Tributes For Grateful Dead Mainstay Bob Weir: ‘We Will Miss You’

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The Empire State Building: “Tonight we will shine in tie-dye to honor the life and legacy of Bob Weir.”

Not long after news of Bob Weir’s passing began circulating on Saturday evening, January 10, 2026, fellow musicians began posting tributes to the Grateful Dead mainstay. The “guitarist, vocalist and storyteller,” as his family described him in their announcement of his death at age 78, succumbed to underlying lung issues after battling cancer.

Best Classic Bands is sharing some of the tributes from many of Weir’s peers and former bandmates, including many personal anecdotes.

From early Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten, one of the band’s three surviving members: “An enormous sigh for Bob Weir. We shared a house in Ross in 1969. However great you may think he was, he was yet greater.”

In a lengthy post, Warren Haynes, who performed with Weir “many, many times,” wrote, “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.”

Haynes later closed his tribute by writing, “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.”

Watch them perform the Grateful Dead song “Jack Straw” in 2012

Thanks for taking us all along on the musical trip, Bob. I’ll never forget sharing the stage with you especially that night in Oakland in ’89, I’ll miss you, Bob Weir. Rest easy. pic.twitter.com/dvRnLZgG4T

— John Fogerty (@John_Fogerty) January 11, 2026

Don Felder wrote, “I first saw Bob at Woodstock with the Grateful Dead and was blown away by that whole band, and the musicianship. I feel so blessed to have been able to have him sing on ‘Rock You’ from American Rock and Roll. Until we meet again, amigo.”

Tonight we will shine in tie-dye to honor the life and legacy of Bob Weir @GratefulDead pic.twitter.com/hWCMxUPXoj

— Empire State Building (@EmpireStateBldg) January 11, 2026

From Wynonna Judd: “My heart is broken over this loss. When Mom passed, we held our (private) celebration of life in Nashville. [Bob] 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.

“You have left a lasting imprint on my life. The world lost a legend, I lost a friend.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom worte, “Bob Weir was a true son of California who helped create the soundtrack of a generation. He was — and will always be — a king of psychedelic rock. Bob will be deeply missed, and his music will forever live on.”

So long my friend, @BobWeir. Thank you for your many kindnesses to me. I will miss you. pic.twitter.com/l7Wt0BRcoi

— Joan Osborne (@joan_osborne) January 11, 2026

Country artist Margo Price shared a personal story. “Getting to know Bob Weir over the past decade was a gift,” she wrote. “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. Like a barefoot philosopher or the Lorax, he was mystical.

“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.”

From Phish’s Trey Anastasio: “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.

“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 f**k it up next time.’ I loved that about him.”

Jazz guitarist Al Di Meola wrote, in part: “I saw the Dead countless times during my high school years at the Fillmore East in the village with Garcia and Lesh and Hart and Kruetzman. What a beautiful time it was during the end of the 60’s early 70’s! It was a magic era! PEACE was in the air. That was part of the vibe unlike today! I’ll never forget the journeys into the city to see them and the 5 blocks from the subway station with streets lined with the sights and scents of incense, weed, hippies, fringe jackets, day glow posters, peace signs everywhere, record stores. etc. The whole vibe that the Dead and other S.F. bands had were an integral part of my teenage years.”

Grateful Dead’s extensive recorded legacy, books and merch are available in the U.S. here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here. Weir’s solo work is available here