Bob Weir, singer-songwriter, guitarist and co-founder of the Grateful Dead, has died at the age of 78. The news was spread by the family through a message published on social media. The musician passed away due to lung complications after a long battle with cancer.
«Bob passed away peacefully, surrounded by the people closest to him, after courageously defeating cancer, as only he knew how to do. Unfortunately he then succumbed to pre-existing lung problems”, reads the message released.
The diagnosis of the disease dates back to last summer. Despite the treatment, Weir had decided to return to the stage a few weeks after starting treatment, participating in a three-concert celebration of the Grateful Dead's 60 years of music in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
In the message released by the family, great space is also dedicated to the artist's reaction, lived in the name of music and determination: «Bobby's last months – continues the message – reflected the same spirit that defined his life. Diagnosed in July, he had begun treatment just weeks before returning to his hometown stage for a three-night celebration of 60 years of music in Golden Gate Park. Those performances, emotional, full of soul and full of light, were not goodbyes, but gifts. Another act of resilience. An artist who chose, even then, to move forward by his own will.”
The history of the Grateful Dead was born from a meeting that has become legendary. Weir was 16 when, following the sound of a banjo, he entered a music store in Palo Alto and met Jerry Garcia. From a long nocturnal jam the project took shape which, with the entry of Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann, would give life to one of the most influential bands in rock culture.
In remembering him, the family also wanted to draw a human and poetic portrait of the musician: «As we remember Bobby, it is difficult not to hear the echo of the way he lived. A man who wandered and dreamed, never worrying if the road would lead him home. A child of countless trees. A son of boundless seas.”
