Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter dies at 78

[Miles Archer]

Robert Hunter, the inventive lyricist who helped shape so many Grateful Dead songs, died Monday night at age 78. No immediate cause of death was given.

"It is with great sadness we confirm our beloved Robert passed away yesterday night," Hunter's family says in an official statement. "He died peacefully at home in his bed, surrounded by love. His wife Maureen was by his side holding his hand."

Hunter, who was born Robert Burns on June 23, 1941, in San Luis Obispo, Calif., met the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia in 1961 – but declined to join his jug band. Instead, Hunter pursued writing at Stanford University before leaving school. The songs kept piling up.

"I moved to New Mexico and it occurred to me to send the lyrics to those songs to Jerry because the Dead had formed," Hunter told Alan Paul in 2015. "And he wrote back and said, 'Why don't you come back to California and be our lyricist?' So, I hitchhiked back to San Francisco and met up with them in Rio Nido. They were working on 'Dark Star,' and I wrote the lyrics to it right then. It just started working immediately."

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/robert-hunter-grateful-dead-dies/

[mr_lebowski]

1. AWW MAN THAT SUCKS!!! Godspeed Robert! Thanks for all the great songs brother ...

[underpants]

2. 🕯

☮️

[Botany]

3. Damn

[NightWatcher]

4. He wrote some of the best songs out there. RIP

[Recursion]

5. You, who choose to lead, must follow

But if you fall you fall alone.
If you should stand then who's to guide you?
If I knew the way I would take you home.