Bob Weir, co-founding singer/guitarist for the Grateful Useless and their numerous offshoots, has handed away. “He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by family members, after courageously beating most cancers as solely Bobby might,” in line with a press release posted on his web site as we speak that cites “underlying lung points” as the reason for demise. Weir was identified with most cancers final July, and he started remedy earlier than taking part in three farewell exhibits with Useless & Firm final 12 months, his last dwell efficiency. Weir was 78.
Robert Corridor Weir was born in San Francisco, the place he was raised by rich adoptive dad and mom. He began taking part in guitar as a toddler and at 16 met the marginally older Jerry Garcia, who was working as a music instructor in Palo Alto. After a night taking part in music collectively, they determined to begin a band. The 2 shaped a people duo referred to as Mom McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, which advanced into an electrical rock band referred to as the Warlocks after which into the Grateful Useless.
The Grateful Useless performed their first present underneath that title at one in all Ken Kesey’s acid assessments in 1965. They rapidly developed a status for sprawling, psychedelic improvisations, they usually grew to become a key establishment within the Bay Space’s counterculture. Weir and Garcia ceaselessly shared lead-vocal obligation, and Weir developed his personal intricate type of rhythm guitar, carefully intertwined with Garcia’s leads and knowledgeable by nation, jazz, and blues. Weir wrote or co-wrote Grateful Useless songs like “Sugar Magnolia,” “Taking part in In The Band,” and “One Extra Saturday Evening,” and he sang lead on the long-lasting observe “Truckin’.”
In 1972, Bob Weir launched his debut solo album Ace, together with his Grateful Useless bandmates backing him up. In a while, he additionally performed with aspect initiatives like Kingfish and Bobby And The Midnites. However his important work was with the Grateful Useless, which remained a touring establishment lengthy after the thrill of the ’60s drifted away. For many years, the Useless had been a life-style as a lot as a band. Followers adopted them round from present to indicate, buying and selling bootleg tapes and debating which of their dwell exhibits had been the most effective. Their excursions had been at all times extra profitable than their information, however they scored a one-off top-10 hit with the 1987 single “Contact Of Gray.”
After Jerry Garcia’s 1995 demise, Bob Weir led the post-Useless band RatDog. He additionally took half in offshoots just like the Different Ones, the Useless, Additional, and Useless & Firm, the model of the group with John Mayer that grew to become a dwell establishment in its personal proper and performed two acclaimed residences as Las Vegas’ Sphere in 2024 and 2025. Weir and his band Wolf Bros performed a sequence of symphonic concert events previously few years, and he was the topic of the 2014 documentary The Different One: The Lengthy, Unusual Journey Of Bob Weir. Together with the remainder of the Useless, Weir was inducted into the Rock And Roll Corridor Of Fame in 1994 and offered with Kennedy Middle Honors in 2024.
See the complete assertion from Weir’s familiy and a few of his work under.
It’s with profound disappointment that we share the passing of Bobby Weir. He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by family members, after courageously beating most cancers as solely Bobby might. Sadly, he succumbed to underlying lung points.
For over sixty years, Bobby took to the highway. A guitarist, vocalist, storyteller, and founding member of the Grateful Useless. Bobby will endlessly be a guiding power whose distinctive artistry reshaped American music. His work did greater than fill rooms with music; it was heat daylight that crammed the soul, constructing a neighborhood, a language, and a sense of household that generations of followers carry with them. Each chord he performed, each phrase he sang was an integral a part of the tales he wove. There was an invite: to really feel, to query, to wander, and to belong.
Bobby’s last months mirrored the identical spirit that outlined his life. Recognized in July, he started remedy solely weeks earlier than returning to his hometown stage for a three-night celebration of 60 years of music at Golden Gate Park. These performances, emotional, soulful, and full of sunshine, weren’t farewells, however presents. One other act of resilience. An artist selecting, even then, to maintain going by his personal design. As we keep in mind Bobby, it’s arduous to not really feel the echo of the way in which he lived. A person driftin’ and dreamin’, by no means worrying if the highway would lead him residence. A toddler of numerous bushes. A toddler of boundless seas.
There is no such thing as a last curtain right here, probably not. Solely the sense of somebody setting off once more. He typically spoke of a three-hundred-year legacy, decided to make sure the songbook would endure lengthy after him. Could that dream dwell on by future generations of Useless Heads. And so we ship him off the way in which he despatched so many people on our means: with a farewell that isn’t an ending, however a blessing. A reward for a life price livin’.
His loving household, Natascha, Monet, and Chloe, request privateness throughout this troublesome time and supply their gratitude for the outpouring of affection, assist, and remembrance. Could we honor him not solely in sorrow, however in how bravely we proceed with open hearts, regular steps, and the music main us residence. Dangle it up and see what tomorrow brings.
