Grateful Dead Stars Remember Phil Lesh And More in CBS Morning Preview

11-27-2024

CBS Mornings have shared a preview of their upcoming feature with members of the Grateful Dead in their first interview since the passing of iconic member Phil Lesh. The episode is currently scheduled to air on Wednesday, December 18th. The show sent over the following details and some excerpts:

The iconic American band, the Grateful Dead, will become Kennedy Center honorees next month. Five days after charter member Phil Lesh died, Bobby Weir,
Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart sat down with CBS News' Anthony Mason at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco for their first interview together since his passing. They reminisce on their legacy and late bandmate.

The show has shared a video preview on X and also shared highlights from the discussion below, beginning with the passing of Phil Lesh:

MASON: "Phil was originally supposed to be here today."

BAND MEMBERS: "Yeah. Yep."

KREUTZMANN: "I was hoping that we could play with him again one more time. So that, that was my sadness...'Cause I know he wanted to play with us again too."

MASON: "Was that in the plans?"

KREUTZMANN: "Yeah, definitely."

MASON: "It was?"

WEIR: "We were kickin' it around. In fact, we were gonna, we were gonna get together and, and kick some songs around tomorrow."

ON GETTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER

WEIR: "We just don't have enough to put a band together right now."

KREUTZMANN: "Well, not the three of us. I mean, we'd have to have other musicians join us."

MASON: "Were you planning to do this next year for the anniversary? Was that what you were..."

WEIR: "Well, we were just gonna..."

KREUTZMANN: "Yeah, I was. I was hopin' that we could do it."

WEIR: "Yeah, we were just gonna see..."

KREUTZMANN: "...for the 60th, would be fun."

WEIR: "We were gonna see where it goes. But we were just gonna play the four of us. And, and now there's only three of us..."

KREUTZMANN: "Right. Now it's different."

WEIR: "And that's different."

PHIL LESH'S IMPACT ON THE BAND

ANTHONY MASON: "Each of you said in the statements you put out that [Phil Lesh] changed your life."

WEIR: "Yeah...you know, I owe so much to, to the, the stuff that Phil taught me or turned me on to."

HART: "Phil turned me on to North Indian classical music...that was a major thing in my life."

WEIR: "Well, we, we developed this language that, that only we spoke, really."

KREUTZMANN: "And he taught us basically how to be free."

MASON: "He taught you how to be free?"

KREUTZMANN: "How to be free. How to play free and not have to play in any set, fixed way...He was a very unique bass player...It would help us be more improvisational."

MASON: "I think Phil's line was that when it's all working you open a valve, he said."

HART: "You could look at that metaphor because it just pours out, you know?"