Fans in San Francisco pay tribute to Grateful Dull’s Bob Weir, who died at age 78

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hundreds of different folks gathered Saturday at San Francisco’s Civic Heart to celebrate the lifetime of Bob Weir, the legendary guitarist and founding member of the Grateful Dull who died closing week at age 78.

Musicians Joan Baez and John Mayer spoke on a makeshift stage in front of the Invoice Graham Civic Auditorium after four Buddhist monks opened the occasion with a prayer in Tibetan. Fans carried long-stemmed red roses, putting some at an altar stuffed with photography and candles. They wrote notes on colored paper, professing their like and thanking him for the wander.

A lot of requested him to remark hiya to fellow singer and guitarist Jerry Garcia and bass guitarist Phil Lesh, furthermore founding contributors who preceded him in dying. Garcia died in 1995; Lesh died in 2024.

“I’m right here to celebrate Bob Weir,” acknowledged Ruthie Garcia, who isn’t any relation to Jerry, a fan since 1989. “Celebrating him and helping him lag home.”

Saturday’s party brought heaps of followers with long dreadlocks and wearing tie-dye clothing, some the employ of walkers. But there were furthermore younger couples, males of their 20s and a father who brought his 6-year-ragged son in describe to pass on to the next know-how a like of live song and the tight-knit Deadhead community.

The Bay Hiss native joined the Grateful Dull — originally the Warlocks — in 1965 in San Francisco at correct 17 years ragged. He wrote or co-wrote and sang lead vocals on Dull classics including “Sugar Magnolia,” “One Extra Saturday Evening” and “Mexicali Blues.” He used to be generally opinion to be less shaggy wanting than the opposite band contributors, despite the truth that he adopted a protracted beard love Garcia’s later in lifestyles.

The Dull performed song that pulled in blues, jazz, country, folks and psychedelia in long improvisational jams. Their concert events attracted avid Deadheads who adopted them on excursions. The band performed on decades after Garcia’s dying, morphing into Dull & Firm with John Mayer.

Darla Sagos, who caught an early flight out of Seattle Saturday morning to execute the final public mourning, acknowledged she suspected one thing used to be up when there were no original gigs announced after Dull & Firm performed three nights in San Francisco closing summer season. It used to be irregular, as his calendar veritably showed where he would be playing next.

“We were hoping that the full lot used to be OK and that we were going to uncover extra song from him,” she acknowledged. “But we are able to continue the song, with all of us and every person that’s going to be playing it.”

Sagos and her husband, Adam Sagos, possess a one-year-ragged grandson who will develop up colorful the song.

An announcement on Weir’s Instagram legend announced his passing Jan. 10. It acknowledged he beat cancer, however he succumbed to underlying lung components. He’s survived by his partner and two daughters, who were at Saturday’s occasion.

His dying used to be unexpected and unexpected, acknowledged daughter Monet Weir, however he had continuously wished for the song and the legacy of the Dull to outlast him.

American song, he believed, could possibly perhaps unite, she acknowledged.

“The build must lag on,” Monet Weir acknowledged.