Remembering Bobby Weir:
A Letter from HeadCount’s Current & Founding Executive Directors
From Lucille Wenegieme, Current Executive Director:
When I first learned about HeadCount years ago, someone described the organization as “Deadheads who get people to register to vote.” In the 22 years since HeadCount was born, no one has lent their bright light to us as many times and in as many special moments as Bob Weir.
I had only been running the organization solo for a month when my predecessor Andy took me to meet Bobby for the first time in a quiet restaurant in Mill Valley. Even though I hadn’t grown up with the Dead, I was keenly aware that there were fans who would give anything for the opportunity. When lunch led into desserts at Sweetwater Music Hall, I watched onlookers gawk and whisper when they saw him.
Bobby was soft-spoken, kind, and deeply generous with his time. Over the years that followed, every “Bobby sighting” was a treat, a good omen that the vibes would be high.
There is so much about Dead fans — and about HeadCount — that I learned from Bobby in our few meetings, in watching him perform his music, and in witnessing the broad sprawl of his legacy. At the Sphere shows in ‘24 and ‘25, I saw image after image, and song after song lovingly crafted to call back decades of fond memories for fans. It’s the same energy we try to emulate when we drop easter eggs for the fans in our posts, and how we’ve tried to make music fans of all genres feel like they have a place in HeadCount. During a practice jam session ahead of a performance in London with the Royal Philharmonic, I saw Bobby reimagine nearly 60 years of his work in a new way. It’s the same innovation and approach to new ideas that we try to bring to campaigns we launch.
HeadCount still has many volunteers and staff who have been involved in one way or another since the beginning. HeadCounters are people who always find a way to get to the show, and who link up whenever they’re in each other’s hometowns. They show up in big and small ways to make sure folks in their community have what they need. Bobby was the catalyst that brought tens of thousands of fans and volunteers to our organization, and that culture is Bobby’s legacy in action. Deadheads are collectively some of the most philanthropic music fans in the world, thanks in no small part to Bobby’s leadership and vision.
Whether it’s filling a raceway in New Jersey with tens of thousands of fans or supporting our little organization to register nearly 2 million people to vote, Bobby showed time and time again that pockets of people from all over, banding together, can do awesome things.
I am deeply grateful for his and Natascha’s support, and even more grateful that he made supporting us seem easy and natural to do, so that others would do the same. Bob’s passing leaves a responsibility to continue bringing civic participation into culture. To keep showing up where people gather. To realize the future he worked to build.
We’re on a mission from Bob, and we’ll keep at it til it’s done.
– Lucille
From Andy Bernstein, Co-Founder & former Executive Director:
Before HeadCount ever registered a single voter, Bob Weir agreed to join our board of directors. We didn’t even know how to get a hold of the guy directly to make it official.
On a winter day in 2004 I was in an elevator in a Manhattan office building, actively thinking about how to let Bobby know we were for real. And just at that moment, the doors opened, and he was literally standing in the lobby, for a random, totally unrelated reason. I ran up to him and told him who I was. Immediately, without hesitation, he gave me his cell number.
That kicked off a 22-year relationship. When Bob hopped onto our board of directors conference calls, he always announced himself with a short “Weir here.”
Indeed, he was always there, appearing exactly when he was needed, as if he somehow knew exactly how the script would unfold.
Like an angel, standing in a shaft of light.
In the ensuing years he headlined five different benefit concerts for HeadCount, shouted us out from stage, brought our crew on tours, did countless meet and greets with our volunteers and supporters, and appeared in every one of our photo campaigns and video productions. He even personally called dozens and dozens of fans to remind them to vote. Imagine picking up a call from an unknown number and getting Bobby Weir on the other end!
Bobby came to every situation and choice from a place of “yes.” That disposition - so unique for someone of his fame and accomplishment - is literally what allowed HeadCount to exist. Every rung of the ladder we climbed somehow involved standing on his shoulders.
One day I reached out and asked if he’d be open to christening his new TRI Studios by playing a show with an indie rock band he’d never heard of, for one of the first ever charity livestreams. His answer: “You bet.” That sublime performance with the National on March 24, 2012 was so good, they went on to record a full album and do an entire tour together. The National’s Aaron Dessner just called it the “surreal highlight of my entire career” – and he’s co-authored albums with Taylor Swift!
In 2015, just before the GD 50 shows, Bobby started plucking away at a guitar we asked him to sign, and he surprised us by offering to play it on stage. It ended up auctioning for $526,000 split among 17 organizations, and the Participation Row activism village was born. For the next decade he made sure Participation Row was at every Dead & Co show, and together we raised literally millions for all the “Dead Family” charities.
I remember at one of the last Sphere shows, seeing Bob, dressed like a wise old shaman, projected 7 stories high. Truly like an angel. And I could see that he had a HeadCount VOTE pin strategically placed on his guitar strap.
Bobby will never be replaced, but somehow I know he will still always be there when we need him most, and never leave our sides.
WEIR HERE, forever. Thank you, Bobby.
– Andy
Have a memory of Bob Weir you’d like to share with us? You can tell us your story here.
Contributions in honor of Bob Weir to HeadCount can be made here.
