Bob Weir, founding member of the Grateful Dead, dies at 78

Bob Weir, a founding member of the legendary rock band the Grateful Dead, has died at the age of 78, his family announced Saturday. 

“It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,” his family wrote in a post to his Instagram page. “He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could. Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues.”

In the statement, the family disclosed that Weir had been diagnosed with cancer in July.

“As we remember Bobby, it’s hard not to feel the echo of the way he lived,” his family wrote. “A man driftin’ and dreamin’, never worrying if the road would lead him home. A child of countless trees. A child of boundless seas.”

Weir formed the Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia after the two met in 1963 as teens in Palo Alto, California. The band, with its unique mix of blues, folk and jazz, became a touring powerhouse for decades until Garcia’s death in 1995. 

Weir wrote or co-wrote and sang lead vocals on Dead classics including “Sugar Magnolia,” “One More Saturday Night” and “Mexicali Blues.”  

The group eventually reformed a few years after Garcia’s death and took many iterations over the years, the latest as Dead & Company.  

“For over sixty years, Bobby took to the road,” his family’s statement said. “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.”

Weir’s death leaves drummer Bill Kreutzmann as the only surviving original member. Founding bassist Phil Lesh died in 2024.

Dead and Company played a series of concert’s for the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary in July at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Born in San Francisco and raised in nearby Atherton, Weir was the Dead’s youngest member and looked like a fresh-faced high-schooler in its early years. He was generally less shaggy than the rest of the band, but had a long beard like Garcia’s in later years.

The band would survive long past the hippie moment of its birth, with its fans known as Deadheads often following them on the road in a virtually non-stop tour.

“Longevity was never a major concern of ours,” Weir said when the Dead got the Grammys’ Musicares Person of the Year honor last year. “Spreading joy through the music was all we ever really had in mind and we got plenty of that done.”