Thousands of fans celebrate life of legendary Grateful Dead guitarist
Bob Weir in San Francisco
[January 19, 2026]
By JANIE HAR
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Thousands of people gathered Saturday at San
Francisco’s Civic Center to celebrate the life of Bob Weir, the
legendary guitarist and founding member of the Grateful Dead who died
last week at age 78.
Musicians Joan Baez and John Mayer spoke on a makeshift stage in front
of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium after four Buddhist monks opened the
event with a prayer in Tibetan. Fans carried long-stemmed red roses,
placing some at an altar filled with photos and candles. They wrote
notes on colored paper, professing their love and thanking him for the
journey.
Several asked him to say hello to fellow singer and guitarist Jerry
Garcia and bass guitarist Phil Lesh, also founding members who preceded
him in death. Garcia died in 1995; Lesh died in 2024.
“I’m here to celebrate Bob Weir,” said Ruthie Garcia, who is no relation
to Jerry, a fan since 1989. “Celebrating him and helping him go home.”
Saturday’s celebration brought plenty of fans with long dreadlocks and
wearing tie-dye clothing, some using walkers. But there were also young
couples, men in their 20s and a father who brought his 6-year-old son in
order to pass on to the next generation a love of live music and the
tight-knit Deadhead community.
The Bay Area native joined the Grateful Dead — originally the Warlocks —
in 1965 in San Francisco at just 17 years old. He wrote or co-wrote and
sang lead vocals on Dead classics including “Sugar Magnolia,” “One More
Saturday Night” and “Mexicali Blues.” He was generally considered less
shaggy looking than the other band members, although he adopted a long
beard like Garcia’s later in life.
The Dead played music that pulled in blues, jazz, country, folk and
psychedelia in long improvisational jams. Their concerts attracted avid
Deadheads who followed them on tours. The band played on decades after
Garcia’s death, morphing into Dead & Company with John Mayer.
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Musicians Joan Baez and Mickey Hart embrace during a memorial for
Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in San
Francisco. At left are Paul and Nancy Pelosi. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
 Darla Sagos, who caught an early
flight out of Seattle Saturday morning to make the public mourning,
said she suspected something was up when there were no new gigs
announced after Dead & Company played three nights in San Francisco
last summer. It was unusual, as his calendar often showed where he
would be playing next.
“We were hoping that everything was OK and that we were going to get
more music from him,” she said. “But we will continue the music,
with all of us and everyone that’s going to be playing it.”
Sagos and her husband, Adam Sagos, have a one-year-old grandson who
will grow up knowing the music.
A statement on Weir’s Instagram account announced his passing Jan.
10. It said he beat cancer, but he succumbed to underlying lung
issues. He is survived by his wife and two daughters, who were at
Saturday’s event.
His death was sudden and unexpected, said daughter Monet Weir, but
he had always wished for the music and the legacy of the Dead to
outlast him.
American music, he believed, could unite, she said.
“The show must go on,” Monet Weir said.
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