Bob Weir’s short shorts became part of Grateful Dead lore

Bob Weir, a guitarist and founding member of the Grateful Dead whose death at 78 was announced on Saturday, was widely known for wearing extremely short cut-off shorts on stage. He first appeared in “chopped-to-the-heavens” jean shorts in the late 1970s that exposed his upper thighs and left an indelible impression; Dead fans called them “Bobby Shorts.” In a 2014 interview with Vanity Fair he said, “I have always had a certain aversion to heat.

And for me, the name of the game on the stage is ‘beat the heat,’” adding, “It’s always July under the lights. And after a while, I got just good and goddamned tired of it. So, shorts.” Through the 1980s Mr. Weir paired his cutoffs with sun-faded polos and New Balance sneakers, a look commentators described as preppy yet subverted by his frayed hems.

Mr. Weir claimed a place beside Sean Connery and Magnum P.I. as a man unafraid to flaunt some leg; Josh Peskowitz, the former men’s fashion director at Bloomingdale’s, said Mr. Weir was “a little more straightforward stylistically.” The men’s fashion blog Red Clay Soul advised emulating his brief inseam, calling it daring.

Mr. Weir appeared to relish recognition for his attire: he reshared a Vogue article about his Birkenstocks and took part in a Levi’s video when the brand collaborated with the Grateful Dead in 2021. When the band announced that its archive would be donated to the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2008, Mr.

Key Topics

Culture, Bob Weir, Grateful Dead, Bobby Shorts, Uc Santa Cruz, Levi's