Bob Weir, rhythm guitarist and founding member of the Grateful Lifeless, died on Saturday (January 10). He was 78.
A press release on Weir’s official social media accounts shared that he had “succumbed to underlying lung points” after a battle with most cancers. “He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by family members, after courageously beating most cancers as solely Bobby may,” it learn.
The beloved musician was recognized with most cancers in July 2025, the assertion notes. Weir “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 Lifeless & Firm reveals in August, in celebration of the Grateful Lifeless’s sixtieth anniversary, have been Weir’s remaining public performances.
Robert Corridor Weir was born in San Francisco, California on October 16, 1947. Aged 17, he co-founded the legendary jam band as rhythm guitarist/vocalist alongside lead guitarist/vocalist Jerry Garcia, bassist/vocalist Phil Lesh, drummer Invoice Kreutzmann and keyboardist/harmonica participant Ron ‘Pigpen McKernan’.
The Lifeless, as they have been fondly known as, fashioned a formidable popularity as a dwell band, identified for lengthy reveals, mutable setlists and line-ups, and onstage improvisation. They performed over 2,000 reveals in Garcia’s lifetime, adopted round America by a devoted contingent of followers known as the Deadheads. The Grateful Lifeless have been instrumental to American counterculture within the Sixties and remained deeply influential on rock music till their disbandment in 1995, following Garcia’s passing.
Weir would stick with it the Grateful Lifeless’s legacy in different iterations of the band, together with The Different Ones and the Lifeless, and most just lately Lifeless & Firm – alongside Lifeless drummers Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, Lifeless bassist Oteil Burbridge, in addition to keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and guitarist and artist John Mayer. The prolific guitarist was additionally a member of Furthur, RatDog and Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros, amongst different bands over the many years. Simply final yr, in June 2025, Weir performed his first present in London in over 20 years on the Royal Albert Corridor, re-envisioning the music of the Lifeless with the Royal Philharmonic Live performance Orchestra.
Tributes have begun pouring out for Weir, together with from Phish’s Trey Anastasio, who opened for Weir’s remaining efficiency in San Francisco final August. “This one actually hurts. I actually beloved him,” Anastasio wrote on Instagram. “He was a candy, type, mild pal, and I by no means believed this might occur so quickly.”
Don Was, Weir’s bandmate of seven years in Wolf Bros, wrote: “The music he helped create over the past 60 years will proceed to be felt for generations. As he sang in one in all my favourite Lifeless songs: the music won’t ever cease.”
Don Welder of the Eagles has additionally paid tribute, writing: “I first noticed Bob at Woodstock with the Grateful Lifeless and was blown away by that entire band, and the musicianship.”
“God bless Bob Weir,” wrote Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins.
The Empire State Constructing in New York Metropolis lit up in tie-dye colors on Saturday night time in honour of Weir’s legacy – see a video and skim extra tributes under.
Tonight we’ll shine in tie-dye to honor the life and legacy of Bob Weir @GratefulDead pic.twitter.com/hWCMxUPXoj
— Empire State Constructing (@EmpireStateBldg) January 11, 2026
God bless Bob Weir pic.twitter.com/ReEcjmehcS
— William Patrick Corgan (@Billy) January 11, 2026
Bob Weir was a real son of California who helped create the soundtrack of a era.
He was — and can at all times be — a king of psychedelic rock. Bob can be deeply missed, and his music will ceaselessly dwell on. pic.twitter.com/Bkt0EPSDUl
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) January 11, 2026
