Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir Dead at 78

Grateful Lifeless founding member Bob Weir has died. Weir performed rhythm guitar and sang lead vocals for the whole thing of the Grateful Lifeless’s 30-year tenure. He additionally based and performed in a number of bands throughout and after his time with the Lifeless, together with Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Youngsters, RatDog, and Furthur. After the Grateful Lifeless disbanded in 1995, Weir carried out with different former members of the band in a bunch known as the Different Ones, later generally known as the Lifeless. Weir extra not too long ago continued enjoying with Grateful Lifeless members Mickey Hart and Invoice Kreutzmann, together with John Mayer, in an outfit known as Lifeless & Firm.

“It’s with profound disappointment that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,” the Weir household mentioned in an announcement. “He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by family members, after courageously beating most cancers as solely Bobby may. Sadly, he succumbed to underlying lung points.”

They added that Weir’s “closing months mirrored the identical spirit that outlined his life. Identified in July, he started therapy solely weeks earlier than returning to his hometown stage for a three-night celebration of 60 years of music at Golden Gate Park. These performances, emotional, soulful, and full of sunshine, weren’t farewells, however items. One other act of resilience.” You’ll be able to learn the complete assertion beneath.

Weir was born in San Francisco to Jack Parber and a fellow College of Arizona scholar, who later gave him as much as his adoptive dad and mom. He was raised within the suburb of Atherton, selecting up piano and trumpet till lastly selecting up the guitar at age 13. Attributable to his undiagnosed dyslexia, Weir was expelled from almost each faculty he attended—together with Fountain Valley Faculty in Colorado, the place he met future Grateful Lifeless lyricist John Perry Barlow. On New Yr’s Eve, 1962, Weir stumbled upon Dana Morgan’s Music Retailer in Palo Alto, the place Jerry Garcia taught guitar. Garcia was there ready for his scholar who didn’t present up, and the 2 ended up jamming collectively all evening. They later began a band known as McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, which then developed into the Warlocks, and eventually turned the Grateful Lifeless.

Weir launched his first solo album, Ace, in 1972, adopted by 1978’s Heaven Assist the Idiot. His final LP, 2016’s Blue Mountain, featured contributions from members of the Nationwide. Weir was a board member of the Rex Basis, a company based by members of the Grateful Lifeless to “proactively present intensive group assist to artistic endeavors within the arts, sciences, and schooling.”

Weir Household Assertion:

It’s with profound disappointment that we share the passing of Bobby Weir. He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by family members, after courageously beating most cancers as solely Bobby may. Sadly, he succumbed to underlying lung points.

For over sixty years, Bobby took to the highway. A guitarist, vocalist, storyteller, and founding member of the Grateful Lifeless. Bobby will perpetually be a guiding power whose distinctive artistry reshaped American music. His work did greater than fill rooms with music; it was heat daylight that stuffed the soul, constructing a group, a language, and a sense of household that generations of followers carry with them. Each chord he performed, each phrase he sang was an integral a part of the tales he wove. There was an invite: to really feel, to query, to wander, and to belong.

Bobby’s closing months mirrored the identical spirit that outlined his life. Identified in July, he started therapy solely weeks earlier than returning to his hometown stage for a three-night celebration of 60 years of music at Golden Gate Park. These performances, emotional, soulful, and full of sunshine, weren’t farewells, however items. One other act of resilience. An artist selecting, even then, to maintain going by his personal design. As we keep in mind Bobby, it’s laborious to not really feel the echo of the way in which he lived. A person driftin’ and dreamin’, by no means worrying if the highway would lead him residence. A baby of numerous timber. A baby of boundless seas.

There is no such thing as a closing curtain right here, not likely. Solely the sense of somebody setting off once more. He typically spoke of a three-hundred-year legacy, decided to make sure the songbook would endure lengthy after him. Could that dream reside on by way of future generations of Lifeless Heads. And so we ship him off the way in which he despatched so many people on our approach: with a farewell that isn’t an ending, however a blessing. A reward for a life value livin’.

His loving household, Natascha, Monet, and Chloe, request privateness throughout this troublesome time and supply their gratitude for the outpouring of affection, assist, and remembrance. Could we honor him not solely in sorrow, however in how bravely we proceed with open hearts, regular steps, and the music main us residence. Grasp it up and see what tomorrow brings.

Learn extra about Bob Weir in The Grateful Lifeless: A Information to Their Important Reside Songs

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