Surviving members The Grateful Dead paid tribute to Bill Walton, the NBA Hall of Famer and beloved Deadhead, who died Monday of cancer at age 71.
Offshoot of the band Dead & Company Published a statement “Bill was an irreplaceable force and spirit in our family. Father Time, the Rhythm Devil, the biggest dead end ever. Over 1,000 shows and I couldn’t get enough. He loved this band and we loved him,” he wrote on social media.
Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann wrote their heartfelt statements. Sharing photos with the athlete, Ware wrote: “Yo Bill, thanks for the trip.” “Thank you for the amazing friendship, the years of color commentary — and the Hall of Fame presence you wore like headlights.”
Both drummers wrote a lengthy tribute, with Hart calling Walton “the best friend I’ve ever had,” along with a photo of the duo laughing together. “He described himself as the luckiest man in the world, but we were lucky to know him and share the adventure with him,” he said. “He was the biggest Deadhead in the world and used our music as the soundtrack to his life. After our shows, he would regularly send messages saying, ‘Thank you for my life.’ … There are things you can replace. And others you can’t. Bon voyage, old friend. Love you.”
Meanwhile, Kreutzmann open He has “incredible” stories about Walton and promised he wouldn’t share them until after Walton died. “That time is not yet near because before we can laugh, we must first allow ourselves to cry,” he wrote. “Darn it. This is a sad day.”
“In many ways, he was our number one fan… But Bill would have had trouble with that designation because, while he won numerous awards in his basketball career — including MVP — Bill insisted that the Grateful Dead were not Competition – and all dead heads were equal, he added, “Whenever I played, there would always be a gap where the seat should be, about ten rows back, in the middle, where Bill used to stand, with his eyes closed, and his arms up, as he used to stand. He feels the music running through him. It was a happy place for him, and seeing him there was like a special place for me… I loved Bill Walton. As we say in the land of the dead: May the four winds bring him home safely.
John Mayer, who joined the extended Grateful Dead family as a member of the offshoot group, Dead and Company, shared a tribute as well, writing that Walton “lived a life that the rest of us can only hope to achieve on our second (or third) turn. He looks to the things that really matter, the things we already know too well to overlook, but often do. One of Bill’s great talents was to redirect you so that you stood at his bedside and saw the light in life with which he refused to break visual contact.
Mayer also thanked Walton for helping him find his place in the Grateful Dead world. Referring to the “steep” rise to acceptance in this rarefied world, Mayer said Walton gave him “an enormous boost…with his kindness, encouragement and friendship.”
“He will be greatly missed, but his way of life will never be forgotten,” Mayer concluded. “I think it’s very good advice that when times get tough, everything will be okay if you pretend to be Bill Walton.”
This story was updated on 5/28/24 at 2:02 PM ET with a statement from John Mayer.
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