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Honoree Bob Weir performs during the 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year Honoring The Grateful Dead on January 31, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

Paul McCartney is the latest artist to pay tribute to the late Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir, whose death at age 78 was announced on Saturday.

“Bob Weir was a great musician who inspired many people of many generations,” McCartney writes on Instagram. “I last saw Bob when we went to the Sphere in Las Vegas to watch Dead and Co. He was very welcoming and during the interval in the show he invited us into his trailer, and it was a special moment to meet his family and friends.”

McCartney writes about Weir showing him how he was set up to record music in the back of his bus while on tour, and how that almost led to a collaboration.

“I offered to play the bass on one of the tracks he played me but unfortunately that never came to pass,” McCartney notes.

“His humour, friendship and musicianship inspired me and will inspire many people into the future,” he continues. “Our family’s thoughts go out to Bob’s family at this time of loss, and I know they will remain as strong as he would wish them to be.”

McCartney signed the tribute, “God bless you Bob. See you down the road. Love Paul.”

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