaza.

Israel welcomed a U.S. aid package signed by President Biden that will send about $15 billion in military aid to Israel, increasing American support for its closest Middle East ally despite strains in their relationship over Israel’s prosecution of the war in the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations’ human rights office called for an independent investigation into two mass graves found after Israeli forces withdrew from hospitals in Gaza, including one discovered days ago over which Israeli and Palestinian authorities offered differing accounts.

After weeks of delays, negotiations and distractions, Israel appeared to hint that its assault of Rafah — a city teeming with more than a million displaced persons above ground and riddled with Hamas tunnels below — was all but inevitable. Here’s how it might unfold .

Mourning Nearly 200 Relatives: Adam and Ola Abo Sheriah absorb a loss few can imagine, and scramble to help surviving family members in Gaza while trying to get their kids to their New Jersey school on time.

A Generational Clash on Seder: At Passover Seders, many families addressed the war in Gaza , leading to rising tensions, while 200 New Yorkers from pro-Palestinian Jewish groups were arrested after rallying near Chuck Schumer’s home to protest aid to Israel.

PEN America’s Fallout: The free expression group PEN America has canceled its 2024 literary awards ceremony following months of escalating protests over the organization’s response to the war in Gaza , which has been criticized as overly sympathetic to Israel.

Fears Over Iran Buoy Netanyahu: The Israeli prime minister lost considerable support after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Tensions with Iran have helped him claw some of it back.

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Dead and Company Officially Announces Final 2023 Tour Dates
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Dead & Company Announce 'The Final Tour' Dates For 2023
Dead & Company confirms dates for 2023 farewell trek, The Final Tour
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It was great while it lasted: Dead and Company has concluded final tour
The Grateful Dead's offshoot band, Dead and Company, concluded its final tour in California on Sunday. For fans and vendors who have been following the bands for decades, it's the end of an era.
Dead and Company Will Play Final Tour in 2023
The Grateful Dead offshoot will go on their last tour in 2023. Dead and Company are officially gearing up for its final tour. John Mayer posted a tour poster on his Instagram page that read "The ...
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Dead & Company Detail Final Tour With 2023 Concert Dates
October 6, 2022. Dead & Company, July 2022 ( Thomas Falcone) Dead & Company have revealed the details of the concerts that will comprise their final tour. The U.S. shows take place in May, June ...
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On Sunday night in San Francisco, Dead & Company performed the last concert of their final tour at Oracle Park. During the evening, bassist Oteil Burbridge paid tribute to Jerry Garcia, having ...
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The lineup of concerts has been announced for the last tour by Dead and Company next summer, with tickets set to go on sale next week. Plus Icon Click to expand the Mega Menu.
Dead and Company Final Tour Kicks Off at the Forum in Los Angeles
Dead and Company's summer tour — the group's last ever, at least in its current incarnation — had its official kick-off on Friday, May 19, at Los Angeles' Forum.The first of a two-night ...
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Dead & Company have announced the dates and venues for their final tour, set to run from mid-May to mid-July of 2023.The Grateful Dead offshoot featuring Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart ...
Dead & Company
DEAD & COMPANY is launching its 2023 summer tour on Friday, May 19 th and Saturday, May 20 th in Los Angeles at the Kia Forum with dates running through Friday, July 14 th and Saturday, July 15 th when the tour ends in San Francisco at Oracle Park. The band - Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, John Mayer, and Bob Weir, with Oteil Burbridge and ...
Dead & Company will end after their final tour next year
Dead & Company was first conceived back in 2015, when John Mayer - who at the time was serving as guest host for The Late Late Show - invited Bob Weir onstage to perform Althea: one of the first Grateful Dead tracks that Mayer had ever heard when he first discovered the band on Pandora.. After impressing with his performance, Mayer was then invited to join Weir in Dead & Company, which was ...
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Dead and Company final tour dates announced
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