Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir dies at 78!
New York City, US, Jan 10 (EFE).–
American guitarist Bob Weir, one of the founders of the legendary rock band Grateful Dead, has died at the age of 78, his family said in a statement on Saturday.
“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 statement said, without specifying when or where the artist died.
Weir was diagnosed with cancer in July 2025 and began treatment a few weeks before returning to the stage at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to celebrate the band’s 60th anniversary.
“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,” said the statement, signed by his wife and two daughters.
Weir, born in San Francisco in 1947, was a guitarist, vocalist, storyteller, and founding member of the Grateful Dead, one of the most influential groups of the 1960s counterculture in the US, blending blues, jazz, rock, and bluegrass.
The Grateful Dead, whose fans call themselves “Deadheads,” are one of the most prolific bands in rock history with hit, iconic songs, including “Truckin’,” “Sugar Magnolia,” and “Friend of the Devil.”
Weir, who founded the band in 1965 with singer Jerry Garcia, bassist Phil Lesh, and drummer Bill Kreutzmann, “often spoke of a three-hundred-year legacy, determined to ensure the songbook would endure long after him,” the statement said.
Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995 after Garcia’s death, but Weir continued performing with the same psychedelic spirit that characterized the band, including with The Dead, a group that included other former members, and released solo albums.
In 2015, Weir founded Dead & Company, a new group with a lineup of former Grateful Dead members such as Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Oteil Burbridge, and Jeff Chimenti, along with guitarist John Mayer. EFE
nqs/pd
