Bob Weir, the Grateful Dead guitarist and founding member, has died at 78, his team announced on January 10, less than a year after a July 2025 cancer diagnosis. The musician, who married Natascha Muenter in 1999 and raised two daughters, Shala Monet and Chloe Kaelia, succumbed to “underlying lung issues” while surrounded by family.
At a Glance
- Bob Weir died January 10 at age 78 from lung complications after beating cancer diagnosed in July 2025
- He and wife Natascha shared 26 years of marriage and raised daughters Monet and Chloe
- Both daughters followed creative paths: Monet acts, Chloe photographs live music
- Why it matters: The loss ends a 59-year Grateful Dead legacy and leaves a family that championed activism and art
Weir met Natascha at a Grateful Dead concert when she was 15 and he was in his mid-30s; the pair stayed friends until Jerry Garcia’s 1995 death shifted their bond to romance. Their first child, Monet, arrived December 19, 1997, and the couple wed on July 15, 1999, in a Mill Valley, California cul-de-sac ceremony. Bandmates Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart attended, while songwriting partner John Perry Barlow served as best man.
Daughter Chloe followed on October 9, 2001. Weir joked to Vanity Fair that the universe served “karma” for his rock-star past by giving him two girls. The family embraced vegetarianism, yoga, and animal activism, values Monet later praised for keeping her “mindful” and “involved in things that aren’t materialistic.” She toured with her dad until age 11, calling the rocking tour bus “invigorating.”
Natascha, an activist, protested for women’s reproductive rights in Texas alongside Weir in 2021. Weir held a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador title, co-founded the Furthur Foundation, and supported voter-registration nonprofit HeadCount.
Monet, now an actress, appeared in short films and the 2025 feature Portal to Hell. She convinced her dad to attend Coachella 2018, where experiencing The Weeknd, Post Malone, and HAIM through her eyes felt “fairly magical,” Weir recalled. Monet studied strategic communications and views music as a hobby, focusing on performance art.
Chloe, a live-music photographer, started at age 7 and shot the cover of Weir’s 2016 album Blue Mountain at 14. During Dead & Company’s 2024 Sphere residency she documented every song, telling Rolling Stone she loves “to soak up every minute” of Deadhead culture. She became the band’s official pandemic-era photographer once they needed someone inside “the bubble,” calling the arrangement “working together” with her dad.
Weir’s Instagram announcement said he “transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones.” The family requested privacy and thanked fans for “the outpouring of love, support, and remembrance.”
