Bob Dylan, Bruce Hornsby, Trey Anastasio, Billy Strings and More Respond to Bobby Weir's Passing

Bob Dylan, Bruce Hornsby, Trey Anastasio, Billy Strings and More Respond to Bobby Weir’s Passing

Hana Gustafson on January 11, 2026

Bob Weir, the founding member of the Grateful Dead, the band’s lead rhythm guitarist, and the source of eternal classics like “Cassidy,” “Black-Throated Wind,” “One More Saturday Night,” “Looks Like Rain,” and countless others, passed away on Saturday, January 10, 2026. According to a statement shared by the family, he succumbed to “underlying lung issues” after “courageously beating cancer.” He was 78 years old.

A cowboy of the cosmos, Weir initiated a voyage more than six decades ago that has touched the lives of innumerable fans, friends, and collaborators alike. Following the profound loss of the jam community’s venerate captain and preacher of peace, fellow musicians and musical associates have shared their memories and tales of “The Other One” on social media.

Bob Dylan:

[See post via Twitter/X below.]

Bruce Hornsby:

@bobweir was one of my favorite musician friends, and for that matter, one of my favorite people anywhere. Always a warm, jovial presence, but with a mischievous look in his eye, he was ready with banter, a quip, a wise-guy crack or bon mot most all the time.

Weir had a completely original take on playing rhythm guitar in a rock band, inspired by disparate sources but maybe mostly from studying McCoy Tyner’s comping behind John Coltrane in the classic Coltrane Quartet of the sixties. He found the ideal and unique voicings and rhythmic style to underpin Garcia’s flights of fancy, and kept developing it through the years. Often when I played with them I wouldn’t play, just lay out, because I thought that the symbiosis between the two longtime partners was so evident and anything else added was unnecessary and possibly intrusive.

Bobby also wrote a large number of songs that became beloved classics of the @gratefuldead corpus. As a writer he had a very broad range stylistically, and wrote songs that featured a wide palette of musical colors: original chord progressions with unexpected and exciting harmonic movement (“Estimated Prophet,” “Weather Report Suite”), beautiful ballads (“Looks Like Rain,” “Black-Throated Wind”), stirring jam vehicles (“The Other One”), titanic old-time western country-rock songs (“Jackstraw” — wow, “Mexicali Blues”), and durable, jamming night-closing rockers (“One More Saturday Night,” “Playing In The Band,” “I Need A Miracle,” “Truckin’,” “Sugar Magnolia”).

This hits hard. We just worked together in 2025 on some new music and had a joyful time with it. This piece, a song I wrote with Robert Hunter, will stand as our mutual final collaboration, and I will always cherish it, along with all the times we played together through the years, from 1988 until last year. Sometimes it was pretty freaking magical. I love you, Bob, and will always fondly remember our many moments, so often transcendent, throwing chords and notes around in space, through the air, together.

Trey Anastasio:

Sad to hear that my friend Bobby has passed on. This one really hurts. I really loved him. He was a sweet, kind, gentle friend, and I never believed this would happen so soon.

I knew Bobby for many years, but it was in the lead-up to Fare Thee Well that we really became close. I went out to his beach house, and we spent three nights there alone, just the two of us: playing guitar, cooking scrambled eggs, listening to records, working out, talking, and walking on the beach. We went out to dinner together, and he let me drive his new car. That was also when I first met Tascha, whom I love so much. Tascha, my heart is with you, Monet and Chloe today.

Bobby told me incredible stories about his life during those days at the beach house. He told me how he was still in high school when the first acid test happened. When it was over, the sun came out, and he had to do his math homework as he raced back to school on the train. He said after the second or third acid test, he looked down at his homework and said, “Nah.” And that was it. The rest of his life was on the road, in the Grateful Dead and other bands.

He told me stories about working on those classic Dead songs, what music the band was listening to as the songs were coming together. He said that when they were learning “Uncle John’s Band,” they were listening to the first CSN album and trying to harmonize like them. When they were learning “Help on the Way,” they were trying to sound like the Mahavishnu Orchestra. I found all of that endlessly fascinating.

Bobby was completely allergic to compliments in the most endearing way. 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.” I loved that about him.

The more I got to know Bobby, the more I liked him. I learned so much from him. He talked to me about all the loss around the Grateful Dead, so many friends who had died. He said that John Belushi was backstage at a Dead show the night before he died, looking very grey and unhealthy, and Bobby told him he might want to think about slowing down. I believe that all of that loss gave him a unique and beautiful perspective on life.

Mostly, he just loved playing, and I loved that about him. I don’t think he ever got caught up in the bigness. I don’t think it meant anything to him. There were times when I was talking to him when I thought he was the last actual hippie. I remember when Mexico got canceled due to Covid, and he texted me, saying, “Man, you should fly down here, and we’ll just play on the beach, no stage!” That cracked me up. I almost did. Now I wish I had.

The last time I saw Bobby was at Dead 60. We had a nice laugh backstage, then I went and hung out with him and his beautiful family on his bus. I could tell his health was not what it used to be.

Rest in peace, Bobby. Thank you for all the gifts you brought into the world, and for all the love you gave to so many of us. Your spirit lives on forever. My heart is with Tascha and your beautiful daughters.

Billy Strings:

Today me and the fellers were deep into a recording session cutting a tune called ‘Wrestling An Angel’ when my wife told me our friend Bob Weir had made his journey from this earthly realm into the heavens. We are all completely devastated but I also can’t help but feel like he is at total peace and more magical now than he ever was. I’ve never knew a person so in tune with the cosmos. Who was so mystical and smart and mysterious, alluring and radiant. He was a star wrangler .. a celestial skysage who traded fear for wonder. Now he is riding the northern lights and skipping barefoot between the constellations… We took a while to try to understand the news and then told some beautiful stories about our times with him.. but eventually we decided to pick ourselves up and got back to recording our music because that’s what he would have wanted us to do. As he said “There’s work to be done.”

I’ll always cherish the memories I have of Bob .. of hanging out in his hotel room and him showing me his record collection and mobile recording rig. Sitting there listening to kind of blue in silence. Soaking in the frequencies. Of him busting into ‘when I paint my masterpiece’ at my wedding.. and in an instant he turned the place into a joyous musical celebration. It was the greatest gift anyone could have given us.

He was always ready to “Kick up a fuss” He always had boundless time and knowledge to share with everyone and was truly one of the kindest people I’ve ever known. The world is a better place because of him. I’m extremely grateful to have crossed paths with him in this life.

I am sending all of my love and prayers to his beautiful family and my heart breaks for them.. having just lost my mother recently I comprehend and sympathize with how hard it is to lose someone we hold so dear.

Words are hard to find in these moments.. I just know that he has had such a profound impact on so many of us and we will all carry that onward into the horizon until we someday meet again.

Heavens choir just gained a beautiful new voice. There is joy in knowing he is with some of his old friends again.. singing and laughing and playing beautiful songs.

Thank you Bob. ❤️

Don Was:

I can’t believe that Bobby’s gone – it seemed like he’d outlast all of us. Playing with him in the Wolf Bros over the past 7 years has been one of the most meaningful and rewarding experiences of my life. Night after night, he taught us how to approach music with fearlessness and unbridled soul – pushing us beyond what we thought was musically possible. Every show was a transcendent adventure into the unknown. Every note he played and every word he sang was designed to bring comfort and joy to our audiences.

The music he helped create over the last 60 years will continue to be felt for generations. As he sang in one of my favorite Dead songs: the music will never stop.

It was an honor to play in his band and to be his friend. Heartfelt condolences go out to Natascha, Monet and Chloe and to all of the fans who considered him to be next of kin. We’ll miss him forever.

Warren Haynes:

RIP Bob Weir— Not how any of us wanted to start this year— this is a major loss to the world of music and to our extended family. Losing Bob this close to losing Phil is quite a blow.

Bob was an enigma— a beautiful enigma. As the youngest member of the Grateful Dead he brought, as they all did, his unique personality and take on music into the mix. The Grateful Dead was the true epitome of ‘the whole being greater than the sum of its’ parts’ and as great as each of those parts was, the whole was truly a synergy that happened to exist as its’ own enigma in the beginning but grew in a space and time based on the dedication to a likemindedness at a moment in musical history when everything lined up in a way that could never happen again. They learned and grew together, in a way that can only be described as familial, and what they discovered, through psychedelic exploration and experimentation, led to not only an approach to music that had never been taken before but to the creation of a whole new genre of music.

Bob was an integral part of this metamorphosis. His voice was the ultimate contrast and compliment to those of Jerry Garcia and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and his songwriting drew from entirely different influences as well, including rhythm and blues, reggae, cowboy songs, jazz, and classical music,. His guitar playing defied traditional rhythm guitar as it existed prior and, although he and Garcia forged their styles together, their approaches couldn’t have been more different with Bob’s parts invariably seeming to add a sense of mystery and undefinable uniqueness to the music. Having played with Bob countless times through the years, I was always struck by this inimitable style and approach which was such a huge part of the Grateful Dead’s musical tapestries.

When asked about this in an interview years ago, I was quoted as saying “Bob’s very unique chord shapes and rhythmic patterns push you to play differently, and outside yourself. He, very naturally, leads you into a lot of bobbing and weaving, counterpoint, and call and response. And he has this wonderful sense of not needing to compare this moment to any other moment. Every song, every performance, gets approached with a fresh outlook. It’s an intangible thing, but it’s so crucial to all he does.”

When you combine that with the amount of great songs he wrote or co-wrote through the years (some of mine being “Cassidy”, “Jackstraw”, “Estimated Prophet”, “The Other One”, and “Looks Like Rain”) his place in the music pantheon is solidified. Aside from that, he was genuinely a beautiful human being and I am honored to have known him as a friend and to have played together the many, many times that we did. I will cherish those memories and the world of music will keep his spirit alive. — WH

Joe Russo:

My thoughts were a bit too long for a post… [Scroll down and swipe through Russo’s memories.]

Margo Price:

Getting to know Bob Weir over the past decade was a gift. Bob was a sage- a profoundly wise, musical guru who taught me so much about songs, art, melody, meditation and being in the moment. He was unlike most rock stars in that he was unpretentious, deep and rooted in knowing who he was. Bobby vibrated with magic. He was both ancient and young- he always had a twinkle in his eye. Like a barefoot philosopher or the Lorax, he was mystical. He spoke for the trees.

One time he called me out of the blue and asked if I would come out to Marin to play a house show with him and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. I dropped everything. He chartered me a plane, we worked up songs and played for about 40 people in someone’s living room- we even wrote one together.

Getting to roll along on his tour bus and sing harmonies on his historic catalog will remain with me always as cherished memories. The records he made with the Grateful Dead are woven into the tapestry of American music forever. My heart is with his family- his amazing wife Natasha and their daughters Monét and Chloe, his bandmates, friends and fans. LOVE’S REAL NOT FADE AWAY

Les Claypool:

We lost a champion today. Bob Weir, one of the nicest humans Ive ever met in the music world. A legend on many levels.

Wynonna Judd:

My heart is broken over this loss. To the world he was Bob (Bobby) Weir. To me… he was and will always be…MY “Sir” Robert Weir.

When Mom passed, we held our {private} celebration of life in Nashville. Sir Robert got the call & showed up with no questions asked. No publicity, no cameras, not even an expectation for him to take the stage—but he insisted on showing up in the best way he knew how. He joined the stage with my family, friends, and musical peers. I will FOREVER honor the friendship that turned into family.

At times, he was a tough nut to crack, but I will always take pride in the fact that I could get him to laugh. Sir Robert Weir… you have left a lasting imprint on my life.

The world lost a legend, I lost a friend. 💔 Here are some of my favorite moments with @bobweir