When bassist Oteil Burbridge got the call in 2015 to join three members of the Grateful Dead and John Mayer in a new incarnation of the band called Dead & Company, he got straight to work learning the group’s vast catalog.
Burbridge, 52, was versed in the Dead – he got his start in the jam band Aquarium Rescue Unit before joining the Allman Brothers Band in 1997 – but he wasn’t quite a Deadhead. As he studied, one of the first songs he connected with was “China Doll,” a haunting, tender ballad sung by the Dead’s late leader, guitarist Jerry Garcia. “It really hits me emotionally,” Burbridge says.
Earlier this month, during Dead & Company’s third tour, the Washington, D.C., native started singing the song live, his first time taking lead vocals in the band. The second time he sang the song, it was in a packed stadium full of entranced fans in Boulder.
“I never thought I would be singing lead at all when I started playing, much less in a stadium, much less with original members of the Grateful Dead, singing one of Jerry’s songs,” Burbridge says. “It’s all very surreal.”
Like Mayer, who takes Garcia’s spot, Burbridge has the unenviable task of replacing bassist Phil Lesh, whose distinctive style defined many Dead songs and who is still alive and playing the music today (just not in this band).
“Fortunately for me, I have a really good relationship with Phil and we’ve had some great talks since I joined the band,” Burbridge says. “The original members (singer-guitarist Bob Weir and drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart), they were all like, ‘You have to respond to this music in the way that it makes you feel because that’s the only way it’s going to be authentic.’”
On this tour, Burbridge, Mayer, Weir, Kreutzmann, Hart and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti seem to have found a groove. They’re experimenting and breathing new life into songs that, in some cases, are more than 50 years old.
“It’s supposed to go somewhere different,” Burbridge says. “It’s not honest if we don’t take it somewhere different.”
Burbridge, like Mayer, has become a fan of the music later in life – he can now reference live versions of songs from specific dates, like a true Deadhead, he says – and is still finding new surprises within the songs, still soaking in the band’s rich history.
Burbridge recently watched “Long Strange Trip,” Amir Bar-Lev’s new documentary about the Dead, and had a revelation.
“When they get to the part where Jerry is about to die, they play (‘China Doll’) and it just really brought it home for me,” he says. “When did we start this, a year and a half ago? That’s when I zeroed in on that song. I really did connect with something meaningful and important there. It wasn’t just some random (song). That was pretty heavy when I was watching it.”
For Burbridge, this isn’t just a gig, either. He’s in Dead & Company for the long haul and plans to continue playing Grateful Dead music whenever this band’s trip ends. (He already moonlights in two Dead cover bands and is a member of another, Bureau of Sabotage.)
“It’s just so good that you don’t get tired of those songs,” he says. “I had tears coming down my face at the Hollywood Bowl when we were doing ‘Terrapin (Station).’ I don’t know why – it just hit me so hard. It’s something about where we were that night – it was just magic. When magic happens, it gets you.”
Burbridge has had to say goodbye to several friends and former bandmates this year. Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks died in January and Gregg Allman followed in May, as did Col. Bruce Hampton, who brought Burbridge into the jam band scene. “People ask me, ‘How are you?’ I don’t even know. These people really changed my life. They really mentored me.”
