Chad Gilbert, the guitarist and co-founder of pop-punk band New Found Glory, died Sept. 20 at 45 after a cancer battle that stretched back five years, according to a joint statement from his wife, Eisley singer Lisa Gilbert, and the band.
A Death Announced by Family and Band Together
The statement said Gilbert “passed away peacefully in his sleep” on the morning of Sept. 20, “surrounded by friends and family,” and that “his favorite accomplishment was being a husband and father,” according to Consequence. He is survived by Lisa, daughter Lily, mother Jackie and brother Brian.
Accounts of Gilbert’s specific diagnosis vary between outlets reporting on the same family statement.
Consequence described his condition as stage 4 adrenocortical carcinoma, while the Express Tribune reported it as metastatic pheochromocytoma that had spread to his spine, lungs, back and brain, requiring surgery in March to remove three brain tumors along with chemotherapy and radiation. Both accounts agree the illness began in 2021, when doctors first removed a rare tumor from his adrenal gland, and that the disease had spread significantly by early this year.
A Career Built Across Three Decades
Gilbert co-founded New Found Glory in Coral Springs, Florida, in 1997, and remained the band’s guitarist through its full run of studio albums, including its most recent release, “Listen Up!,” in
February. He was best known outside the band for the 2000 single “My Friends Over You,” one of the defining songs of early-2000s pop-punk. Beyond New Found Glory, Gilbert fronted the hardcore band Shai Hulud and produced albums for A Day To Remember, H2O and Terror, extending his influence across multiple corners of the pop-punk and hardcore scenes rather than confining it to his own band’s catalog.
The Five-Year Arc From Diagnosis to Death
The gap between Gilbert’s 2021 diagnosis and his death this month spans five years, a period that included at least one major escalation: the brain surgery this past March to remove three tumors, which marked the point at which his cancer had clearly progressed beyond the original adrenal gland tumor into his central nervous system.
That progression, from a single rare tumor to disease affecting his spine, lungs and brain, reflects the aggressive course the illness took even as he continued working, releasing a new album with his band as recently as seven months before his death.
Two Rare Cancers, One Shared Starting Point
The two diagnoses reported by outlets covering Gilbert’s death, adrenocortical carcinoma and pheochromocytoma, are both rare cancers that originate in the adrenal glands, the small hormone-producing organs that sit atop each kidney, but they are medically distinct conditions. Adrenocortical carcinoma develops in the outer layer of the adrenal gland and affects roughly one or two people per million each year, while pheochromocytoma originates in the gland’s inner tissue and typically produces excess adrenaline-related hormones, a distinction that affects treatment approach even though both are aggressive and can metastasize to distant organs, including the brain, once advanced.
Both conditions are consistent with a 2021 surgery to remove an adrenal gland tumor followed by a five-year battle that eventually reached his spine, lungs and brain, which is why the two accounts, despite naming different specific cancers, describe a broadly similar disease course rather than contradicting each other on the fundamental facts of his illness.
A Genre-Defining Band’s Long Run
New Found Glory built its reputation as part of the wave of Florida and East Coast pop-punk acts that reached mainstream radio in the early 2000s, releasing a run of albums over nearly three decades that kept the band touring and recording long after many of its contemporaries broke up. Gilbert’s role extended past his own band’s catalog: as a producer, he helped shape records for A Day To Remember, H2O and Terror, three acts spanning pop-punk, hardcore and metalcore, meaning his influence on the broader scene’s sound reached well beyond the songs he wrote and performed under New Found Glory’s name.
His other band, the hardcore act Shai Hulud, gave him a second outlet distinct from New Found Glory’s more radio-friendly sound, underscoring a career built across multiple corners of a scene rather than a single band’s trajectory.
A Warped Tour Mainstay
New Found Glory built much of its national following through repeated appearances on the Vans Warped Tour, the traveling punk and alternative festival that ran through the 2000s and 2010s and served as a proving ground for the pop-punk and emo scenes Gilbert helped define. That touring history, alongside the band’s steady album output, gave New Found Glory a durability that outlasted many of the acts it toured alongside during that period, a longevity Gilbert’s death now interrupts after nearly three decades of the band remaining an active, recording, touring unit.
What Happens Next
Tributes are expected from genre peers, including bands Gilbert produced or toured alongside over nearly three decades. New Found Glory has not announced whether its current touring plans will continue, and no memorial service details have been made public. The discrepancy between outlets over Gilbert’s precise diagnosis is likely to be resolved only if the family or band issues a more detailed statement; as of this writing, both accounts trace back to the same original family announcement rather than to independently sourced medical records.
