The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir Page #2

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at the Tangent, but...

never actually formally met him.

I was walking this way,

heard some banjo music coming

from this area over in here...

and figured it was Jerry.

Knocked on the door

to see if he was into hanging,

and he was,

'cause his students weren't showing up

because it was New Year's Eve

and he was unmindful of that.

I don't think he had thought that through.

So we got to talking

and then he asked me,

"Want to grab some instruments

from the front of the shop?"

And so we played all night.

He was also

a great guy to hang with.

He was a lot of fun,

and we hit it off.

We kept each other laughing

and all that kind of stuff.

Soon, we were a jug band

and not long thereafter

we were a rock and roll band.

We were out of Palo Alto

and into the city and... off to the world.

So, we started a band

called the Warlocks.

I remember

the first time I met Bob very well.

I'm standing there talking to Jerry

and I ask him,

"Well, where's the weed, man?"

And he says, "Oh, my guitar player's

coming with some weed right now."

You know, any minute now."

So we go outside and we get in the car

and there's Bob.

Apparently, he had just

scored from Neal Cassady.

We sat in the car and rolled up,

and we all got good and high, you know.

And it was killer weed.

You know, Bob had that

beautiful manner about him

that made everyone really

love him from the get-go.

He was sort of like the magic object

in the middle of the band.

If you look back there,

you can see a swimming pool.

To the right of that,

there was a big lawn area.

We played a lawn party there one time.

A little after dark,

the neighbors started complaining,

and the party got shut down.

My folks were trying to get cozy

with my new career as a rock and roller.

I was a 16-year-old kid

when I started playing with Jerry.

And that's kind of where

the ride began for me.

You know,

I wanted to play music,

I wanted to have

a little adventure in my life.

And here it was, big as hell.

I took LSD every Saturday,

without fail, for about a year.

First time I took acid

was on Jerry's birthday,

August 1st, 1965.

I remember ending up

on a hilltop with Sue Swanson.

She did manage to coax out of me

if I'd had any insights.

I told her, "Yeah. You know, music.

That's what I'm here for. Music."

I guess I was officially done with school

when I ran off with the Pranksters.

It was the night

of my second Beatles concert.

I was high on acid at the time.

Out in the parking lot after the show,

there was the bus,

with all the Pranksters in full drag

hanging off it,

swinging off it like monkeys.

Yes, the Merry Band of Pranksters

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