2026 has seen the passing of a number of pillars of the musical group.
In January, founding member of the Grateful Lifeless Bob Weir handed away. Unbeknownst to most everybody however these closest to him, Weir had been identified with most cancers in July of 2025. A month after that, he appeared on the Lifeless’s sixtieth anniversary live performance collection of their hometown of San Francisco.
“I stay up for dying,” he advised Rolling Stone that very same yr. “I have a tendency to think about demise because the final and greatest reward for a life properly lived. That mentioned, I’ve nonetheless bought so much on my plate and I will not be able to go for some time.”
Not lengthy after Weir’s passing, a public memorial service was held in San Francisco, the place his Lifeless & Firm bandmate John Mayer carried out “Ripple” and delivered a shifting eulogy.
“Over the course of a decade, we got here to belief one another,” Mayer mentioned to the gang. “He taught me, amongst many different issues, to belief within the second, and I might prefer to assume I taught him just a little bit to depend on a plan, not as an alternative choice to the divine moments, however as a technique to lure them in just a little nearer.”
A number of iconic voices additionally left us, together with Chuck Negron of Three Canine Evening and Brad Arnold of Three Doorways Down. Bassists, too, took successful. Fred Smith of each Blondie and Tv died in February, and earlier than him, William “Billy Bass” Nelson of Funkadelic and Sly Dunbar, one half of the well-known reggae rhythm part Sly and Robbie.
Unusually, it wasn’t an awesome yr for saxophonists. The legendary Sonny Rollins handed away, as did Dick Perry (Pink Floyd) and Walt Parazaider (Chicago).
After which there have been trade people, the sort who made issues occur behind the scenes, like Donn Landee, a longtime engineer for Van Halen, producer Jack Douglas, who labored with John Lennon and lots of extra and, massively, Clive Davis, the person accountable for launching the careers of Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, Whitney Houston and numerous others.
Within the under gallery, we’re having a look at these we have misplaced in 2026.
In Memoriam: 2026 Deaths
A take a look at these we have misplaced in 2026.
