Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir Dead at 78

Grateful Dead founding member Bob Weir has died. Weir performed rhythm guitar and sang lead vocals for the whole lot 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 Kids, RatDog, and Furthur. After the Grateful Lifeless disbanded in 1995, Weir carried out with different former members of the band in a gaggle known as the Different Ones, later referred to as the Lifeless. Weir extra lately continued enjoying with Grateful Lifeless members Mickey Hart and Invoice Kreutzmann, together with John Mayer, in an outfit known as Dead & Company.

“It’s with profound unhappiness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,” the Weir household said in a statement. “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 “remaining months mirrored the identical spirit that outlined his life. Recognized in July, he started remedy 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 presents. One other act of resilience.” You’ll be able to learn the total assertion beneath.

Weir was born in San Francisco to Jack Parber and a fellow College of Arizona pupil, who later gave him as much as his adoptive mother and father. He was raised within the suburb of Atherton, selecting up piano and trumpet till lastly selecting up the guitar at age 13. As a result of his undiagnosed dyslexia, Weir was expelled from practically each faculty he attended—together with Fountain Valley College 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 pupil who didn’t present up, and the 2 ended up jamming collectively all night time. They later began a band known as McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, which then developed into the Warlocks, and at last grew to become 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 Foundation, a corporation based by members of the Grateful Lifeless to “proactively present in depth neighborhood assist to inventive endeavors within the arts, sciences, and training.”

Weir Household Assertion:

It’s with profound unhappiness 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 street. A guitarist, vocalist, storyteller, and founding member of the Grateful Lifeless. Bobby will eternally be a guiding drive 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 neighborhood, 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 remaining months mirrored the identical spirit that outlined his life. Recognized in July, he started remedy 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 presents. 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 best way he lived. A person driftin’ and dreamin’, by no means worrying if the street would lead him dwelling. A toddler of numerous timber. A toddler of boundless seas.

There isn’t a remaining curtain right here, not likely. Solely the sense of somebody setting off once more. He usually spoke of a three-hundred-year legacy, decided to make sure the songbook would endure lengthy after him. Might that dream dwell on by future generations of Lifeless Heads. And so we ship him off the best way 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 tough time and provide their gratitude for the outpouring of affection, assist, and remembrance. Might we honor him not solely in sorrow, however in how bravely we proceed with open hearts, regular steps, and the music main us dwelling. Dangle it up and see what tomorrow brings.

Learn extra about Bob Weir in The Grateful Dead: A Guide to Their Essential Live Songs

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