Bob Weir

Bob Weir was born Robert Hall Parber in San Francisco on October 16, 1947. Although best known as a founder member of the Grateful Dead, guitarist Bob Weir has always enjoyed a parallel musical career working on solo projects and with the bands Kingfish, Furthur, RatDog, Dead & Company, The Dead, Wolf Bros, and Bobby and the Midnites. In 1972, he realised his first solo album, Ace (1972). He has a unique style and in the early days of Grateful Dead this created a degree of tension between Bob Weir and bandmate Jerry Garcia. The latter didn't appreciate Bob Weir's early experimentation with voiceleading - a musical term for creating interacting harmonies on an instrument. The friction forced Bob Weir to take a break from the band in 1968, returning later in the year apparently re-energised and even more committed to developing his sound. Bob Weir's style of rhythm playing became one of the main building blocks upon which the Grateful Dead's unique blend of rock, blues, country and jazz is based. He played guitar and often sang lead vocals during the Grateful Dead's 30-year career. Since then he has taken part in various Grateful Dead revival concerts and tours as well as performing with his band The Ratdog Quartet. A new solo album, Blue Mountain, was released in 2016 and was well-received by the music press. The album contains a collection of songs inspired by Bob Weir's experiences as a teenage ranch hand in Wyoming. Outside the music industry he is active in a number of charitable fields, most notably as a director of the environmental pressure group The Rainforest Action Network. After surviving a cancer, Bob Weir died from underlying lung problems on January 10, 2026, at the age of 78.