{"id":854721,"date":"2026-09-20T21:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T21:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/854721\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T21:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T21:30:09","slug":"chad-gilbert-new-found-glorys-founding-guitarist-dead-at-45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/854721\/","title":{"rendered":"Chad Gilbert, New Found Glory’s Founding Guitarist, Dead at 45"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tChad Gilbert<\/a>, founding member and lead guitarist for New Found Glory<\/a>, has died at the age of 45.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Florida pop-punk band and Gilbert\u2019s wife Lisa Cimorelli announced Gilbert\u2019s death Sunday on social media, six months after the guitarist revealed<\/a> he was battling brain cancer; Gilbert was initially diagnosed with liver cancer in 2021.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOn the morning of September 20th, Chad Everett Gilbert passed away peacefully in his sleep,\u201d the band wrote. \u201cHe left this world surrounded by friends and family and took his final breaths with his wife and mother by his side, just as he wished.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGilbert\u2019s bandmates continued, \u201cWe are devastated and shocked by how quickly he left us, yet so grateful for how peacefully and smoothly he went. The amount of visitors that crowded the hospital lobby at a moment\u2019s notice is a testament to how beloved and cherished Chad was, and always will be. He was a legendary musician, but his favorite accomplishment was being a husband and father. His biggest dreams came true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSince helping found the band alongside Jordan Pundik, Ian Grushka, and Stephen Klein in 1997 at just 17 years old, Gilbert became an integral part of New Found Glory, writing most of the band\u2019s songs, including pop-punk staples \u201cMy Friends Over You\u201d and \u201cHead on Collision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cChad\u2019s guitar playing, songwriting, humor, and relentless drive helped shape New Found Glory for nearly three decades,\u201d his bandmates wrote Sunday. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThrough more than a dozen albums, endless tours around the world, and more accolades than we ever could have imagined, Chad challenged all of us to grow as musicians, performers, and human beings. While we are devastated to lose him, we are so grateful for the incredible life he lived, the memories we shared, and the brotherhood we had. His influence will always be part of New Found Glory and his spirit will be felt on every stage we stand on, with every note we play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith New Found Glory, Gilbert became an integral member of the pop-punk scene in the early aughts. He offered guest vocals on a track from Fall Out Boy\u2019s From Under the Cork Tree LP and guitar riffs on the band\u2019s 2007 song \u201cThe Take Over, The Breaks Over.\u201d Gilbert also had a longtime on-off relationship with Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams; the pair were married from February 2016 to late 2017.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a tribute post following the news of Gilbert\u2019s death, Mark Hoppus wrote, \u201cChad was the best friend to every person he met. The most positive and creative force in any room he walked into.\u201d The Blink-182 singer went onto detail Gilbert\u2019s strength in his battle with cancer. \u201cThese past years he fought his sickness with the soul of a joyous, courageous warrior,\u201d said Hoppus, who previously fought lymphoma after being diagnosed in 2021. He added: \u201cYou\u2019ll be sorely missed by more people than you could ever imagine. See you on the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this year, New Found Glory took a moment to shout out Gilbert and his fight against cancer during their set at the 2026 Vans Warped Tour<\/a> stop in Washington, D.C. \u201cGive it up for Chad!\u201d they told the crowd. Gilbert was unable to perform after he lost sensation in the left side of his body as result of three tumors that were pushed up against his brain.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tIn April, the guitarist detailed his arduous cancer journey in an interview with Rolling Stone<\/a>. \u201cIt felt good to know that there\u2019s still a battle to be going on and that I can recover from this and grow stronger from this,\u201d he said at the time. Gilbert and Cimorelli shared that the guitarist\u2019s treatment plan included promising immunotherapies to keep the cancer out of his brain.<\/p>\n

\n\tGilbert continued to be positive throughout his cancer battle. \u201cI have my crying moments where, like everyone, I have to let it out,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I like that we can turn it around into something positive\u2026 It\u2019s always been just to inspire and grow a community of people that want to go to our shows and smile and have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chad Gilbert, founding member and lead guitarist for New Found Glory, has died at the age of 45.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[360995,88,360996,45482,13441,61772],"class_list":["post-854721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-chad-gilbert","tag-entertainment","tag-new-found-glory","tag-obit","tag-obituary","tag-rsx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}