Grateful Dead Member Robert Hunter Dead at 78

Writer Robert Hunter, who penned many of the Grateful Dead’s classic lyrics, died on Monday [...]

Writer Robert Hunter, who penned many of the Grateful Dead's classic lyrics, died on Monday night at age 78. The cause of death is not yet public, but Hunter's family released a statement to Rolling Stone remembering him.

"It is with great sadness we confirm our beloved Robert passed away yesterday night," the statement read. "He died peacefully at home in his bed, surrounded by love. His wife Maureen was by his side holding his hand. For his fans that have loved and supported him all these years, take comfort in knowing that his words are all around us, and in that way his is never truly gone. In this time of grief please celebrate him the way you all know how, by being together and listening to the music. Let there be songs to fill the air."

Hunter was a California native who first met Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia at a performance of Damn Yankees in 1961. The two played in several bands together, but Hunter turned down an offer to join the Dead to attend Stanford University. After struggling with substance abuse he left the San Francisco area for New Mexico, where he started writing songs and sending them back to Garcia.

Eventually, Garcia convinced Hunter to move back to the Bay Area to become the band's lyricist. He would go on to pen some of the Grateful Dead's most iconic songs, including "St. Stephen," "China Cat Sunflower," "Alligator," ""Uncle John's Band," "Box of Rain," "Scarlet Begonias," "Touch of Gray" and "Dark Star."

Hunter understood the significance of "Dark Star" almost immediately. He told Rolling Stone that a couple weeks after writing the song's first verse, he was in a park working on the rest of the song when a stranger approached him and offered him a hit of something.

"I don't remember if I took it or not, but I said, 'I'm writing the second verse for the song called 'Dark Star' for the Grateful Dead — remember that," he recalled. "I had a prescience about the whole thing at that point. Once I started believing in that band, I thought, we're going to go the distance."

Following Garcia's death, Hunter went on to work with other legendary musicians, like Elvis Costello, Bruce Hornsby and Bob Dylan. Hunter also released several of his own solo albums and toured up until 2013.

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