Robert Corridor Weir, higher referred to as Bob Weir, of the Grateful Useless handed away yesterday (tenth January), in accordance with an announcement posted to his personal website.
The put up states: “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 Useless. Bobby will perpetually be a guiding drive whose distinctive artistry reshaped American music. His work did greater than fill rooms with music; it was heat daylight that crammed 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 remaining months mirrored the identical spirit that outlined his life. Recognized 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 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, probably not. 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 via future generations of Useless Heads. And so we ship him off the best way he despatched so many people on our manner: 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 supply 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.”
The Grateful Useless might have retired again in 2015, however their legacy by no means stopped, Weir’s included – from being inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame in 1994 to 30 years later, receiving the Kennedy Heart Honors in 2024 – which Weir himself collected as one of many residing founding members of the Grateful Useless. The subsequent yr in 2025 the Guinness World Information would give the title of probably the most High 40 albums within the Billboard 200 chart’s historical past. Receiving a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and being listed as one among Rolling Stone‘s 100 Biggest Artist of All Time, there’s actually nothing that the Grateful Useless and Bob Weir did not obtain.
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