Bob Weir, a founding member of the Grateful Dead, has passed away. He was 78. “It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir. He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could. Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues,” a statement on his website read. “For over sixty years, Bobby took to the road. 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. Every chord he played, every word he sang was an integral part of the stories he wove. There was an invitation: to feel, to question, to wander, and to belong,” it continued. Weir had been diagnosed with cancer in July. It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir. 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.  A reward for a life worth livin'. https://t.co/2qdBbh80v1 Chloe Weir pic.twitter.com/rXsHZ4KGlr — Bobby Weir (@BobWeir) January 10, 2026 NBC News has more: Born in San Francisco in 1947, Weir gravitated to folk music in his teenage years. At the age of 16, it was a chance encounter with Garcia in a Palo Alto, California, music store on New Year’s Eve 1963 that would start one of the most important friendships in rock history. Together, Garcia and Weir formed the basis for the Dead’s emergence as not just a band but a counterculture unto itself. Emerging from the psychedelic scene in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, Weir’s early days of the Dead are well chronicled as part of the rise of the hippie movement, most notably Ken Kesey’s “Acid Tests,” LSD-fueled parties at which the Dead performed. Though middling in record sales, the Dead’s aggressive touring regimen — combined with a policy that allowed fans to record shows and trade their favorite recordings — built a following that would grow organically over the decades. In the coming years, Garcia and Weir, initially a boyish figure next to his older and usually hairier bandmates, would become the faces of the Dead and its increasingly large cultural footprint. The two shared vocal duties while Weir’s rhythm guitar laid the foundation for Garcia’s now legendary improvisational playing. Weir penned some of the Dead’s most enduring songs, including “Jack Straw,” “Sugar Magnolia” and “Playing in the Band.” “Diagnosed in July, he began treatment only weeks before returning to his hometown stage for a three-night celebration of 60 years of music at Golden Gate Park. Those performances, emotional, soulful, and full of light, were not farewells, but gifts. Another act of resilience. An artist choosing, even then, to keep going by his own design,” the statement read. “As we remember Bobby, it’s hard not to feel the echo of the way he lived. A man driftin’ and dreamin’, never worrying if the road would lead him home. A child of countless trees. A child of boundless seas,” it continued. "It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir. He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones…" https://t.co/GnHvyVIGWb pic.twitter.com/DGfmF3SPdS — Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) January 11, 2026 Fox News shared further: Weir is survived by his wife Natascha and their two daughters, Monet and Chloe. In the post, the family spoke of Weir’s determination “to ensure the songbook would endure long after him” and said “he often spoke of a three-hundred-year legacy.” It is their hope that his dream will “live on through future generations of Dead Heads.” The musician met and befriended Jerry Garcia in 1963 at 16 years old. The two formed a music group and, after cycling through a few names, settled on the Grateful Dead in 1965. As a member of the group, Weir wrote many of their most famous songs, with his friend, John Perry Barlow, including “Sugar Magnolia,” “Playing in the Band,” “One More Saturday Night” and many others. In addition to his work with the Grateful Dead, he also released three solo albums. The Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995 following the death of Garcia, and 20 years later, Weir came together with drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, and musician John Mayer to form Dead & Company, touring with them from 2015 to 2018. The group came together a few more times in 2023, 2024 and 2025.