R.I.P. Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow

Sad news: John Perry Barlow, the writer who wrote lyrics to several Grateful Dead songs, is dead. He was 70.

Barlow (who was also a retired Wyoming cattle ranger and a cyberlibertarian political activist) passed away quietly in his sleep, according to a statement from Electronic Frontier Foundation, the non-profit digital rights group he co-founded.

The death follows a near-fatal 2015 heart attack, in which he flatlined for eight minutes. Barrow was born in Sublette County, Wyoming, to his parents Norman Barlow, a Republican state legislator, and his wife, Miriam. He grew up on the 22,000-acre Bar Cross Ranch, founded by his great uncle.

Barlow began co-writing songs with Weir in 1971, following a feud between Weir and then-resident Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. Together, Barlow and Weir penned “Cassidy,” “Mexicali Blues,” “Black-Throated Wind,” and many more songs until the Dead’s dissolution in 1995.