New Found Glory Guitarist Chad Gilbert Dies at 45
A Career That Ran Nearly Three Decades
Chad
Gilbert was a founding guitarist of the US rock band New Found Glory. He has died at 45.
His family announced the death on Sunday. In their statement, they said he “passed away peacefully in his sleep.” [1].
Gilbert had been describing his own illness in public for months. He said he had been diagnosed with stage four adrenocortical carcinoma, a cancer of the outer layer of the adrenal gland that has spread widely through the body. [1] The diagnosis came after doctors discovered three brain tumors. One of the tumors, he said, was “the size of a walnut.” That discovery came while he was already being treated for metastatic pheochromocytoma, a rare tumor of the adrenal gland’s inner tissue that has spread to other parts of the body. He had been in treatment for that cancer since 2021. His wife, Lisa Cimorelli, explained why the brain was the difficult part. “All his treatments were working on his whole body, but they don’t cross the blood-brain barrier,” she said, referring to the filtering system of blood vessels in the brain that blocks many substances from entering brain tissue. That barrier, she said, made the brain “kind of like the last frontier of a place for things to grow wild, which is unfortunate.”
On 27 February he had successful brain surgery and had been recovering in the hospital since, he wrote on Instagram in March. He regained function of his left hand immediately, he said. His radiation oncologist, the doctor who directed that part of his treatment, framed it for him this way: “This is not a fatal blow and not the end of your story, just the beginning of a new chapter.” By August the picture had turned again. He wrote on Instagram that he “was crushing it and gaining weight” when “suddenly I couldn’t sleep and felt like I couldn’t breathe.” He went to the emergency room. There he learned he had 4.5 liters of fluid in his lungs. He stayed five days while a needle between his ribs drained the fluid. “Not a good time,” he wrote. He said he was back at the beginning, rebuilding his strength, thankful to the nurses and doctors who found it.
A Band Born in Coral Springs
New Found Glory was founded in Coral Springs, Florida, in 1997. The band became one of the most influential pop-punk acts of the early 2000s, a rock genre mixing punk speed and attitude with pop melodies.
The song most people know is My Friends Over You, whose lyrics put friendship ahead of a blossoming romance. The sentiment resonated with a lot of teenagers at the beginning of the 21st century. Other signature songs include Hit or Miss and All Downhill From Here.
His bandmates Jordan Pundik, Ian Grushka and Cyrus Bolooki described what he brought. “Chad’s guitar playing, songwriting, humor, and relentless drive helped shape New Found Glory for nearly three decades,” they wrote. [1] The work produced more than a dozen albums, endless tours around the world, and “more accolades than we ever could have imagined.” Along the way, they said, “Chad challenged all of us to grow as musicians, performers, and human beings.” They called their loss devastating and said they were grateful for the life he lived, the memories they shared and the brotherhood they had.
The Lobby Filled Without Warning
His family wrote that he “left this world surrounded by friends and family and took his final breaths with his wife and mother by his side, just as he wished.” They added that they were “devastated and shocked by how quickly he left us, yet so grateful for how peacefully and smoothly he went.”
They also described the days around his death. “The amount of visitors that crowded the hospital lobby at a moment’s notice is a testament to how beloved and cherished Chad was, and always will be,” they wrote. He was, in their words, “a legendary musician.” But, they added, “his favorite accomplishment was being a husband and father.” They ended with a line about him: “His biggest dreams came true.”
The family listed his survivors. They are his wife, his daughter Lily, his mother Jackie and his brother Brian.
New Found Glory has been touring through the summer, with several more shows scheduled across cities including Orlando, Florida, and Sacramento, California. The three bandmates who played beside him since the band’s founding described what comes next. “His influence will always be part of New Found Glory and his spirit will be felt on every stage we stand on, with every note we play,” they wrote.
Sources
1. Wpbf — Quote source (original article)
Mentioned organisations (context, not sources)
- New Found Glory — Organisation (homepage)