Bob Weir, who joined the Grateful Dead on guitar and vocals at the age of 16 and then spent the next 60 years helping shepherd its legacy, died today (Jan. 10) at the age of 78. According to a social media post from his family, the jam band legend was diagnosed with cancer in July just before Dead & Company played three 60th anniversary concerts at Golden Gate park in their San Francisco hometown.
The Dead stopped performing together after guitarist Jerry Garcia’s 1995 death, but over the course of several generations, the songs became mystic canticles, complete with their own affirmations of durability: “No, our love will not fade away;” “I will get by;” “Get back truckin’ on.” These are bumper stickers and favored tattoos, a skull and roses iconography and a condition of being. These mantras may be recycled, but they acquire a simplistic profundity in the context of broader testament. To the converted, the Grateful Dead have created a natural history of unlikely survival and spontaneous miracles; gunslinger lore, astral journeys and psychedelic fables — the band beyond description, Jehovah’s favorite choir, the music that never stops — even if the jams of “Drums/Space” could stand for a little more brevity.
Weir and longtime Dead drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann formed Dead & Company in 2015, with John Mayer filling Garcia’s mighty shoes. Onstage, Weir resembled a cowboy Moses descending from Mt. Tamalpais declaiming outlaw epics about bloody shootouts in El Paso corrals, estimated prophets on burning shores and lightning trains that haven’t run since long before half the audience were hatched.
As a Palo Alto teenager, Weir met Garcia at Dana Morgan’s Music Store on New Year’s Eve 1963. They jammed that evening, setting the stage for the proverbial long, strange trip that continues to unfold. For most of the band’s existence, Weir was the baby-faced, clean-shaven ladies man, who largely ducked the worst ravages of the road.
Writing for SPIN in 2021, Jeff Weiss said of Weir, “now, he is 74-years old, singing western spirituals about ‘living in a silver mine,’ wearing a cotton-white shroud of facial hair, a Stetson and a bandanna that makes him look like he discovered the Comstock lode in 1859. It’s with him that the faith of the enterprise resides; his integrity unimpeachable, his voice somehow richer for its erosion, the herky-jerky rollicking cadences of his youth substituted for a whiskey and grapeshot timbre. At one point on the third night [during Dead & Company’s initial run at Sphere in Las Vegas], the holographic visuals in the background seem to morph Weir into a fluorescent blue and black trail of stardust, tufted by his lion in winter mane, making him seem like the face of God. It’s slightly absurd, maybe, but if we were going to cast that role among anyone still walking the earth, Weir might be the best remaining option.”
See the Weir family’s post below and check back for updates on this developing story.
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 60 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 300-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.
