“Always a Hoot”: Jerry Garcia’s Heartfelt Last Words To Grateful Dead Co-Founder Bob Weir

On July 9, 1995, Jerry Garcia exited the stage at Chicago’s Soldier Field after taking the final bow of the Grateful Dead’s 1995 summer tour. Heartbreakingly, that would be the last show Garcia ever played with the band he co-founded. Exactly one month later, the countercultural icon was dead of a heart attack at just 53 years old. Years later, the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir—who himself passed away on Jan. 10 at age 78—recalled his final interaction with Garcia.

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The two exchanged a backstage embrace before they prepared to head off in different directions, Weir remembered. “He slapped me on the back and said, ‘Always a hoot, always a hoot,’” the rhythm guitarist said. “And those were his last words to me.”

Jerry Garcia’s last words to Bobby Weir

“Always a hoot, always a hoot” Jerry Garcia said to Bob Weir as they both walked offstage at their last show together…

“Always a hoot.” Those were the last words they ever exchanged…💜

7/9/95

⚡️❤️🙏🏼#gratefuldead #deadandcompany… pic.twitter.com/uODdqKSpiZ

— Music Never Stopped (@musicplayedband) January 12, 2026

Garcia had long battled health issues, including diabetes and obesity, on top of struggles with substance use. After his final show with the Dead, he checked himself into first the Betty Ford Center, then the Serenity Knolls treatment center in Forest Knolls, California—where he died.

[RELATED: Bob Dylan and Former Grateful Dead Members Among the Musicians Paying Tribute to Late Guitarist Bob Weir]

Bob Weir Kept the Grateful Dead Going in Jerry Garcia’s Memory

Without a chance meeting between Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia on New Year’s Eve 1963, there would be no Grateful Dead at all.

Then 16, Weir and his friends were roaming the back alleys of Palo Alto, California, in search of a club that might turn a blind eye to the birth year on their ID.

“We heard banjo music coming out from behind the music store that we used to frequent… and we just knocked on the door, and Jerry came in,” Weir reminisced during a 2024 interview with journalist Dan Rather. “We knew it was Jerry. Everybody knew that he was the banjo teacher there.”

Weir and his friend invited themselves inside, where they proceeded to have “so much fun that we decided we couldn’t just walk away from it,” the guitarist said. “Might as well just make a little band out of it.”

That “little band” has endured as one of the most influential acts in modern music history, thanks largely to Weir’s determination to honor his friend’s memory. After Garcia died, the guitar legend didn’t pause long to contemplate his next step.

“What am I gonna do? I’m gonna hit the road. That’s what Jerry would have wanted me to do,” Weir said during an October 2022 appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.

He added, “I gotta say, I don’t grieve all that ferociously about anybody’s passing… I just carry them with me.”

Featured image by Scott Sommerdorf/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images