{"id":2229980,"date":"2026-01-11T00:55:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T00:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2229980"},"modified":"2026-01-11T00:55:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T00:55:21","slug":"grateful-dead-co-founder-singer-guitarist-was-78","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/grateful-dead-co-founder-singer-guitarist-was-78\/","title":{"rendered":"Grateful Dead Co-Founder, Singer-Guitarist Was 78"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSinger-songwriter-guitarist <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/bob-weir\/\" id=\"auto-tag_bob-weir\" data-tag=\"bob-weir\">Bob Weir<\/a>, a cornerstone of the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/grateful-dead\/\" id=\"auto-tag_grateful-dead\" data-tag=\"grateful-dead\">Grateful Dead<\/a> and the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2024\/music\/news\/bob-weir-dead-company-sphere-interview-1236044941\/\">San Francisco psychedelic band\u2019s many latter-day offshoots<\/a> for more than half a century, has died after a long battle with cancer and lung issues, according to a social media post from his family. He was 78.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe post said that Weir had been diagnosed last summer and began treatment three weeks before Dead &amp; Company, a spinoff group of the Grateful Dead, played a weekend of shows at Golden Gate Park to mark the original band\u2019s 60th anniversary. Many fans believed those livestreamed concerts might be the band\u2019s unbilled farewell engagement, but few could have guessed the conditions under which Weir powered through what turned out to be his final gigs. <\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"pmc-polymarket\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" title=\"pmc-polymarket\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.polymarket.com\/market.html?market=will-wagner-moura-the-secret-agent-win-best-actor-drama-at-the-83rd-golden-globes&amp;features=volume&amp;theme=light&amp;width=Infinity&amp;features=volume&amp;theme=light&amp;height=170pxl\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width: 600px; height: 170px;margin-top: 15px !important; border: 0px;&#10;&#9;padding: 0px;\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cIt is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,\u201d the family statement began. \u201cHe transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could. Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe statement continued, \u201cBobby\u2019s final months reflected the same spirit that defined his life. Diagnosed in July, he began treatment only\u00a0weeks\u00a0before 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. An artist choosing, even then, to keep going by his own design. As we remember Bobby, it\u2019s hard not to feel the echo of the way he lived. A man driftin\u2019 and dreamin\u2019, never worrying if the road would lead him home. A child of countless trees. A child of boundless seas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWeir was just 16 years old when he befriended Jerry Garcia, then a music teacher at a Palo Alto, CA, instrument store, on New Year\u2019s Eve of 1963. The two guitarists formed an old-time music unit, Mother McCree\u2019s Uptown Jug Champions, and went electric with the rock band the Warlocks, before finally taking the name the Grateful Dead in 1965.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\"\/>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tKey to the Dead\u2019s expansive, jam-based sound was the elegant free-form interplay between lead guitarist Garcia and his deft front-line foil Weir, whose unorthodox work transcended the \u201crhythm guitar\u201d label. His style was rooted in country and blues, but, as he explained in an interview with Alan Paul, it was rooted in an unlikely source.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201c[M]y dirty little secret is that I learned by trying to imitate a piano, specifically the work of McCoy Tyner in the John Coltrane Quartet,\u201d Weir said. \u201cThat caught my ear and lit my flame when I was 17. I just loved what he did underneath Coltrane, so I sat with it for a long time and really tried to absorb it. Of course, Jerry was [also] very influenced by horn players, including Coltrane.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAs a writer, Weir penned a number of songs that became cornerstones of the Dead\u2019s concert repertoire; many were penned with his boyhood friend John Perry Barlow. His best-known compositions included \u201cSugar Magnolia\u201d (a rare collaboration with Garcia\u2019s writing partner Robert Hunter), \u201cPlaying in the Band,\u201d \u201cOne More Saturday Night,\u201d \u201cCassidy,\u201d \u201cThe Music Never Stopped,\u201d \u201cEstimated Prophet\u201d and \u201cI Need a Miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWeir was not the dominant vocalist in the group, contributing about a third of the lead vocals, but even when Garcia was assuming those duties, he contributed to the layered harmonies that characterized the band\u2019s most popular work. He took the lead on what is possibly the Dead\u2019s best-known and most iconic song, \u201cTruckin\u2019,\u201d a track from 1970\u2019s \u201cAmerican Beauty\u201d that contains the beloved couplet, \u201cLately it occurs to me \/ What a long, strange trip it\u2019s been.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tApart from the Dead, Weir recorded three solo albums; the first, 1972\u2019s \u201cAce,\u201d found him supported by most of the band. As time went on, he was increasingly involved in such band side projects as Kingfish, Bobby and the Midnites and RatDog.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAfter the dissolution of the Grateful Dead following Garcia\u2019s death in August 1995, Weir was a standard bearer in various reunions including shifting lineups featuring the Dead\u2019s core members. He played under the group rubrics the Other Ones, the Dead and Furthur.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFollowing 2015\u2019s 50-year celebration Fare Thee Well in Northern California and Chicago, Weir and drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart mounted a new group, Dead &amp; Company, with singer-guitarist John Mayer, for 2015-18 tours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWith the other members of the Grateful Dead, Weir was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHe was born Robert Hall Parber in San Francisco on Oct. 17, 1947. His birth parents, both college students, gave him up for adoption. He was raised by his adoptive parents Frederic and Eleanor Weir; the family, thanks to Weir\u2019s work in a Bay Area engineering firm, was wealthy and socially prominent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tInitially involved in athletics as a boy, Weir became interested in music after being exposed to jazz by the family nanny. After brief studies on the piano and trumpet that disrupted the household, Weir took up the acoustic guitar at 13.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tA childhood bout with spinal meningitis and severe dyslexia left him with behavioral problems and poor study habits, and he spent some of his teens in private schools; enrollment at the Fountain Valley school in Colorado, where he met his future lyricist Barlow, led to an interest in cowboy culture that would become an abiding creative influence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe unruly Weir ultimately returned to the Bay Area, where he was enrolled in Menlo-Atherton High. He began to take a deep interest in folk music, studying guitar with Jerry Kaukonen (soon to become better known as Jorma Kaukonen, lead guitarist of Jefferson Airplane) and founded a folk group, the Uncalled Four, with his classmates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHowever, Weir\u2019s fateful encounter with Garcia, then a bluegrass banjo picker, at Dana Morgan\u2019s music store led to the formation of a new group; Garcia and Weir, on washtub bass and jug, were joined in the enterprise by Ron McKernan, a grubby 18-year-old blues enthusiast who quickly was dubbed \u201cPigpen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBy late 1964, by then under the sway of the Beatles, those musicians were joined by drummer and jazz aficionado Kreutzmann and avant garde bassist Phil Lesh in the rock unit the Warlocks. The band quickly became aligned with the burgeoning hippie counterculture in San Francisco, and played their first date as the Grateful Dead at one of writer Ken Kesey\u2019s LSD-soaked \u201cAcid Tests\u201d in December 1965.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tA popular early attraction at such local rock ballrooms as the Avalon and the Fillmore, the Dead were signed by label president Joe Smith to Warner Bros. Records, then an old-line pop label trying to contemporize its roster. The group\u2019s self-titled 1967 debut album drew heavily on string band and blues material that dated back to their jug band origins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBy the time the Dead\u2019s more overtly psychedelic sophomore album \u201cAnthem of the Sun\u201d was recorded in 1968 (by which time percussionist Mickey Hart had joined the group), Weir\u2019s presence in the lineup was no longer a certainty: Both he and McKernan were under fire for their unprofessional performances, and the pair were briefly dismissed in mid-1968. However, after a handful of shows without them, the two musicians were back in the fold.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThrough 1969, the Dead\u2019s work on records leaned heavily on improvisation and eschewed traditional tight songwriting, with the two-LP package \u201cLive\/Dead\u201d serving as a representation of the concert style beloved by the band\u2019s rabid legion of \u201cDead Head\u201d fans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThey moved into the commercial mainstream with a pair of 1970 releases, \u201cWorkingman\u2019s Dead\u201d and \u201cAmerican Beauty,\u201d which were filled with carefully crafted songs. The latter album, the band\u2019s second to reach the national top 30, served as the best showcase to date for Weir\u2019s talents as a singer and writer, and \u201cTruckin\u2019,\u201d which drew its inspiration from a recent Dead drug bust in New Orleans, became an evergreen at free-form FM radio.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHowever, a dispute with Robert Hunter over the performance of \u201cSugar Magnolia\u201d led the lyricist to work exclusively with Garcia, and moving forward Weir wrote primarily with his friend Barlow, who co-authored half the songs on Weir\u2019s solo bow \u201cAce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFollowing a trio of live albums that fulfilled their commitments to Warner Bros. (and the death of McKernan from the consequences of alcoholism in 1972), the Dead inaugurated their own eponymous label, distributed by United Artists. The imprint debuted in 1973 with \u201cWake of the Flood,\u201d which bore an ambitious 13-minute suite written by Weir. Though their studio albums of the period all reached the top 20, the Dead were wearied by operating their own label, and Grateful Dead Records folded in late 1976.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSigned to Clive Davis\u2019 Arista Records in 1977, the Dead initially sold their albums to their devoted Deadheads, who seemed more interested in purchasing tickets to the band\u2019s tribal concerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWeir, who had issued a 1976 studio set with Kingfish that peaked at No. 50, released his sophomore solo album \u201cHeaven Help the Fool\u201d in 1978; cut in Los Angeles with a cast of studio pros, it was poorly received. A pair of Bobby and the Midnights albums featuring latter-day Dead keyboardist Brent Mydland both failed to reach the top 100 in the early \u201880s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDeadhead loyalty supplied the band with self-sustaining record sales and huge popularity as a concert attraction through the late \u201880s. However, in 1987 \u2013 two decades after the release of their debut LP \u2014 the group scored a legitimate top 40 hit, \u201cTouch of Grey\u201d; the No. 9 single on aging and survival pushed the album \u2018In the Dark,\u201d which contained three Weir-Barlow songs, to No. 6 and double-platinum sales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWhile triumphs like a concert at Egypt\u2019s Great Pyramids and a joint tour with Bob Dylan followed in the immediate wake of that success, the Dead\u2019s next studio album, 1989\u2019s ironically titled \u201cBuild to Last,\u201d would be its final set, save for a 1990 concert package.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tGarcia, who had nearly succumbed to a diabetic coma in the mid-\u201880s, had struggled with heroin addiction for years, and he was found dead in a Marin County rehab clinic eight days after his 53rd birthday. In the decades that followed, Weir was a constant in the various acts that reunited former Dead members to perform the classic repertoire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWeir released studio and live sets by RatDog, his collaboration with the late bassist Rob Wasserman, in 2000-01. He issued his third solo album \u201cBlue Mountain,\u201d a roots-based set co-written with singer-songwriter Josh Ritter, via Columbia\/Legacy in 2016. (His collaborator Barlow died at 70 in February 2018.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHe made an appearance at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2016 to promote the \u201cBlue Mountain\u201d album, talking about his roots influences. \u201cJerry and I were huge into Buck Owens particularly \u2014 and Dolly Parton, we were both more than smitten,\u201d Weir said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBut his interest in the Western culture ran deeper than that. \u201cWhen I was a kid I was drawn to the cowboy culture and the American West,\u201d he continued. \u201cMy folks used to take us up to Squaw Valley, and in the winter it was a ski resort, but in the \u201850s and early \u201860s in the summer it was a cattle ranch\u2026 I spent a lot of time at the stable, and the old cowpokes took a shine to me, showing me how to ride and a few of the skills a young cowpoke should know\u2026 When I was 15, after one summer I thought it\u2019d be a terribly romantic thing to do to run around and be a cowboy, and so found my way out to Wyoming and got work on a ranch, where I was in a bunkhouse with a bunch of old guys who had grown up in an era before radio had gotten that far, to Wyoming. So the very notion of how to spend an evening was to pop a cork and tell stories and sing songs. I was the kid with the guitar, so I had to listen to the melody and the words and figure out where\u2019s the next chord coming in and what it\u2019s gonna be and be there with it, or I was going to get a little abuse. It was great ear training for a young musician. At the same time, I got steeped in a culture that just stuck with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bob Weir sings &quot;Blue Mountain&quot; at Americana Fest\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SeeObynjpWg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn late 2018, the singer-guitarist took to the road performing Grateful Dead material and other songs with Wolf Bros, a new trio with bassist (and Blue Note Records prexy) Don Was and former RatDog drummer Jay Lane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDead &amp; Company, the group Weir founded with other former Grateful Dead members and John Mayer to continue performing the catalog of the defunct group, had had a robust presence on the concert scene for years, before and even after a farewell tour in summer 2023. In 2024 and again in 2025, Dead &amp; Company did highly successful multi-week residencies at Sphere in Las Vegas, and became at least as identified with the new venue as U2, who did the opening engagement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn a June 2024 <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2024\/music\/news\/bob-weir-dead-company-sphere-interview-1236044941\/\">interview with <em>Variety<\/em>, Weir spoke<\/a> excitedly about the just-begun debut Sphere engagement, putting the lie to any belief that, as one of the older members of Dead &amp; Company, he might be less excited about the new technology powering the show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cWorking from the stage at the Sphere is like opera,\u201d he said. \u201cThe storytelling facility there is really beyond about anything else. Every artist of any tribe is first and foremost a storyteller. And you can\u2019t get this anywhere else right now. The story being told in the visuals is tangentially attached to the story that we\u2019re telling from on stage. And from what I can, from what I can gather, it\u2019s pretty satisfying to the audience\u2026 \u00a0If you go back 50, 60 years to the Acid Tests (Ken Kesey\u2019s visionary events in San Francisco), when they had those overhead projectors and were doing light shows with clear glass plates and oils and all that kind of stuff, they had that stuff dancing in time with the music. And I want to see if we can get that kind of thing happening\u2026 I think we\u2019re only scratching the surface here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tTalking about the ILM-designed opening and closing of the Sphere shows, which went from the group\u2019s Haight-Asbury neighborhood to the outer limits of the galaxy and back again, Weir quipped, \u201cI kind of like being in outer space. Makes me feel right at home!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn-between the two Sphere residencies, Dead &amp; Company also performed at the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/music\/news\/grateful-dead-musicares-recap-persons-year-gala-1236293669\/\">MusiCares Persons of the Year gala<\/a> in January 20, where the core lineup of the Grateful Dead, dead and alive, was being honored. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cLongevity was never a major concern of ours,\u201d Weir said in his acceptance speech at the MusiCares gala \u2014 getting a big chuckle out of the audience, given the group celebrating the 60th anniversary, even though he didn\u2019t deliver it as a laugh line.\u00a0\u201cLighting folks up and spreading joy through the music was all we really had in mind, and we got plenty of that done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFuther on in his speech, Weir said, \u201cThe road is a rough existence, as plainly evidenced by the simple fact that there aren\u2019t all that many of my old bandmates here tonight to receive this recognition,\u201d Weir said, standing alongside fellow founding Dead member Mickey Hart. \u201cBut thank you, Grahame Lesh and Trixie Garcia and Justin Kreutzmann for representing your dads here,\u201d he added, acknowledging the recent passing of Phil Lesh \u2014 who died shortly after the MusiCares honor was announced \u2014 as well as the long-gone Garcia and the recently retired Bill Kreutzmann.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWeir acknowledged at the outset of his speech that he might not get far into it without a lapse, mentioning that he grew up dyslexic, although he came through just fine in a monolog that made up for some of the lost time of rarely or never speaking from the stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cIf making music is what you\u2019re gonna be doing, you\u2019ll find that you can make considerably more thunder if you can find folks to play with, and learn to work with and play off of them, and let them play you,\u201d he told the audience. \u201cThat\u2019s what the Grateful Dead did over the years, and success eventually came to us. All along, my old pal Jerry used to say, \u2018You get some, you give some back\u2019 \u2014 and so we did. From early on it was more than apparent to us that we could be of substantial benefit to our broader community \u2013 and have big fun doing it. We also learned right away that it was an honor and a privilege to be in this position, something we never took lightly.\u00a0That brings us back to MusiCares, a beacon of hope in the music industry that provides financial assistance, mental health resources, recovery programs, and other support to artists and music technicians facing challenges. Their work ensures that the people who make music \u2013 from behind-the-scene professionals to household names \u2013 will be able to carry on.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dead &amp; Company perform at MusiCares Grateful Dead gala\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oYhSr-u2x9Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWeir is survived by his wife Natascha and their two daughters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe family\u2019s statement concluded: \u201cThere 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.\u00a0And so we send him off the way he sent so many of us on our way: with a farewell that isn\u2019t an ending, but a blessing. A reward for a life worth livin\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cHis loving family, Natascha, Monet, and Chloe,\u00a0request privacy during this difficult time and offer their gratitude for the outpouring of love, support, and remembrance. May we honor him not only in sorrow, but in how bravely we continue with open hearts, steady steps, and the music leading us home. Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<em>(With additional reporting by Chris Willman)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Singer-songwriter-guitarist Bob Weir, a cornerstone of the Grateful Dead and the San Francisco psychedelic band\u2019s many latter-day offshoots for more than half a century, has died after a long battle with cancer and lung issues, according to a social media post from his family. He was 78.\u00a0 The post said that Weir had been diagnosed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2229981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[364501,431353,305427],"class_list":["post-2229980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-bob-weir","tag-dead-and-company","tag-grateful-dead"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Grateful-Dead-Co-Founder-Singer-Guitarist-Was-78.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2229980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2229982,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229980\/revisions\/2229982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2229981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2229980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2229980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2229980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}