{"id":231841,"date":"2026-01-11T01:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T01:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/231841\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T01:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T01:40:08","slug":"grateful-dead-co-founder-bob-weir-dies-at-78","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/231841\/","title":{"rendered":"Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir dies at 78"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">(Gray News) &#8211; Bob Weir, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and co-founder of the Grateful Dead, has died. He was 78.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DTWTKqKgKeP\/?igsh=MXN6M2Z1c2xpYzdrZg%3D%3D\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DTWTKqKgKeP\/?igsh=MXN6M2Z1c2xpYzdrZg%3D%3D\">the Weir family said in a statement on social media.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The announcement said he died after a \u201ccourageous\u201d battle with cancer and an underlying lung issue.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Bob Weir onstage during the Pollstar Awards on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, at The Beverly...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4YRTGC25RJHZ3KY4I7657LPDGA.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"651\" \/>Bob Weir onstage during the Pollstar Awards on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell\/Invision\/AP)(Richard Shotwell | Richard Shotwell\/Invision\/AP)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cBobby will forever be a guiding force whose unique artistry reshaped American music,\u201d the statement added. \u201cHis work did more than fill rooms with music; it was warm sunlight that filled the soul, building a community, a language, and a feeling of family that generations of fans carry with them. Every chord he played, every word he sang was an integral part of the stories he wove. There was an invitation: to feel, to question, to wander, and to belong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Weir was just 16 years old when he became friends with Jerry Garcia on New Year\u2019s Eve 1963. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The two guitarists formed an old-time music unit, Mother McCree\u2019s Uptown Jug Champions, and went electric with the rock band the Warlocks before finally taking the name the Grateful Dead in 1965.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Weir also recorded three solo albums; the first, 1972\u2019s \u201cAce,\u201d found him supported by most of the band. As time went on, he was increasingly involved in such band side projects as Kingfish, Bobby and the Midnites and RatDog.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Weir is survived by his wife, Natascha, and their two daughters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Gray News) &#8211; Bob Weir, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and co-founder of the Grateful Dead, has died. He&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[125982,125983,146,15413,125984,85,46],"class_list":["post-231841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bob-weir","tag-bob-weir-death","tag-entertainment","tag-grateful-dead","tag-grateful-dead-member","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}