Bob Weir, Grateful Dead's Statesman, Passes at 78

""It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir," his family announced in a statement. "He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could. Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues." "Bobby's final months reflected the same spirit that defined his life. Diagnosed in July, he began treatment only weeks before returning to his hometown stage for a three-night celebration of 60 years of music at Golden Gate Park."

""Those performances, emotional, soulful, and full of light, were not farewells, but gifts. Another act of resilience. An artist choosing, even then, to keep going by his own design. As we remember Bobby, it's hard not to feel the echo of the way he lived. A man driftin' and dreamin' never worrying if the road would lead him home. A child of countless trees. A child of boundless seas.""

Bob Weir, born Robert Hall Parber on October 16, 1947, in San Francisco, co-founded the Grateful Dead and shaped American jam rock with a jazz-influenced rhythm guitar style. He met Jerry Garcia at 16 and helped form Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, later renamed the Grateful Dead in 1965. After the band's 1995 disbandment, he toured with RatDog, The Dead, Furthur, Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros, and Dead & Company. Diagnosed in July, he began treatment weeks before performing a three-night 60th-anniversary celebration at Golden Gate Park. He transitioned peacefully at age 78, having beaten cancer but succumbing to underlying lung issues.

Read at Consequence