Grateful Dead founding member Bobby Weir looks forward to dying: ‘Best reward’

Grateful Dead founding member Bobby Weir is one of the last men standing in his legendary rock band.

The thought of mortality has crossed Weir’s mind, as he’s seen many of his band members pass.

Despite having lived a life full of music and memories, Weir’s sentiment wasn’t one of fear, but rather of acceptance.

“Every day, things change. I’ll say this: I look forward to dying,” Weir, 77, told Rolling Stone.

“I tend to think of death as the last and best reward for a life well-lived. That’s it. I’ve still got a lot on my plate, and I won’t be ready to go for a while.”

While Weir has showed no signs of slowing down, he witnessed several deaths of his band members, including bassist Phil Lesh and guitarist Jerry Garcia.

“I wish … well, Phil made it to his eighties. Jerry didn’t, and there was a lot that Jerry had to offer that he didn’t get to offer.

Lesh was one of the founding members and died in October 2024. He was 84.

Weir was famously the “little brother” of the Grateful Dead, as he joined the band at age 16.

Bobby Weir has witnessed several deaths of his band members, including bassist Phil Lesh and guitarist Jerry Garcia.  Getty Images

Bobby Weir joined Grateful Dead at the age of 16. REUTERS
In 1963, he met Garcia in Palo Alto, California, in an alleyway, according to Rolling Stone.

Weir is one of the band’s few remaining members, alongside drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann.

Before Lesh’s death, the four bandmates discussed reuniting in honor of the rock band’s 60th anniversary this year. Since Lesh’s passing, Weir is now unsure of a band reunion.

Bobby Weir returned to Las Vegas for another Dead & Company residency with 18 shows at the Sphere.  AP

“We speak a language that nobody else speaks,” Weir explained. “We communicate, we kick stuff back and forth, and then make our little statement in a more universal language.”

He continued, “For us, it’s a look or a motion with one shoulder, or the way you reflect a phrase or something that tips off the other guys where you’re going with this. And then they work on being where you’re headed, getting there with a little surprise for you. That’s a formula that’s worked real well for us over the years, and there just aren’t enough of us left now to do that anymore.”

However, this month, Weir returned to Las Vegas for another Dead & Company residency with 18 shows at the Sphere.

Weir is one of the band’s few remaining members, alongside drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. REUTERS
“That’s what I do,” he said. “That’s what I’m here for.”

Meanwhile, in October 2024, Lesh’s death was confirmed on his official Instagram page.

“Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love,” his social media read at the time.

The Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995 after Jerry Garcia’s death. Michael Ochs Archives
“When Phil’s happening, the band’s happening,” Grateful Dead co-founder, frontman and lead guitarist Garcia, who died in 1995, once said of Lesh’s bass playing.

The Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995 after Garcia’s death, but Lesh continued to perform into his 80s, often with his son Grahame Lesh.

Lesh and Garcia first met in 1959, and after reconnecting in 1964, Garcia invited Lesh to join the group, then called the Warlocks. Garcia asked Lesh to play bass guitar, which he never had done before, according to Rolling Stone.