Bob Weir | Artist

Bob Weir was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter born 1947 in San Francisco. At Sixteen he met Jerry Garcia and the two formed a band which was to become The Warlocks and eventually the Grateful Dead. As an infant Weir was given up for adoption by his parents who were college students at the time. He was raised by adoptive parents, Frederic and Eleanor Weir in Atherton CA, and began playing guitar at age thirteen. He had difficulties in school due to undiagnosed dyslexia and was expelled from nearly every school he attended, including Fountain Valley School in Colorado, where he met future Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow. On New Year's Eve 1963, 16-year-old Weir and a friend were wandering the back alleys of Palo Alto, looking for a club that would admit them, when they heard banjo music. They followed the music to its source, Dana Morgan's Music Store, where they encountered a 21-year-old Jerry Garcia. Weir and Garcia spent the night playing music together and then decided to form a band. During his 30 year career with the Grateful Dead, Weir played mostly rhythm guitar and sang many of the band's rock & roll and country & western songs. In 1994, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead. In 2024, he was awarded Kennedy Center Honors as a member of the Grateful Dead. Weir's first solo album Ace appeared in 1972, with the Grateful Dead members supporting, plus Keith Godchaux and his wife Donna, both of whom also joined the band. A live version of the album's best-known song, "Playing in the Band", had been issued on the Skull & Roses album the previous year. While continuing to perform with the Grateful Dead, Weir played in Kingfish with friends Matt Kelly and Dave Torbert, then fronted the Bob Weir Band with Brent Mydland, who joined the Grateful Dead the following year. In 1980 he formed another side band, Bobby and the Midnites. After the passing of Jerry Garcia in 1995, Weir periodically collaborated with bandmates either as 'The Dead' or 'The Other Ones' in concerts and events such as Deadheads for Obama. In September 2016, Weir released a new album of cowboy songs titled Blue Mountain. The album was inspired by his time working as a ranch hand in Wyoming when he was fifteen years old. Outside of his work with The Grateful Dead and dozens of live albums, standout studio albums include Ace (1972), Kingfish (1976) Bobby & The Midnites (1981), Kingfish (1985), and Blue Mountain (2016). In 2022, Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros launched a series of performances, with four sold-out shows with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. The concerts feature "sonic elaborations" of Grateful Dead classics, solo numbers, and covers. Weir remained single throughout his years with the Grateful Dead, although he lived for several years with Frankie Hart, a go-go dancer at the Peppermint Lounge in New York, who also worked in Apple Records American marketing department, and performed on the TV shows Hullabaloo and Shindig! She was allegedly the inspiration for the Robert Hunter-Bob Weir song "Sugar Magnolia". In July 1999, Weir married Natascha Münter in Mill Valley, California. Together, they had two daughters, Shala Monet Weir and Chloe Kaelia Weir. Bob, who was a long-term vegetarian and advocate for animal rights, died January 10th 2026 at the age of 78.

Artist Website: bobweir.net

Featured Albums: Bob Weir

Related Artists: Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead