CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. — Chad Gilbert, who was the founding guitarist of Broward’s New Found Glory, died on Sunday of complications with cancer, according to his wife, Lisa Cimorelli. He was 45.
Gilbert, a founding member of the pop-punk band that formed when he was 17 in Coral Springs in 1997, had announced he was first diagnosed with liver cancer in 2021.
Gilbert had shared about his diagnosis of metastatic pheochromocytoma, which started in the adrenal glands and spread to his lungs and bones.
Earlier this year, Gilbert was also diagnosed with brain cancer. On Instagram, he shared he had played a show on Feb. 20 in Nashville and was hospitalized on Feb. 23.
“I was taken to the ER where a CT scan showed 3 new tumors had appeared in my brain. On 2/27 I had successful brain surgery and have been recovering in the hospital since,” Gilbert wrote on March 23rd on Instagram.
On Sunday, a spokesperson released a statement signed by Cimorelli and his bandmates Jordan Pundik and Ian Grushka.
“Gilbert passed away peacefully in his sleep. 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,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement also signed by Cimorelli and his bandmates Jordan Pundik and Ian Grushka.
The spokesperson added that visitors crowded the hospital lobby at a moment’s notice.
“He was a legendary musician, but his favorite accomplishment was being a husband and father. His biggest dreams came true,” the spokesperson wrote.
Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, a cancer survivor, also released a statement.
“Chad was the best friend to every person he met. The most positive and creative force in any room he walked into. These past years, he fought his sickness with the soul of a joyous, courageous warrior. With dignity, love, and gratitude. He never complained once, only kept saying how lucky he was. For everything,” Hoppus wrote. “Today we lost a good one, and the world won’t be the same.”
Gilbert is also survived by his four-year-old daughter, Lily.
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