As both a music writer and a lifelong Deadhead, I had many conversations about the music and legacy of the Grateful Dead when I attended the University of Michigan in the late 1990s. Though Ann Arbor is a notoriously hippie-friendly town, in the aftermath of Jerry Garcia’s death, many of my peers were surprisingly indifferent to the band’s music. Numerous friends, roommates, and even the occasional white dude with dreads, encouraged me to move on and embrace the likes of Phish, the Dave Matthews Band, and the String Cheese Incident. One roommate even went so far as to suggest that the acid-jazz ensemble known as Groove Collective could be a possible successor (spoiler alert: they weren’t).

While people might have been dismissive of the band in the late ‘90s, in 2025 the Dead is alive and well in Ann Arbor. On Sept. 27, country singer Zach Bryan teamed up with John Mayer for a cover of the Dead’s “Friend of the Devil” before a sold-out crowd of 112,000-plus fans at Michigan Stadium.

Mayer, who moonlights as the guitarist and singer for the Dead legacy outfit Dead & Company, opened the show, and then joined Bryan during his set for the cover. Bryan, performing in the round and wearing a Maize and Blue jersey, sang the song as a midtempo country ballad, with some fiddle mixed in.

At first, Mayer stayed in the background as Bryan sang, filling in the gaps between lyrics with guitar licks. Toward the end of the tune, however Mayer delivered a dreamy, multi-minute solo that channeled the Southern rock spirit of Duane Allman more than Jerry Garcia. It was a great showcase for the song in front of what was reportedly the largest ticketed rock concert ever. Jerry might have passed away 30 years ago, but the Dead’s music certainly has not faded away.