Bob Weir — the guitarist and founding member of the Grateful Useless — has died … based on an announcement posted to his official Instagram account.
In accordance with the submit … Weir handed away whereas surrounded by family members attributable to an underlying lung situation after he beat most cancers.
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Weir was apparently recognized with most cancers over the summer time shortly earlier than acting at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco for 3 reveals celebrating the Grateful Useless’s sixtieth anniversary.
The household goes on to say Bob typically spoke of the Grateful Useless’s lasting legacy … including he imagined the songs would reside on for lots of of years.
They write, “May that dream live on through future generations of Dead Heads. And so 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’.”
When Weir was simply 16 years previous, he famously adopted the sounds of a banjo right into a Palo Alto, California music retailer the place he discovered Jerry Garcia strumming the instrument.
The 2 performed music collectively all night time … and finally determined to kind the group which might later be often called the Grateful Useless. They — together with Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Phil Lesh and Invoice Kreutzmann — have been the founding 5 members of the group.
Weir spent the following three a long time — moreover a short interval in late 1968 when he and McKernan have been left off the band’s roster — enjoying rhythm guitar and sometimes singing songs for the Useless.
Throughout his time within the band, the group launched 13 studio albums, many singles and performed sold-out reveals everywhere in the world broadly attended by their devoted fanbase the “Deadheads.”
The Grateful Useless formally got here to an finish in 1995 after Garcia’s loss of life … although Weir performed with The Different Ones and The Useless — successive teams made up of Grateful Useless members — over the following 20 years. Weir was inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame as a member of the Grateful Useless in 1994.
Weir additionally struck out on his personal by founding the music group Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros in 2018 … famously enjoying a collection of reveals with symphony orchestras on the Kennedy Heart in 2022.
Like many members of the Grateful Useless, Weir additionally cared about social points — he was a longtime vegetarian and animal rights activist.
Weir is survived by his spouse Natascha Münter and their two kids, Monet and Chloe, who’re asking for privateness right now.
Bob was 78.
RIP
