For Burbridge – the beloved bassist of the Allman Brothers Band and Dead & Company – working with an organization dedicated to supporting kids facing serious illnesses comes from a fundamental place.
“It's always been the kids," he told WAMC. "I love kids, I have two kids, and most people, I feel like they care more about dogs than they do people - And that's nothing against dogs. But if I was a billionaire, I'd probably adopt 20 kids or have an orphanage or something. So, whatever you could do for kids, I think there's something extra special about that. They're the most helpless, and they didn't have any choice about coming here. And you know how hard it is here on Earth.”
To that end, Burbridge is joining Burlington-based LaMP for four shows in Saratoga Springs, South Burlington, Brooklyn, and Boston in October to raise money for the Make-A-Wish mission.
For LaMP keyboardist Ray Paczkowski – also a member of the Trey Anastasio Band – the foundation’s work hits close to home. A 2018 brain tumor diagnosis left him reeling. While surgery and radiation ultimately saved his life, the experience changed him.
“I was kind of at a loss, but my wife and my family and my friends got together and just figured everything out, and they did a GoFundMe thing, and people donated," said
Paczkowski. "I was able to live for a year, and my family, from those donations. So that, and not knowing what was going to happen, and thank God I came out with a cure - But I think of this Make-A-Wish thing, and some of those kids, they're not going to be that lucky. I mean, I hope they all would be. But it's an amazing thing when you just see and feel that that love and help. It's really powerful, powerful thing.”
LaMP guitarist Scott Metzger says the ceiling is high on the quartet’s short tour, which he says offers everyone involved the potential for something special.
“For fans of our band, it's a very, very unique situation," he said. "We've only had a bass player come and play with us once. That was Dezron Douglas at the Stone Pony. And on the list of bass players that we would love to, that we have daydreamed over the years about coming and joining us, Oteil was always on the very short list of people, and we feel so fortunate to have him there with us. And I think it's going to be a super unique little run of shows for a great cause. I mean, what more could you want?”
Scott Metzger is not the only Scott Metzger in America. One of his fellow Scott Metzgers is the San Francisco-based cat cartoonist, who LaMP’s Scott Metzger says he has developed a rapport with over the years.
“We've been back and forth on it," he told WAMC. "We're Instagram friends, and we've been back and forth, and I've brought up the idea of him doing some cover art for me someday down the road, and he's into it.”
But what about the Scott Metzger who serves as the president of the American Soybean Association?
“That's news to me," guitarist Metzger admitted. "No, I'll have to do some research, and maybe I'll add another Scott Metzger to my phone book.”
Metzger also plays in popular Grateful Dead cover band Joe Russo's Almost Dead, in which he sings many of the songs penned by the late Bob Weir. After Weir’s passing in January, he says those tunes have new textures and resonance.
“Those songs are proving to be timeless and really working their way into the fabric of the American songbook," Metzger said. "They've got a pretty good footing in that position now, and I think that moving forward, it'll be bands playing those songs, coming up with new interpretations of them that aren't just trying to recreate what's already been done with the songs, but putting their spin on it moving forward.”
Burbridge, who played with Weir in Dead & Company for a decade between 2015 and 2025, just finished an Oteil & Friends summer tour chock full of players steeped in Dead music and culture. At 62, he’s spent a life confronting the realities of the road, with its crushing boredom and exhaustion mixed with the ecstasy of communing with band mates and audiences in the supernatural space of music.
“It's like being a carny," said Burbridge. "That's why I tell people, I'm like, we're carnies. I feel very much a kindred spirit with carnival people, from Ringling Brothers to any traveling people. They could be with the ice capades, you know what I mean? Definitely musicians, professional wrestlers - Anybody who's driving overnight to get to the next gig instead of sleeping in a bed. That's a different lifestyle, man. It's a different lifestyle.”
Despite the recent losses of founding members Weir this year and bassist Phil Lesh in 2024, Burbridge says the living legacy of the Grateful Dead will continue unabated, and that his time on the bus feels eternal.
“So many of the people that I play with that are deeply embedded in that world, like Melvin Seals and Steve Kimock and Grahame Lesh – and, and, and, and, and, you know?" the bassist laughed. "The family is still all playing together. I haven't heard anything from Dead & Company, so, as far as I know, it's over. But I still am so deeply tied into the community. It's family now, you know what I mean? So it doesn't feel like it stops for me in any way.”
Burbridge and LaMP – which includes drummer Russ Lawton alongside Metzger and Paczkowski – kick off their four-night run in Saratoga Springs on Oct. 6 at Universal Preservation Hall.
Make-A-Wish Foundation is a WAMC underwriter.
