Bob Weir facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bob Weir
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Weir in 2009
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| Birth name | Robert Hall Parber |
| Born | October 16, 1947 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Died | January 10, 2026 (aged 78) |
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| Years active | 1963–2026 |
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Robert Hall Weir (pronounced WEER; born Parber; October 16, 1947 – January 10, 2026) was an American musician and songwriter. He was best known as a founding member of the famous band Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead stopped performing in 1995, he played with other bands. These included the Other Ones, which later became known as the Dead.
Weir also started and played in several other bands throughout his career. Some of these were Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and Furthur. He led Furthur with Phil Lesh, another former member of the Grateful Dead. In 2015, Weir joined with other Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. They teamed up with singer/guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti to form the band Dead & Company.
During his time with the Grateful Dead, Weir mainly played rhythm guitar. He also sang many of the band's rock & roll and country & western songs. In 1994, he was honored by being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead. In 2024, he received Kennedy Center Honors for his contributions with the Grateful Dead.
Contents
Early Life and Musical Beginnings
Weir was born in San Francisco, California, on October 16, 1947. His birth parents were John Parber and Phyllis Inskeep. He was later adopted and grew up with his adoptive parents, Frederic and Eleanor Weir, in Atherton.
He started playing the guitar when he was 13 years old. Before that, he tried the piano and the trumpet, but guitar was his favorite. Weir faced challenges in school because of undiagnosed dyslexia. He often changed schools, including Menlo School and Fountain Valley School. At Fountain Valley, he met John Perry Barlow, who later wrote many songs for the Grateful Dead.
Bob Weir's Music Career
On New Year's Eve in 1963, a 16-year-old Weir and a friend were looking for a music club in Palo Alto. They heard banjo music coming from Dana Morgan's Music Store. Inside, they met 21-year-old Jerry Garcia, who was waiting for his students. Weir and Garcia spent the night playing music together and decided to form a band.
The band was greatly inspired by The Beatles. Weir once said, "The Beatles were why we turned from a jug band into a rock 'n' roll band." He added, "What we saw them doing was impossibly attractive. I couldn't think of anything else more worth doing." Their first name was Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. They later became The Warlocks and finally, the Grateful Dead.
Weir played rhythm guitar and sang many lead songs throughout the Grateful Dead's 30-year history. In 1968, the band played some shows without Weir and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. These concerts, called "Mickey and the Hartbeats," happened alongside full Grateful Dead shows. There were some musical disagreements within the band at this time. However, Weir and Pigpen soon rejoined the group full-time.
This period helped Weir grow a lot as a guitar player. Phil Lesh, the band's bassist, once said he was "astonished, delighted and excited" by Weir's playing. Lesh described Weir's style as "quirky, whimsical and goofy." He noted how Weir could play complex guitar chords, similar to what a keyboard player might do.
In the late 1970s, Weir started using slide guitar techniques in some Grateful Dead songs. His unique guitar style was influenced by jazz pianist McCoy Tyner. He also looked up to artists like John Coltrane, Rev. Gary Davis, and Igor Stravinsky.
Solo Work and Other Bands
Weir's first solo album, Ace, came out in 1972. The Grateful Dead members played on the album, but they were credited individually. One of the album's most famous songs, "Playing in the Band," had already appeared on a live Grateful Dead album the year before.
While still with the Grateful Dead, Weir also played in other bands. In 1975 and 1976, he was part of Kingfish with his friends Matt Kelly and Dave Torbert. In 1978, he led the Bob Weir Band, which included Brent Mydland. Mydland later joined the Grateful Dead. In 1980, Weir formed another band called Bobby and the Midnites.
Before Jerry Garcia passed away in 1995, Weir started a new band called RatDog Revue, later shortened to RatDog. With RatDog, Weir played songs by artists like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Chuck Berry. He also performed many Grateful Dead songs and RatDog's own original music, which appeared on their album Evening Moods.
Weir took part in several reunions of the Grateful Dead members. These included performances as the Other Ones in 1998, 2000, and 2002. He also played as The Dead in 2003, 2004, and 2009. In 2009, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh formed a new band called Furthur. The name honored Ken Kesey's famous bus.
In 2011, Weir founded the Tamalpais Research Institute, also known as TRI Studios. This is a high-tech recording studio and online music venue. It streams live concerts over the internet in high-definition. In 2012, Weir toured with Chris Robinson and Jackie Greene as the Weir, Robinson, & Greene Acoustic Trio.
Weir brought RatDog back in March 2013. The RatDog Quartet, with Weir, Jay Lane, Robin Sylvester, and Jonathan Wilson, played their first show on March 3. In April 2013, Weir experienced a health issue during a Furthur concert. He needed to take a break from performing for several weeks but returned to the stage that summer.
In April 2014, a documentary film about Weir, The Other One: The Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir, premiered. Later that year, Weir needed to cancel some upcoming shows due to feeling unwell.
Later Years and New Projects
In July 2015, Weir reunited with the other living original members of the Grateful Dead—Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, and Phil Lesh. They played three shows in Chicago, marking 20 years since the band's last concert with Jerry Garcia. These four members, known as the "Core Four," were joined by Jeff Chimenti, Trey Anastasio, and Bruce Hornsby. The "Fare Thee Well" concerts were initially planned as their last performances together, but two more shows were added due to high demand.
In late 2015, Weir, Mickey Hart, and Billy Kreutzmann formed Dead & Company. They were joined by guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti. The band played many shows, including a New Year's Eve run. Dead & Company concluded its final tour on July 16, 2023. In January 2024, the band announced a series of concerts at the Sphere in Las Vegas. These shows began in May 2024 and ended in August 2024.
In May 2016, Weir was a guest speaker and performer at the Einstein Gala in Toronto, Canada. He spoke about the importance of science and innovation. In June 2016, Weir received the first-ever Les Paul Spirit Award at the Bonnaroo Arts And Music Festival. Michael Braunstein of the Les Paul Foundation praised Weir as an "extraordinary talent" and an "innovator."
Weir also received the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Americana Honors & Awards in Nashville. In September 2016, he released a new album of "cowboy songs" called Blue Mountain. The album was inspired by his experiences working on a ranch in Wyoming when he was 15.
In 2018, Weir formed a band called Wolf Bros. This group started as a trio with Weir on guitar and vocals, Don Was on upright bass, and Jay Lane on drums. They toured the U.S. in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Later, the band added a horn and string section called the Wolfpack. This larger group, known as Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros, played many concerts.
After a temporary break from touring, Weir and Wolf Bros resumed playing shows in 2022. They toured the U.S. with The Wolfpack string section. This included a special show with Mickey Hart and Zakir Hussain. Their 2022 tour also featured performances at the Kennedy Center. In 2023, they played concerts with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Stanford Symphony Orchestra.
In September 2023, Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros joined Willie Nelson's Outlaw Music Festival for several shows. The band's tour ended with a series of concerts at the Capitol Theatre. Weir performed at the first Dead Ahead Festival in Cancún in January 2024. He also played with the String Cheese Incident and had a New Year's Eve run in Fort Lauderdale. In December 2024, he was present when the Grateful Dead were honored at the Kennedy Center.
In January 2025, Weir returned to organize the second Dead Ahead Festival in Mexico. He also performed there with other artists. A two-month spring 2025 residency for Dead & Company took place at the Sphere in Las Vegas. On January 31, 2025, Weir, Mickey Hart, and other Grateful Dead family members received MusiCares Persons of the Year awards for their charity work.
Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros Symphony Project
In 2022, Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros started performing with symphony orchestras. They played four sold-out shows with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. These concerts featured new arrangements of Grateful Dead songs, Weir's solo music, and cover songs.
The symphony series continued in February 2023 with three concerts in Atlanta with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. In October 2023, Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros performed with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. In the fall of 2024, the band, with The Wolfpack, was backed by orchestras in Cincinnati, Chicago, and New Orleans. These concerts included special orchestral pieces and music from Grateful Dead albums.
The next symphony show was scheduled for June 21, 2025, at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
Personal Life
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Weir remained unmarried for many years during his time with the Grateful Dead. He lived with Frankie Hart from 1969 to 1975. Frankie Hart was a dancer and worked in the music industry. She was said to be the inspiration for the song "Sugar Magnolia".
On July 15, 1999, Weir married Natascha Münter in Mill Valley, California. They had two daughters together. Weir's sister-in-law is Leilani Münter, a former race car driver. Weir was a vegetarian for a long time and supported animal rights. He helped start Farm Sanctuary, an organization that protects farm animals.
Weir was involved with several charitable organizations. He served on the board of directors for the Rex Foundation, the Furthur Foundation, and HeadCount. He was also an advisory board member for the Jerry Garcia Foundation. Additionally, Weir was an honorary board member of the environmental group Rainforest Action Network. He also supported Little Kids Rock, a non-profit that provides free musical instruments to children in schools.
Passing
In the summer of 2025, Weir was diagnosed with cancer. Although he overcame the cancer, he passed away from underlying lung issues on January 10, 2026, at the age of 78.
Guitars Played by Bob Weir
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Bob Weir played many different guitars throughout his career. In the early days of The Warlocks, he played a Gretsch Duo-Jet. After the band became the Grateful Dead, he briefly used a Rickenbacker 365, a Guild Starfire IV, and a Fender Telecaster. For about ten years, his main guitar was a cherry red 1965 Gibson ES-335. He also used a sunburst ES-335 in The Grateful Dead Movie. Other Gibson guitars he played in the early 1970s included an ES-345, an SG, and a black Les Paul.
In 1974, Weir started working with Jeff Hasselberger at Ibanez to create custom guitars. He used the Ibanez 2681 while recording Blues for Allah. This guitar helped develop other 2681 models for his live shows. He also played his custom "Cowboy Fancy" guitar from 1976 to the mid-1980s. After that, Weir began using a Modulus Blackknife. He continued to play the Blackknife and a special Modulus/Casio hybrid guitar during the "Space" part of Grateful Dead concerts. For acoustic music, Weir used several Martins, a Guild, an Ovation, and his own line of Alvarez-Yairi signature models.
With his bands after the Grateful Dead, Weir played a Modulus G3FH custom, a Gibson ES-335, and a 1956 Fender Telecaster that belonged to his late half-brother. In 2016, Weir mentioned that he only used a Martin acoustic guitar when recording his solo album, Blue Mountain.
From 2017 onwards, Weir worked with D'Angelico Guitars to create several signature model instruments. These included the Premier, a semi-hollow guitar, released in 2017, and the Deluxe Bedford, a solid body guitar, released in 2020. In 2024, Weir and D'Angelico introduced the Deluxe Bobby Weir 3, another semi-hollow electric guitar.
Discography
Grateful Dead and related bands
- Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions – Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions (1999)
- The Strange Remain – The Other Ones (1999)
- Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead – Fare Thee Well (2015)
Solo albums
- Ace (1972)
- Heaven Help the Fool (1978)
- Weir Here – The Best of Bob Weir (2004) – compilation
- Blue Mountain (2016)
Kingfish
- Kingfish (1976)
- Live 'n' Kickin' (1977)
- Kingfish in Concert: King Biscuit Flower Hour (1996)
Bobby and the Midnites
- Bobby and the Midnites (1981)
- Where the Beat Meets the Street (1984)
Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman
- Live (1998)
- Fall 1989: The Long Island Sound (2013) – also Jerry Garcia Band
RatDog
- Evening Moods (2000)
- Live at Roseland (2001)
Wolf Bros
- Live in Colorado (2022)
- Live in Colorado Vol. 2 (2022)
With other artists
- Gathering – Josh Ritter (2017)
- Bear's Sonic Journals: Dawn of the New Riders of the Purple Sage – New Riders of the Purple Sage (2020)
- Bear's Sonic Journals: Sing Out! – various artists (2024)
Videos
- Move Me Brightly (2013)
- The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir (2015)
See also
In Spanish: Bob Weir para niños
