Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir has died at age 78

Summary

Bob Weir, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and co-founder of the Grateful Dead, whose songs about sunshine daydreams and truckin’ helped turn the jam band into a 60-year musical empire, has died at age 78.“It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,” Weir’s family wrote in a statement; a date of death was not immediately available. “He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could. Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues.” “Bobby will forever be a guiding force whose unique artistry reshaped American music,” the statement added. “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.” As the band’s co-lead singer, writer, and guitarist beside Jerry Garcia, his elliptical riffs, eccentric song structures and slightly off-kilter stage presence made him an intrinsic ingredient to the Dead, up to and beyond its demise following Garcia’s death in 1995. Weir often went under-recognized compared to the larger-than-life Garcia (one of the first songs he wrote in the Dead was called “The Other One”). Yet, the band’s bassist Phil Lesh characterized Weir’s contribution as that of “a stealth machine.” Robert Hall Weir was born in San Francisco on October 16, 1947, to a college student who gave him up for adoption. He was raised in an affluent Bay Area suburb, where he managed to get kicked out of both preschool and the Cub Scouts, and suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia. At Fountain Valley, a Colorado school for boys with behavioral problems, he met John Perry Barlow, who would become his most frequent lyricist. Weir began playing guitar at thirteen and was soon hanging out at the Tangent, a P...