Bob Weir

Bob Weir married Natascha Münter on July 15, 1999. They had two daughters, Monet Weir and Chloe Kaelia Weir.

Weir’s family said that he had been diagnosed with cancer in July before he died from underlying lung issues. He died surrounded by loved ones.

Weir was born Robert Hall Parber in San Francisco and was placed for adoption. He began playing guitar at 13 and performed bluegrass music at Bay Area folk clubs, including the Tangent in Palo Alto, where he first saw Jerry Garcia playing banjo.

On New Year’s Eve in 1965, Weir met Garcia at Dana Morgan’s Music Store. They formed a band that developed from Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions into the Warlocks and then the Grateful Dead. Weir was 16 and still in high school when he joined Garcia, Phil Lesh, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, and Bill Kreutzmann in the original group.

As the Grateful Dead’s rhythm guitarist and one of its main vocalists, Weir used intricate fills, riffs, and figures rather than relying only on straight chords. His influences ranged from Chuck Berry and cowboy songs to rhythm and blues and reggae, while he also drew ideas from piano players, particularly McCoy Tyner.

Weir’s songs helped define the band’s repertoire. His first solo album, Ace, was released in 1972 as a de facto Grateful Dead album and included "Cassidy," "Black-Throated Wind," "Mexicali Blues," and "Looks Like Rain." He frequently co-wrote songs with John Perry Barlow, who supplied lyrics while Weir wrote the music. The pair also created Dead standards such as "Playing in the Band," "One More Saturday Night," and "Sugar Magnolia."

Weir was briefly dismissed from the Grateful Dead with McKernan in 1968, but both musicians returned within months. He remained one of the band’s two frontmen through its original era, which ended after Garcia’s death in 1995.

After the Grateful Dead ended, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, and led or played in groups including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and Furthur. RatDog combined Grateful Dead material with original songs and covers.

In 2015, Weir co-founded Dead & Company with John Mayer, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, and other Dead associates. The group toured with Grateful Dead material, played its intended final show in 2023, and later performed residencies at the Las Vegas Sphere before joining the Grateful Dead’s 60th-anniversary celebration at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

Weir formed Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros in 2018 with bassist Don Was and drummer Jay Lane. The group later performed with Jeff Chimenti and the Wolfpack, including symphonic concerts with orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

Weir released the solo albums Heaven Help the Fool in 1978 and Blue Mountain in 2016. In 2016, he also worked with Aaron and Bryce Dessner of the National on Day of the Dead, a five-disc collection of Grateful Dead covers and reinventions that raised funds for the Red Hot Organization.

Weir and the Grateful Dead received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2024. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Les Paul Spirit Award, and the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

He served as a United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador supporting efforts related to poverty and climate change. He also supported HeadCount and MusiCares and co-founded the Furthur Foundation, which funded environmental, social, and cultural causes.