30 Facts About Bob Weir

Robert Hall Weir is an American musician and songwriter best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead.

Bob Weir began playing guitar at age thirteen after less successful experimentation with the piano and the trumpet.

Bob Weir had trouble in school because of undiagnosed dyslexia and he was expelled from nearly every school he attended, including Menlo School in Atherton and Fountain Valley School in Colorado, where he met future Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow.

Bob Weir played rhythm guitar and sang a large portion of the lead vocals through all of the Dead's 30-year career.

Bob Weir later contributed to Kelly's 1987 album A Wing and a Prayer, on Relix Records.

Shortly before Garcia's death in 1995, Bob Weir formed another band, RatDog Revue, later shortened to RatDog.

Bob Weir has participated in the various reformations of the Grateful Dead's members, including 1998,2000, and 2002 stints as The Other Ones and in 2003,2004 and 2009 as The Dead.

In 2011, Bob Weir founded the Tamalpais Research Institute, known as TRI Studios.

On October 5,2015, Bob Weir performed with Ratdog at a special celebratory 60th Birthday Bash for Steve Kimock.

In May 2016, Bob Weir was a guest speaker and performer for the second annual Einstein Gala, in Toronto, Canada, an event honoring the legacy of Albert Einstein and new visionaries in the arts and sciences.

Bob Weir spoke about what science and innovation had meant to him.

Bob Weir performed a solo acoustic set, and was joined mid-set by guitarist Dan Kanter.

In 2016, a live recording of Bob Weir performing with The National was included on the massive Day of the Dead.

In June 2016, at the Bonnaroo Arts And Music Festival, Bob Weir received the first ever Les Paul Spirit Award, from the Les Paul Foundation.

In September 2016, Bob Weir released a new album of "cowboy songs" titled Blue Mountain.

Bob Weir remained single throughout his years with the Grateful Dead, although he lived for several years with Frankie Hart.

Bob Weir was allegedly the inspiration for the Robert Hunter-Bob Weir song "Sugar Magnolia".

Bob Weir made her acquaintance through Mickey Hart, who dated her briefly.

Bob Weir met her following her first Grateful Dead show in New York in 1968.

On July 15,1999, Bob Weir married Natascha Munter in Mill Valley, California.

Bob Weir is a long term vegetarian and advocate for animal rights who was influential in the founding of Farm Sanctuary.

Bob Weir is on the board of directors of the Rex Foundation, the Furthur Foundation, and HeadCount.

Bob Weir is a member of the Advisory Board of the Jerry Garcia Foundation along with Peter Shapiro and Seth Rogin.

Bob Weir is an honorary member of the board of directors of the environmental organization Rainforest Action Network, along with Woody Harrelson, Bonnie Raitt, and John Densmore.

Bob Weir is on the honorary board of directors of Little Kids Rock, a non-profit organization that provides free musical instruments and instruction to children in under-served public schools throughout the US.

Early pictures of The Warlocks in concert show him playing a Gretsch Duo-Jet, and after the Warlocks became the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir briefly played a Rickenbacker 365, a Guild Starfire IV semi-hollowbody as well as a Fender Telecaster before settling on a cherry red 1965 Gibson ES-335 as his primary guitar for the following decade.

Bob Weir can be seen playing a sunburst ES-335 in The Grateful Dead Movie, filmed in October 1974.

In 1974, Bob Weir began working with Jeff Hasselberger at Ibanez to develop a custom instrument.

Bob Weir began playing the Ibanez 2681 during the recording of Blues for Allah; this was a testbed instrument with sliding pickups that Hasselberger used to develop several additional 2681s for use onstage, as well as Bob Weir's custom "Cowboy Fancy" guitar, which he played from 1976 until the mid-1980s.

From 2017 onwards, Bob Weir has collaborated with New York based D'Angelico Guitars to produce several signature model instruments.