Grateful Dead founding member, Bob Weir, has died at the age of 78 after a battle with cancer and lung issues. The singer and guitarist was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the group in 1994 and continued with different configurations of the group long after they initially disbanded.
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“It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,” the family shared in a statement on Saturday. “He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could. Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues.”
“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.”
Weir helped form the Grateful Dead in 1965 with Jerry Garcia in Palo Alto, California. After the dissolution of the group following Garcia’s death in 1995, Weir led the way forward through different incarnations including The Other Ones, and ultimately Dead & Company.