Today is a rough one. As the sun comes up on the first day since October 15th, 1947 without a Bob Weir on Earth, we’re looking for words of wisdom from some of the musicians who knew him best. Following news of the Grateful Dead rhythm guitarist’s death yesterday at age 78, tributes to Bob Weir have poured in from Billy Strings, Trey Anastasio, Warren Haynes, and many more.
As word reached Billy Strings that Bob Weir had succumbed to underlying lung issues after beating an unpublicised case of cancer, the bluegrass guitarist was coincidentally in the studio, recording a song called “Wrestling an Angel”. Weir, who took on the role of an exalted elder musical statesman in his later years, joined Billy Strings onstage at the Ryman Auditorium in 2022, and invited him to open for and sit in with Dead & Company in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park last year. Billy joined Bobby for a moving “Wharf Rat” during the three-night run, which proved to be Weir’s final live performances.
“He was a star wrangler,” Billy observed, “a celestial skysage who traded fear for wonder. Now he is riding the northern lights and skipping barefoot between the constellations.”
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Dead & Company With Billy Strings – “Wharf Rat” – 8/1/25
[Video: Todd Norris]
Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio also joined Bobby at Golden Gate Park for his last show, and his onstage collaborations with Weir date back to 2000. Most notably, Anastasio stepped into Jerry Garcia‘s role to perform with the Grateful Dead’s surviving “Core Four” (Bobby, drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, and bassist Phil Lesh, who passed away in fall 2024) for a five-show, two-city Fare Thee Well celebration of the Dead’s 50th anniversary. Though Bob and Trey had known each other for over a decade beforehand, the preparation for those shows was what brought them close.
“Bobby was completely allergic to compliments in the most endearing way,” Anastasio remembered. “I’d say, ‘Man, that guitar riff you were doing on that song sounded really killer’ and he’d respond, ‘Well, I’m sure I’ll fuck it up next time.'”
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Gov’t Mule guitarist Warren Haynes also filled in for Garcia alongside Weir many times over the years, including spinoff The Dead in the early 2000s. Haynes and Weir would remain frequent collaborators for the next 20+ years, sharing stages from Bonnaroo to Bobby’s state-of-the-art TRI Studios.
“[H]e has this wonderful sense of not needing to compare this moment to any other moment,” Haynes once said of Weir in an interview. “Every song, every performance, gets approached with a fresh outlook.”
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Another of Weir’s frequent collaborators in recent years was bassist Don Was, who joined Bobby’s Wolf Bros with Jay Lane in 2018. In the 2020s, Bobby expanded the stripped-down Wolf Bros to include the Wolf Pack string and horn section, occasionally teaming up with world-renowned orchestras in London, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and elsewhere.
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Former Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom “TC” Constanten, who played alongside co-founder Ronald “Pigpen” McKernan from 1968 to 1970, also shared a brief but powerful eulogy for Bobby.
Check out additional tributes to Bob Weir from musicians who shared the stage with him, including Joe Russo, George Porter Jr., The Disco Biscuits’ Marc Brownstein and Aron Magner, and Karl Denson. Iconic venues and institutions also honored Bobby, such as The Warfield in San Francisco—site of many Dead shows over the years, including a 15-show residency in 1980—and the Sphere, where Dead & Company played a record 48 shows over two years. New York’s Empire State Building even lit up in tie-dye to remember Bob Weir.
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Lastly, we’ll leave you with Bobby’s own thoughts on dying. Mystical, as always.
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Fare you well, Bob Weir, we love you more than words can tell.
Flight of the seabirds
Scattered like lost words
Wheel to the storm and fly