Bob Weir Made the Grateful Dead

"In the summer of 1968, three years into the Grateful Dead's existence, the band fired singer and rhythm guitarist Bob Weir. Jerry Garcia, the band's other guitarist and its reluctant leader, and bassist Phil Lesh had decided that Weir and keyboardist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan were dragging the band down musically. Weir was just 20 years old, the youngest member of the group and the least technically accomplished. But Garcia didn't have the heart to pull the trigger himself, and he made the band's manager do the deed. Or at least he tried to."

"The failure was auspicious. A few months later, the band performed the shows that would be released as Live/Dead, one of the greatest psychedelic albums ever. The first sound heard on the record is Weir's guitar, which methodically builds "Dark Star" up, sewing together Garcia and Lesh's riffing. Weir's place in the Dead was never again in doubt. When the group disbanded after Garcia's death in 1995, Weir continued to lead or co-lead iterations of the band for another 30 years, culminating in a three-night 60th-anniversary celebration in San Francisco this past August. He died Saturday at 78, from complications of cancer."

Bob Weir was briefly fired in 1968 but returned and became integral to the Grateful Dead's sound. His guitar work opens the Live/Dead record and helps shape performances like "Dark Star." Jerry Garcia supplied virtuosity and Phil Lesh brought avant-garde ambition, while Weir provided soul, fun, and structural glue. After Garcia's 1995 death, Weir continued to lead or co-lead versions of the band for three decades, including a 60th-anniversary celebration in San Francisco. He died at 78 from complications of cancer. He was adopted, raised in Palo Alto, and struggled in school, often expelled, perhaps due to undiagnosed dyslexia.

Read at The Atlantic