In the upcoming Netflix documentary The Other One: The Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir, Grateful Dead fans get the opportunity to follow Weir throughout his life and career as he encountered recognition, drug experimentation, strength through family and everything in between.
"I've led a kind of unusual life," Bob Weir states in the trailer. "I was a 16-year-old kid when I started playing with the Grateful Dead. The music was an adventure...Our fans were a little bit different. We've got kind of a little gypsy entourage. You just had to see it."
Directed by God Bless Ozzy Osbourne's Mike Fleiss, the documentary will make its Netflix debut on May 22-spanning details from Weirs youth in Palo Alto, California to his dedication to the Dead and his remarkable friendship with frontman Jerry Garcia. In the trailer, Weir continued to highlight his connection with Garcia and electric guitars by saying "I could intuit and be there when he got there with a little surprise for him," he says.
The Other One includes interviews and conversations with musical companions and colleagues including Sammy Hagar, Bruce Hornsby and Mike Gordon as well as Grateful Dead and family members and Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann of the Dead, notes Entertainment Weekly. "If you don't have an ego, you can be the best Number Two on the planet," Sammy Hagar of Van Halen said. "That's kind of what Bob became. It makes him special."
Aside from interviews, The Other One incorporates an abundance of performance footage-previously seen as well as archived. "We certainly unearthed a lot of buried treasure from the Grateful Dead archive while making this film," Fleiss said, notes Rolling Stone.
The Dead will play three farewell shows for their 50th anniversary at the Bay Area's Levi's Stadium and Chicago's Soldier Field.
