SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Thousands of people gathered at San Francisco’s Civic Center Saturday to celebrate the life of legendary guitarist and Grateful Dead founding member Bob Weir, who died last week. At 78 years old.
Musicians Joan Baez and John Mayer spoke on a makeshift stage in front of the Bill Graham Auditorium after four Buddhist monks opened the event with a prayer in Tibetan. Fans carried long-stemmed red roses and placed several on an altar filled with photos and candles. They wrote notes on colored paper, confessing their love and expressing their gratitude for the journey.
Several people asked him to say hello to his fellow singers and guitarists. jerry garcia and bass guitarist Phil Leshas well as founding members who preceded him in death. Garcia died in 1995. Lesh passed away in 2024.
“We’re here to celebrate Bob Weir. We’re going to celebrate him and help him get home,” said Lucy Garcia, who has no relation to Jerry and has been a fan since 1989.
Saturday’s celebration drew a crowd of fans with long dreadlocks and tie-dyed clothing, some using walkers. But there were also young couples, men in their 20s, and fathers with their 6-year-old sons to pass on their love of live music and the close-knit Deadhead community to the next generation.
The Bay Area native joined the Grateful Dead (originally the Warlocks) in San Francisco in 1965 at just 17 years old. He wrote or co-wrote and sang lead vocals on such Dead classics as “Sugar Magnolia,” “One More Saturday Night,” and “Mexicali Blues.” Although he was generally considered less hairy than the other band members, in later years he grew a long beard like Garcia.
The Dead played music that incorporated blues, jazz, country, folk, and psychedelia in long improvised jams. Their concerts attracted avid Deadheads, who joined them on tour. The band remained active decades after Garcia’s death. dead & company With John Mayer.
Darla Sagos, who took an early flight from Seattle on Saturday morning to pay her respects to the nation, said she suspected something had happened since Dead and Company had not announced any new gigs after playing three nights in San Francisco last summer. This was unusual since his calendar often indicated where he would play next.
“We were hoping that everything was fine and that we would get more music from him,” she said. “But we will continue to make music, with all of us and all those who will be performing.”
Sagos and her husband, Adam Sagos, have a 1-year-old grandchild who will grow up knowing this music.
A statement on Weir’s Instagram account announced that she passed away on January 10th. It said Mr. Weir overcame cancer but died from an underlying lung condition. He leaves behind his wife and two daughters, who were at Saturday’s event.
His daughter Monet Weir said his death was sudden and unexpected, but he always hoped the legacy of music and the dead would outlast him.
He believed American music could unite, she said.
“The show must go on,” Monet Weir said.