Grateful Dead founding member Bob Weir has died. Weir played rhythm guitar and sang lead vocals for the entirety of the Grateful Dead’s 30-year tenure. He also founded and played in several bands during and after his time with the Dead, including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and Furthur. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with other former members of the band in a group called the Other Ones, later known as the Dead. Weir recently continued playing with Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, along with John Mayer, in an outfit called Dead & Company.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,” read a statement posted to Weir’s official Instagram. “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.” You can read the full statement below.
Weir was born in San Francisco to Jack Parber and a fellow University of Arizona student, who later gave him up to his adoptive parents. He was raised in the suburb of Atherton, picking up piano and trumpet until finally picking up the guitar at age 13. Due to his undiagnosed dyslexia, Weir was expelled from nearly every school he attended—including Fountain Valley School in Colorado, where he met future Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow. On New Year’s Eve, 1962, Weir stumbled upon Dana Morgan’s Music Store in Palo Alto, where Jerry Garcia taught guitar. Garcia was there waiting for his student who didn’t show up, and the two ended up jamming together all night. They later started a band called McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, which then evolved into the Warlocks, and finally became the Grateful Dead.
Weir released his first solo album, Ace, in 1972, followed by 1978’s Heaven Help the Fool. His last LP, 2016’s Blue Mountain, featured contributions from members of the National. Weir was a board member of the Rex Foundation, an organization founded by members of the Grateful Dead to “proactively provide extensive community support to creative endeavors in the arts, sciences, and education.”
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