DISGRACELAND - Bonus Episode: Bob Weir, Bohemian Grove, more Orion, and First-Gen Punks

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead has passed, and we celebrate his unique brand of American awesomeness on this episode and dig into the long, strange weirdness of his affiliation with the secret society at Bohemian Grove. We also talk Johnny Thunders. You guys talk more Orion and Elvis Presley and of course we play your voicemails, texts, and more. To listen to Disgraceland ad free and get access to weekly bonus content and hear more about the Bohemian Club, become a Disgraceland All Access member at ⁠⁠⁠⁠disgracelandpod.com/membership⁠⁠⁠⁠. Sign up for our newsletter and get the inside dirt on events, merch and other awesomeness - ⁠⁠⁠⁠GET THE NEWSLETTER⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jake and DISGRACELAND: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠ (formerly Twitter)  ⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook Fan Group⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is exactly right. Double Elvis. Hey, discos. Need a little more disgrace land in your life? Just a touch to get you through? Yeah, me too. This is the podcast that comes after the podcast. Welcome to Disgraceland, the After Party.

Welcome to the Disgraceland bonus episode. A little thing we like to call the after party. This is the show after the show, the party after the party, the bridge to get you from one full episode of Disgraceland to the other, the backyard to dig into the dirt. Our mission to uncover the truth to confront the myth to reclaim the story. On this bonus episode, we're discussing the passing of the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir in the long, strange weirdness of his affiliation with Bohemian Grove.

We talk Johnny Thunders and First Wave Punk and get into your emails, comments, DMs, and as always, a whole lot of rosy. This is the podcast for the musically obsessed, the outsiders, the independent thinkers who know that the best history is the history that gets buried. Disgraceland is where I tell the stories they didn't want told, the kind you'll end up telling someone else. All right, this goes, let's get into it. Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weird died since the last time we spoke. I'm not going to eulogize him here. You can get plenty of that elsewhere. And by people whose Grateful Dead fandom honestly runs a lot

deeper than mine. But I will say that in all of my research, in everything that I've read, every person I've ever spoken to about the band, including one dead associate who could only really be closer to the band. If you were in the band, that's how close he was. In all of that, I never came across a shred of credible information that painted Bob Weir as a bad guy. And believe me, my rock and roll dirt bag antenna is pretty finely tuned, as you know. I think that it's safe to say that in an industry,

filled with feral animals, most of whom are driven by insatiable ids and for whom kindness and selflessness are oftentimes in short supply. I think it's safe to say that Bob Weir was one of the good guys. I'm not suggesting the man was perfect. None of us are. Bob was the baby of the group. He was just 17. He's just 17 years old. Imagine that. 17 when he joined the band. He stayed in that band his whole life. Back then, they were known as Mother McCree's uptown jug champions before famously changing their name to the Grateful Dead. And maybe being the youngest had something to do with Bob playing the straight man to Jerry Garcia's far-out improv and sometimes personal unhinged liberation. But Bob Weir was still a member of one of, if not the greatest and strangest American rock and roll bands of all time, a band that lived.

and died by its own DIY code of artistic and personal freedom, freedom at all costs. My point is that though Bob Weir was the group's straight man, he was still a member of the Grateful Dead, which is why this whole Bohemian Grove affiliation with Bob always struck me as being just so weird, so strange. Now, I've resisted this story for years, but now might be the time that I dive in, not to capitalize on Bob's death. By the time I'm done researching and releasing this story, a handful of other influential artists, musicians will likely have passed. So that's clearly not it. The real reason is to find out what the hell was actually going on. Now, if you aren't familiar with Bohemian Grove and you start researching it on the

internet, you're likely going to run across some descriptions to paint a picture of just a simple social club for ultra-connected, rich right-wing dudes from CIA families from the prep school lineage of America. You might also run into some folks who think Bohemian Grove is the Illuminati's headquarters. It's the legacy of Alistair Crowley and the keeper of all things Bear Owsley and of M.K. Ultra's darkest secrets. Bohemian Grove is a target-rich subject for conspiracy theorists, which I have to admit both repels and compels me. But either way, you can't get around, Bob Weir's involvement, his affiliation, his membership. Now, it doesn't make him a member of the Illuminati, but it does beg the question, why was the guitarist for the Grateful Dead hanging out

with Donald Rumsfeld? Okay. The Bohemian Club is a private San Francisco-based club that owns and operates Bohemian Grove about 75 miles north of the city. The club hosts one yearly retreat. But this is a retreat whose members are exclusively rich, wealthy, actually, not rich, wealthy. Let's be clear. And of America's old guard ruling class. These are pre-globalism titans. Think 20th century, not 21st century.

pre-davos global economic influence back when white waspy dudes with Ivy League pedigrees that stretched back to the First World War and beyond when those dudes still ran everything bohemian grove is for dudes who started the osse which became the CIA okay these these are the types of people who were hanging out at bohemian grove again bob weir and bohemian groove is also close without saying probably it's also super white uh hardly any Jews as members or blacks, super waspy, Protestant, decidedly not Catholic. It's rumored that Edward Teller planned the Manhattan Project at Bohemian Grove. In 1967, Richard Nixon kicked off his 68 campaign informally by giving a talk at Bohemian Grove. And Nixon was later caught on one of his Oval Office tapes describing Bohemian Grove as, quote, the most faggy goddamn thing you could ever imagine, unquote. more on that in the second. And the retreats at Bohemian Grove,

they produce their own entertainment. Okay? I don't know if you've ever seen the Good Shepherd, the Robert De Niro, Matt Damon movie about the CIA and the origins of the CIA.

But there is this retreat, kind of big set piece scene that happens in the beginning and they come back to it in the end. And there are these skits, these men who dress up in drag, and they do these songs and blah, blah, blah.

And it's exactly the type of thing I've read that describes the entertainment ongoings at Bohemian Grove, where, you know, the members put on skits and musical numbers and these men being of the early 20th century vintage, most of the humor is, you know, it derides homosexuals. And it's just, yeah, you, it's silly, very silly. and because of that regressive silliness, I guess it supports Nixon's comments that were caught on tape that I just read to you that a heavy contingent of Bohemian Grove members for that retreat week anyway. Let's just say the rumors are that they exercise their curiosity. Okay. Now, that's not to say that Bohemian Grove is the least bit progressive.

It's not, not in any way. In fact, it is decidedly conservative. One rumor claims that back in the 1970s, the Grove employed an actual member of the Nazi party, one who drove a company Jeep around the grounds, transporting guests with an Erin-Rommel sticker, proudly displayed on the vehicle until President Ford, of all people, made him remove the Nazi sticker. Now, whether or not the Bohemian Grove employee was an actual Nazi, that remains a matter of debate. But the sticker was real, and Ford made the Grove employee remove the Nazi. paraphernalia. That is not disputed. All of this begs the question, what the hell was Bob Weir doing at this

place? With Mickey Hart from the Grateful Dead as well. As late as 2009, probably later even. I need to do more research to find out. Again, 2009, after performing benefit concerts to raise money for Barack Obama in 2008. Bohemian Grove is where America's past power brokers, the dudes who brought you, Enron, Halliburton, WMDs, MK Ultra, Operation Mockingbird, in a mountain of other bullshit. This is where these dudes hung out. This is where these dudes came together once a year. Now, if you believe the conspiracy theorists,

and I most certainly don't, let's be clear, the Bohemian Grove retreats, this is where robed figures and hoods set fire to effigies. This is, look, I know I'm trying to paint the picture of conspiracy. theories, but that little bit I just read you, the road figures and hoods setting fire to effigies, that actually happened. It's on video. Okay. But sacrifices, human sacrifices, all kinds of other stuff, wild, wild theories, praying to some ancient God named Mollick. How much of this is true, how much of this is just some weird prep school skull and bone shit meant to make old rich dudes feel mysterious?

I don't know, but either way, I repeat, what was Bob Weir doing with these dudes? Was he an actual Satanist, as has been suggested? Was he into child sacrifice? Was he OG all seeing Illuminati? I don't think so. No, no, and no. But when asked about Bohemian Grove throughout his life, Bob Weir was, let's just say, purposefully vague. especially when he addressed these comments back in 2022.

And Vague is putting it charitably. There's an interview that you can find where, we're online, where Bob's on video, spitting out some gobbly gook about community, the community of Bohemian Grove. And he's also pretty disingenuous when he's describing the types of people who hang out at Bohemian Grove, it's members, making it seem like most of the Bohemian Grove members

have some sort of quote unquote artistic bent. They don't. I mean, some do, but they're very much in the minority. Although I did find out that there's typically a 15 year waiting list to join Bohemian Grove, but that artistic types and entertainers get fast-tracked to membership. The Bohemian Grove, the retreat, over 2,000 men attend, and you got to know this part. The lodging is divided up into different camps just like, you know, a summer camp would be. And to hear Bob Weir tell it, it's as if he was sitting by a campfire trading songs with Steve Miller while Mickey Hart played the bongos. But in reality, Mickey Hart was slash is for all we know, part of the Bohemian Grove camp called the hillbillies. That camp also housed Donald Rumsfeld when Rumsfeld was alive and when Mickey was

attending. Presumably he's not anymore. I don't know. Bob Weir was in a camp. called The Rattlers. And I haven't been able to figure out yet. I haven't been able to find in the research, which boldface neocon names, if any, that Bob Weir was camped up with. But regardless, this is so perplexing. And it's great music history counterpoint. It's kind of mysterious, and I am fascinated by it. Am I judging Bob Weir for his involvement in the secret society with some of the most ghoulish power brokers in American history, Henry Kissinger and Donald Rumsfeld specifically. No, I'm not. I actually think more highly of them for it for reasons that I guess I'll get into

when I write my Bob Weir episode and fully explore the mystery of Bohemian Grove. Bob Weir, an American original, if there ever was one, rest in peace. I'm barely scratching the surface here when it comes to the theories about what the men in the woods were up to, the Bohemian Grove conspiracy theories are nuts. And Zeth and I are going to dive into some of the more interesting ones in the exclusive section of this after party. Go to disgracelandpod.com to sign up so you can cop this and more exclusive disgrace land content and unlock ad-free listening. All right, have you heard the Johnny Thunder's episode of Disgraceland yet? Our newest full episode, it's available fresh for your ears right now.

And on Friday, coming up right after this bonus episode is our MC5 story. we chose MC5 in our rewind slot this week because of the connection between the Motor City fives, Wayne Kramer and Johnny Thunders and the brawl in Boston, that we detail in our exclusive mini episode this week for our All Access members on Apple and Patreon. Coming up next week on Tuesday, our new episode on The Runaways, when you're listening to this episode on The Runaways, be thinking about more female artists that you'd like to hear covered in disgraceland. That's going to be the question of the week. 617-906-66-66-3-8.

Send me a voicemail. Leave me a text. And let me know your recommendations. We'll be back right after this with your voicemails, text, DMs, and more back in a flash. All right, this goes Georgie Sue and Girls, Girls, Girls, 73. Hit me up. 617-906-66-36-38.

I got some merch coming to you guys. Big pimping on Spotify. Same goes for you. Get in touch. Got some pins. Got a couple shirts. Some books. cleaning out the old merch storage here before we do a new run.

And I want to just, you know, get you guys some cool stuff. Listen, leave a review. That's the whole thing. That's why Big Pimpin, Georgie Sue and Girls, Girls, 73 are getting that free merch. They left some reviews on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Each week, as you may know, I select a few reviews. If I read your name or the review here on the show, get in touch,

and you'll get some free work, and you'll get some free merch. That's how it works. All right. And this isn't just for Eco, as I said last week. This is because the reviews help power discovery in the podcast listening apps, and we appreciate it. All right. Voicemails. Let's hear from all y'all on what we, well, last week we were talking about a couple

different things. I queued up this question about first generation punk bands, which we're going to get to. But we also talked about Orion, the Elvis Presley, the masked Elvis Presley impersonator. and a lot of you really want to talk about this. So let's hear what you have to say. Like a lot of us did. My uncle was a professional. Inficola, Florida.

So she starts telling him what published and all this kind of stuff. So that, of course, started me down a rabbit hole. I'm fired by the whole thing. There's dug into it. I listen to all the... All right, 803, thanks for your voicemail. I have seen this Amazon Prime video

that you're discussing. Most of it, actually. I did not finish it. I didn't get to the end. So I have not gotten to the part that you're teasing here, but I think what you're teasing out is that there's some factual evidence supporting the idea that Orion was the child of Vernon Presley and thus Elvis's stepbrother.

I think that's where you're going. Call me back and let me know. Guys, at this point, I think it's safe to say that I'm absolutely doing an Orion episode at some point in disgrace land. Probably enough for a bit. We've got a bunch of other subjects. I'm excited to dive into. Let's hear from the 714.

Hey, Jay, this is Jr. from the 714. I got a movie recommendation for you, just listening to your last after party about Elvis and Orion. There's a movie from 2002 starring Bruce Campbell called Bubba Hotech. If you haven't seen it, check it out. Elvis is a convalescent home, an African-American JFK, fighting a mummy that looks like Michael Jackson. Really fun. have an open mind, enjoy yourself, hope you watch it. Take it easy, Jake.

Thanks for doing what you're doing. Later. 714, I'm sure we all have this experience where there are these movies in our lives that we've known about for years and that we're very excited to watch, but for some reason we never get our lazy asses around to it. And that is absolutely the case with Bruce Campbell and Bubba Hotep. Is that how you say it? Bubba Hotep, thank you for reminding me, my friend.

I will dive into this and I will get back to you with my thoughts. this is going to be more grist for the Orion Mill. I can tell already. 714. Appreciate you. 617-906-66-6-36-3-8. You guys want to leave me a voicemail, send me a text. Again, we're looking for answers to the question, which female artist you want to hear covered in disgrace land in the next few seasons? 617-90666-6638. Give us a call after you check out that runaways episode coming your way on Tuesday and let us know your answers, your recommendations. We've got a new, episode on Johnny Thunders, of course, from the New York Dolls, and that prompted the question, which first-generation punk bands are your favorite, and do you think we're the most influential? 719 writes in, first-gen punk artists, the jam. They may be a bit too tasteful for some people's definition, but you included talking heads in your description, and I submit them because they weren't as big in the USA as many others. 719, I think you're on to something here. I think

the jams influence especially on uk bands is massive and especially as you get into the bripop era uh the jams influence paul weller's influence huge and they often are overlooked when we talk about first generation punk and i think that has something to do with just how dynamic of a band they were similar to the talking heads not saying they were similar in style to the talking heads but they were they were more than punk they had this whole rmb soul northern soul thing going on um and you can absolutely hear and see their influence on not just punk but on rock and roll throughout the 80s and the 90s and uh i love this answer 719 thanks for getting in touch with us let's check out the 416 416 is writing in response to our chet baker archive episode that we released

416 writes in, hey, I'm reading Patty Smith's latest memoir, Bread of Angels, and she recounts that when she was making her first album at Electric Lady Studios, she tried to hire Chet Baker to play on a track, but their budget couldn't afford his fee. This is like 1975. You think Chet would have been happy just to play on any album at that point. I also believe that his rendition of Almost Blue by Elvis Costello, which is in the Let's Get Lost documentary, is the greatest male jazz vocal ever recorded in. and I will die on that hill. Let's Get Lost by Bruce Weber is one of my favorite films of all time. And yes, I said favorite film, not just favorite documentary. 416, thanks for this. I had no idea about the Patty Smith, Chet Baker anecdote that you mentioned. I love that story. I can see Jimmy Iivine right now just getting frustrated with Chet's management

and just hanging up the phone on them. Yes, let's get lost. It's just, it's a beautiful film. It's fantastic. And I agree with you. The performance of Almost Blue is something special, man. It really truly is. The Elvis version doesn't slouch it either. It's great. 917 writes, I think New York Dolls are my favorite punk band. Iggy is beyond punk as well as Velvet Underground. I lived a few blocks from CBGB, but sadly didn't spend much time there between 2002 and 2007. I remembered the hits from the New York Dolls, but did not appreciate them enough until I read, Please Kill Me.

I think that book also deserves an episode because it really should answer your question. Certainly, and the question being, you know, what's the most influential first-gen-punk band? Certainly, as it applies to punk rather than rock and roll. I may express more of these thoughts on Twitter. I'm due to make a music video meme. Okay, this is 9-17. 9-17. Thank you.

I read the rest of your text, obviously, to myself, not on air. And I agree with you that repo man should be an episode, maybe an episode of a, of Hollywood land. I'm not sure. On Please Kill Me. I read Please Kill Me after my first son was born and it hit me, I could tell when I was reading it, that it hit me in a way that was different had I read it before my first child was born. And that experience was just a couple months before coming up with the idea for disgrace land. And I think that Please Kill Me, the book had a direct impact on me creating the show. So I'm forever in debt to Legs McNeil. I've gone back to that book a couple times in our research. It's fantastic. And if anybody has not

read, please kill me. Go for it. It's out there. You can find it everywhere. And it is a great document of punk rock written by, co-written by the dude who literally invented the term punk. and it's a fantastic oral history of punk in New York. It's great. Great text, great voicemails this week, guys. 617-9066638 at Disgracelandpod on the socials. Disgracelandpod at gmail.com on email if you want to get in touch, we'll be back right after this.

All right, guys, welcome back. We are here making it happen in the bonus episode. I want to shout out some of the new members in our all-access, Patreon. Nicole Adams, Patrick Haywood, Lord Davies, Celine, Johansson, Miranda, Nicole. Those are just a handful of the new members of the disco community. Many of them coming in at our new Sound and Fury tier level. And just want to pass along my gratitude. Everybody from the team here is psyched to have you.

And all the other new members as well. We've had a lot of new membership over the last couple weeks. I think part of that is due to the fact that we have this, like I said, this new offering, the sound in fury offering, which for $10 a month, you get the new disgrace land video podcast. This film should be played loud where once a month we are going to, by we, I mean, me and my colleague, Dr. Zeth Lundy, we're going to sit down and we're going to dissect. You know, basically one of our favorite things in the world, which is great music in great films, the soundtracks, the needle drops, the scoring. Last month, we covered Goodfellas. This month we are covering train spotting.

We recorded it last night. Filmed it, I should say. And what a fantastic movie. The music in this movie is obviously so important, so impactful, not just for the film, but culturally. And I really realized in going back to train spotting, similar to one of the one of you guys texted us earlier. I read the text about Legs McNeils, please kill me. And maybe I'm just in this headspace. But in train spotting, and going back and watching it and watching the voice and experiencing U.M.

McGregor's VO with the soundtrack that's happening, and the way the writing works with all of it, I realized how influential that movie has been on me as a creative person and how I just sort of fell into making disgrace land the way that we made it, the production of it, the writing of it, the structure of it, the presentation of it, all of it, in a way, it goes to this film and a lot of 90s films that were made in a similar fashion. And that was all, I never thought about that before

until we dove back into this movie to prepare for this film should be played loud podcasts that will be coming your way. last week of January. We released the last Wednesday of every January, so that's not too far off. Anyways, disgraceampod.com to sign up if you want to grab that exclusive content. Also want to shout out Sean Hill on Patreon,

who's been a member for a long time. He's unfortunately a Cincinnati Bengals fan, so I feel for him. He's got nothing to watch the rest of this winter. His team just, you know, I don't know what happened there, but, you know, maybe next year, buddy. And a big shout out to the Jensers as well. That was a horrible way to go out the other night in Pittsburgh.

Thinking of you guys. Now, earlier we were talking Bob Weir, we were talking Bohemian Grove, and we're going to continue talking Bohemian Grove specifically. You know, I mentioned some of the conspiracies involving Bohemian Grove, the sort of like, you know, eyes wide shut of politics, I guess you could call it. And let's not rule out sex. there's a lot of sex involved in these conspiracies as well and just you know power brokers in the woods left to their own devices doing weird shit making the world run on their weirdness

that's uh yeah we're going to be getting into all of that in the exclusive section coming up shortly got to be an all access member to cop that disgracehandpod dot com to sign up and get exclusive content like this like our bonus episodes also going to get ad free listening I appreciate everyone who's already a member. Appreciate everybody who's considering it. Love this conversation. I hope you love it too. All right, welcome back.

We're about to get out of here. Listen, you know, we mentioned, I don't know, we mentioned a bunch of artists who we have episodes on. We have over 255 episodes. I keep saying 255. It's probably about 275 at this point. It's a lot. And we do have two Grateful Dead episodes, okay?

The first one was instantly when I wrote it, one of my favorite episodes, because it brought me in to the Grateful Dead as a fan. I wasn't a fan before I got into the research at all. In fact, I was actively, actively not a fan. You can interpret that however you want. But if you want a good sort of bedrock foundation of understanding of the types of dudes that the Grateful Dead were connected with back in the 60s and how and how those connections might have easily transferred into a bohemian growth membership. You got to listen to this episode. It'll all start to make sense. It'll start to

click in for you. And then the second episode we did, which was years later, when I was researching the dead the first time, part of the research, I just found it really kind of, I don't know, adorable their youth. When they're in pre-grateful dead phase, And I actually had this idea. I was like, oh, man, what if they had like a Grateful Dead cartoon that was like Muppet Babies? But it was Jerry and Phil and Bob. And it was like, you know, Bill, all those dudes, but like way early. And they all have their own unique personalities.

And they're all exaggerated for the cartoon version of the dead. And I never pitched it to anyone, thank God. But it really got me seriously thinking about the dead's origin story. which is less dark than their their 1960s, 1980s, 80s story. And it's connected to a period of music history, this sort of old-timey Americana world that I love, and that actually is pretty dark

in a different way. And we centered that whole telling of history around Pigpen, who passed away in the 1970s, the first member of the dead to die. Anyways, both those episodes are available, and you got to check them out. Matt will have the episode information in the show notes section of this after party.

All right, let's recap. Shall we, number one, this week's new episode on Johnny Thunders is available for you right now. We've got a rewind episode coming up on the MC5. That's happening right after this bonus episode. Next week's new episode is on the runaways. We are looking for your recommendations

on which female artists we should cover, get in touch, 617-90666-6638, voicemail and text, and let me know. Number four, Zeth is cooking up some awesomeness in the Hollywoodland feed. Make sure you are subscribed. This film should be played loud. We have an episode right now available for our Patreon subscribers. You can check that out by becoming a member. It's on Goodfellas.

And the new episode on Trainspotting will be available in, I guess, a week and a half, something like that. 617-906-66-6-6-3-8 again your voice keeps us digging into the dark corners of music history so keep calling keep texting keep giving us your answers to this week's question of the week or just you know whatever else you want to talk about i'm here for it number seven don't forget this goes this isn't just content it's a community a community of the obsessed and no one cares about music books records and the crime and grime it ties them all together like you do and well that's a disgrace all right Bob Weir passed away just a few days ago, January 10th,

2006. Here's what America was listening to on that day. Number one. The fate of Ophelia, Taylor Swift. Last week, 26. Peak position, one. Weeks on chart, 13. Number two, golden by Hunter slash X.

Last week, 25. Peak position, one. Weeks on chart. 26. Number three, ordinary by Alex Warren. Last week, peak position. Peak position. One, weeks on chart, 46.

Number four, man, I need by Olivia D. Last week, 36, peak position, four. Weeks on chart, 19. Number five, choosing Texas. L. L.A. Talking and start mixing.