BOB WEIR, Co-Founder Of The GRATEFUL DEAD, Dead At 78 Years Old

Robert Hall Weir, better known as Bob Weir, of the Grateful Dead passed away yesterday (10th January), according to a statement posted to his personal website.

The post states: "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.

For over sixty years, Bobby took to the road. A guitarist, vocalist, storyteller, and founding member of the Grateful Dead. Bobby will forever be a guiding force 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.

Bobby’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. An artist choosing, even then, to keep going by his own design. As we remember Bobby, it’s hard not to feel the echo of the way he lived. 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’.

His loving family, Natascha, Monet, and Chloe, request 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."

The Grateful Dead may have retired back in 2015, but their legacy never stopped, Weir's included – from being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 to 30 years later, receiving the Kennedy Center Honors in 2024 – which Weir himself collected as one of the living founding members of the Grateful Dead. The next year in 2025 the Guinness World Records would give the title of the most Top 40 albums in the Billboard 200 chart's history. Receiving a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and being listed as one of Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artist of All Time, there's really nothing that the Grateful Dead and Bob Weir didn't achieve.