Grateful Dead Co-Founder Bob Weir Dies at 78
Bob Weir, guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and co-founder of the iconic American band Grateful Dead, has died at the age of 78. His death was officially confirmed in a statement released by his family and published on the musician’s social media accounts. According to the statement, Weir passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones.
According to confirmed information, the musician had been battling cancer in recent months, after being diagnosed in the summer of 2025. Despite undergoing treatment, Bob Weir’s condition was complicated by respiratory issues, which ultimately became the cause of his death.
Bob Weir was born in 1947 and grew up in California. As a teenager, he met Jerry Garcia, with whom he co-founded a band in the mid-1960s that was initially called The Warlocks and later became known worldwide as Grateful Dead. The group quickly emerged as one of the defining musical symbols of American counterculture and the psychedelic movement.
For more than three decades, Bob Weir remained a central figure in the band, helping shape its distinctive sound. His rhythm guitar work, complex harmonic approach, and unmistakable performance style became an integral part of Grateful Dead’s musical identity. Weir contributed to the creation of numerous songs that later became rock classics and a cornerstone of the band’s live legacy.
Following the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, the band ceased activity in its classic lineup, but Weir continued to perform and record extensively. He led projects such as RatDog and Dead & Company, remaining the primary link between the history of Grateful Dead and new generations of listeners.
Over the decades, the band and its members received numerous prestigious honors, including induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The musical legacy of Grateful Dead had a profound influence on rock music, improvisational performance, and live concert culture, while the band’s devoted fan base, known as Deadheads, became a unique phenomenon in the history of popular music.
Bob Weir is survived by his wife and two daughters. His passing marks a major loss for the global music community and closes an era in the history of Grateful Dead, one of the most influential bands of the 20th century.
