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Bob Weir, a founding member of the Grateful Dead, has died after battling cancer and lung issues. He was 78.
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The Grateful Dead has lost one of its founding members.
Bob Weir, who established the psychedelic rock band in 1965 alongside Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and Ron McKernan, has died, his family announced Jan. 10. He was 78.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,” the family wrote in a post on 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.”
The guitarist’s loved ones noted that even as he faced medical woes, he refused to be sidelined, even taking the stage with Dead and Company in his native San Francisco in August just weeks after he began receiving cancer treatment.
“Bobby’s final months reflected the same spirit that defined his life,” the statement continued. “Those performances, emotional, soulful, and full of light, were not farewells, but gifts. Another act of resilience.”
Weir’s family also honored his decadeslong career as a musician, describing him as a “guiding force” with an artistic output that “reshaped American music.”
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“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,” they wrote. “Every chord he played, every word he sang was an integral part of the stories he wove.”
Indeed, Weir’s family noted his desire for his music to live on, explaining that the rock icon—who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the Grateful Dead in 1994—was “determined to ensure the songbook would endure long after him” through the band’s fans, known as Dead Heads.
“And so we send him off the way he sent so many of us on our way: with a farewell that isn’t an ending, but a blessing,” the statement read. “A reward for a life worth livin’.”
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