Bob Weir, one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead, died Saturday at the age of 78.
The legendary guitarist "succumbed to underlying lung issues," according to a statement posted on his social media and website. The statement said that Weir had been diagnosed with cancer in the summer.
"He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could," the statement said.
In 1965, Weir, teamed up with Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan to form the Grateful Dead and produced smash rock hits for the next 30 years.
"His work did more than fill rooms with music; it was warm sunlight that filled the soul, building a community, a language, and a feeling of family that generations of fans carry with them. Every chord he played, every word he sang was an integral part of the stories he wove," the statement read.
The band would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and became Kennedy Center honorees 30 years later. Weir was still performing as of last summer.
Weir is survived by his wife of 26 years Natascha Münter and their two daughters, Monet and Chloe.
"There is no final curtain here, not really. Only the sense of someone setting off again. He often spoke of a three-hundred-year legacy, determined to ensure the songbook would endure long after him," the statement read.
"May that dream live on through future generations of Dead Heads. And so we send him off the way he sent so many of us on our way: with a farewell that isn’t an ending, but a blessing. A reward for a life worth livin'," it added.