Grateful Dead founding member and guitarist Bob Weir has died at age 78.
Weir death was shared in a family statement posted on his social media: “It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir. He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could. Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues.” The note added that Weir’s “final months reflected the same spirit that defined his life. Diagnosed in July, he began treatment only weeks before returning to his hometown stage for a three-night celebration of 60 years of music at Golden Gate Park. Those performances, emotional, soulful, and full of light, were not farewells, but gifts. Another act of resilience.”
Weir’s daughter Chloe Weir said in an announcement on her father’s website: “for over 60 years, Bobby took to the road, whose unique artistry reshaped American music. His work did more than fill rooms with music. It was warm sunlight that filled the soul, building a community, a language and a feeling of family that generations of fans carry with them. Every chord he played, every word he sang was an integral part of the stories he wove. There was an invitation: to feel, to question, to wander and to belong. His daughter called her dad a “man driftin’ and dreamin’, never worrying if the road would lead him home. A child of countless trees. A child of boundless seas. There is no final curtain here, not really. Only the sense of someone setting off again. He often spoke of a three-hundred-year legacy, determined to ensure the songbook would endure long after him. May that dream live on through future generations of Dead Heads. And so, we send him off the way he sent so many of us on our way: with a farewell that isn’t an ending, but a blessing. A reward for a life worth livin’.””
Known to fans as “Bobby,” Weir was born in San Francisco, and met the late Jerry Garcia in 1962, who taught him guitar. They later started a band called McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, which evolved into the Warlocks, and finally became the Grateful Dead. Weir played rhythm guitar and sang lead vocals for the entirety of the Grateful Dead’s 30-year tenure. The band developed a loyal fanbase of “Deadheads” who followed the band while it toured across the country. While the band never had any No. 1 hits, they won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2007; another for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package for its boxed set of Madison Square Garden performances that were recorded from 1981-1983; and the best music film award in 2018. The Dead’s only Billboard Top 10 hit was “Touch of Grey” in 1987.
Weir also founded and played in several other bands including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and Furthur. He released his first solo album, Ace, in 1972, followed by 1978’s Heaven Help the Fool. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995 after Garcia’s death, Weir performed with other former members of the band in a group called the Other Ones (later known as the Dead); and he continued playing with Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, along with John Mayer, in an outfit called Dead & Company, who concluded their “final tour” in July of 2023. Dead & Company then returned to the stage for two extended residencies at the Sphere in Las Vegas (in 2024 and 2025). His last solo LP, 2016’s Blue Mountain, featured contributions from members of the National.
Weir is survived by his wife of 26 years Natascha Münter, and their two daughters, Monet and Chloe.
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