Pop wareA founding member of the legendary rock band The Grateful Dead, he has died at the age of 78, his family announced Saturday.
“It is with deep sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,” his family said books In a post on his Instagram page. “He passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones, having bravely beaten cancer as only Bobby could. Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung problems.”
The family revealed in the statement that Ware was diagnosed with cancer in July.
“As we remember Bobby, it is hard not to feel an echo of the way he lived,” his family wrote. “A man who drifts and dreams, never worrying whether the road will lead him home. A child of countless trees. A child of boundless seas.”
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
Dam She formed the Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia after they met in 1963 as teenagers in Palo Alto, California. With its unique blend of blues, folk and jazz, the band became a touring force for decades until Garcia’s death in 1995.
Weir wrote or co-wrote and sang lead vocals on Dead classics including “Sugar Magnolia,” “One More Saturday Night” and “Mexicali Blues.”
The group eventually reformed a few years after Garcia’s death and has done several iterations over the years, most recently as Dead & Company.
AP 
“For more than sixty years, Bobby has been on the road,” his family’s statement said. “Guitarist, singer, storyteller, and founding member of the Grateful Dead. Bobby will forever be a guiding force whose unique artistry reshaped American music. His work was more than just filling rooms with music; it was warm sunlight that filled the soul, building a community, a language, and a sense of family that generations of fans carried with them.”
Ware’s death leaves drummer Bill Kreutzmann as the only surviving original member. Founding guitarist Phil Lesh died in 2024. The band’s other drummer, Mickey Hart, an original member since he joined in 1967, is also alive at the age of 82. The fifth founding member, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, died in 1973.
The Dead and Company performed a series of concerts marking the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary in July at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
Born in San Francisco and raised in nearby Atherton, Weir was the youngest member of the Dead and looked like a fresh-faced high school student in his early years. He was generally less unkempt than the rest of the band members, but had a long beard like Garcia’s in later years.
The band would remain alive long after their birth, with their loyal fans known as Deadheads often following them on the road on almost non-stop touring that continued despite decades of shifting music and culture around them.
“Longevity has never been a big concern for us,” Weir said when The Dead took home the Best Personality Award at last year’s Grammy Music Awards. “Spreading joy through music was all we were really thinking about and we accomplished a lot of that.”
The ubiquitous posters and T-shirts featured the band’s skull logo, the colorful dancing bears that served as their other symbol, and signature phrases such as “There’s no time for hate” and “Not all who wander are lost.”
The Dead have won only a few actual Grammy Awards during their career — they’ve always been esoteric — and have only taken home a lifetime achievement award in 2007 and a best music feature award in 2018.
They were also rare hit pop songs. “Touch of Grey,” the 1987 song that sparked a huge surge in popularity for the aging band, was their only Top 10 hit on the Billboard charts.
But in 2024, they set an all-artist record with their 59th Top 40 album on Billboard. Forty-one albums have come since 2012, thanks to the popularity of the archival album series compiled by David Lemieux.
Their music – which in its beginnings was called “acid rock” – would draw blues, jazz, country, folk and psychedelia in long improvisational jams at their concerts.
“I dare say they are the great American band,” said Andy Cohen, the TV personality and devoted Deadhead, serving as host of the MusiCares event. “What a wonder.”