New Found Glory Guitarist Chad Gilbert Death

New Found Glory Guitarist Chad Gilbert Death If you ever screamed along to a New Found Glory song in your car, at Warped Tour, or in your childhood bedroom, you knew Chad Gilbert's guitar work. He passed away this weekend at 45, and today we're honoring the guy who helped build the entire pop-punk sound. Stick around, and subscribe now for more tributes like this. On Sunday, September 20th, Chad Gilbert founding guitarist of New Found Glory passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 45. His wife, Lisa Cimorelli, and his bandmates shared the news together, saying he was surrounded by friends and family, with his wife and mother by his side, just as he'd wanted. Gilbert had been battling cancer since 2021, and underwent emergency brain surgery earlier this year after doctors discovered tumors. His band and family said they were, in their words, devastated and shocked by how quickly he left them but grateful for how peacefully he went. New Found Glory formed back in Florida in the late nineties, and Gilbert was there from day one as lead guitarist and one of the founding members. Over nearly three decades, the band put out more than a dozen albums and became one of the defining names in pop-punk the genre that basically soundtracked an entire generation's adolescence. If you were anywhere near a Hot Topic in the 2000s, chances are New Found Glory was playing somewhere in the background. Songs like My Friends Over You and Head On Collision became genuine anthems, and Gilbert's guitar work was a huge part of why that sound felt so instantly recognizable. Gilbert's reach went past just his own band, too. He contributed guitar riffs to Fall Out Boy's 2007 track the Take Over, The Breaks Over, and even guested on vocals for a song off Fall Out Boy's breakout album "From Under the Cork Tree." In a genre built on collaboration and shared stages, Gilbert was woven into a lot of pop-punk's biggest moments, not just his own band's. Tributes poured in fast from across the music world, including from Benjamin and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte. Blink-182's Mark Hoppus wrote that Chad was, in his words, "the best friend to every person he met." That's the kind of thing people say when it's actually true and from the flood of tributes since Sunday, it clearly was. Earlier this year, even while dealing with the effects of his illness, Gilbert's bandmates dedicated a Warped Tour set to him, telling the crowd to give it up for Chad. That's the kind of loyalty a band builds over almost thirty years together. In their statement, the band put it simply: Chad's guitar playing, songwriting, humor, and drive helped shape New Found Glory for nearly three decades, and his influence will always be part of the band, felt on every stage they play. That's not just a nice sentence in a tribute post it's the actual truth of how much one guitarist can shape a sound that outlives any one lineup. He leaves behind his wife and daughter, along with a catalog of music that soundtracked a huge chunk of pop-punk history Rest easy, Chad thank you for the riffs, the records, and for helping build a sound that so many of us grew up on. If you want more tributes and music history like this, subscribe, and drop your favorite New Found Glory song in the comments. See you in the next one.