Longtime Grateful Dead fan gets birthday wishes from band members before he dies
Chris Dewey laughed and cried while looking at messages from original Dead guitarist Bob Weir and Dead & Company's John Mayer, messages orchestrated by his Nashville singer daughter
Brad Schmitt
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Christopher Dewey was from Nashville and died in Nashville.
A longtime Grateful Dead fan died in his native Syracuse, N.Y., on Saturday night but not before he heard from founding Dead member Bob Weir and Dead & Company's John Mayer.
Surrounded by family, Christopher Dewey, 50, died after battling cancer for more than a year and a half.
Ten days earlier, Weir tweeted 50th birthday greetings and well wishes to Dewey.
The same day, pop star John Mayer – who joined Weir and others five years ago to create the band Dead & Company – sent a video.
Dewey laughed and cried at the same time when he first saw Mayer's video, orchestrated by his daughter, Nashville singer/songwriter Melanie Dewey, known professionally as MELD.
That started months earlier when Melanie Dewey reached out to all of her Music Row contacts, her University of Miami music school friends and to every social media outlet she could think of.
The day before her dad's 50th, she asked thousands of friends and strangers on social media to reach out to members of the Grateful Dead and Dead & Company.
It worked.
"The next morning, I was on a walk with my brother and my phone started blowing up!" Melanie Dewey wrote in a statement. "Bobby (Weir) had tweeted happy birthday to my dad! My brother and I rushed home because we wanted to be the first to show him before anyone else texted him by accident and spoiled the surprise.
"His initial response was 'Get the frick out of here!'"
A friend of John Mayer sent Mayer's video greeting to Melanie Dewey later that day. That also was particularly meaningful to both Deweys because she hoped Mayer's hit "Daughters" would be the song she'd dance to with her dad at her wedding.
Melanie Dewey called her father's death "difficult" and "magical," adding she is thrilled her father got to hear from Weir and Mayer for his birthday before he died.
"More than anything, this experience reminded me that the entire Deadhead community is as strong as ever, and truly one of the best," she wrote, "full of some of the most genuine and kind people in the world."
Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com or 615-259-8384 or on Twitter @bradschmitt.