The pop-punk pioneer passed away at his Nashville home surrounded by family, months after emergency surgery to remove three brain tumors.
Chad Everett Gilbert, founding guitarist and backing vocalist for New Found Glory, died on the morning of September 20, 2026, at his home in Nashville, Tennessee, following a years-long battle with metastatic adrenal cancer and, more recently, multiple brain tumors. He was 45. The band and his wife, singer Lisa Cimorelli, announced his death in a joint statement on social media, saying he passed away peacefully in his sleep with his wife and mother by his side.
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The statement, posted to Instagram on Sunday, read: "On the morning of September 20th, Chad Everett 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." The band described itself as "devastated and shocked" by the loss, according to multiple outlets including TMZ and Yahoo Entertainment.
No formal cause of death has been made public. However, coverage across Variety, Deadline, Stereogum and other outlets consistently ties his passing to complications from long-running treatment for adrenal cancer, which had recently been reclassified as stage 4 adrenocortical carcinoma, and from emergency brain surgery performed earlier in 2026. The timing struck many in the music press as particularly cruel, arriving just months after Gilbert had returned to performing following his surgery.
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A Cancer Battle That Spanned Nearly Five Years
Gilbert's health crisis began in December 2021, when Cimorelli found him unconscious in bed. He was rushed to the hospital, where doctors discovered a large tumor on his adrenal gland that had already spread to his liver, resulting in an initial diagnosis of metastatic pheochromocytoma, a rare cancer of the adrenal gland. The disease proved persistent and migratory: reporting from IBTimes UK notes he underwent treatment for a spinal tumor in 2022, and doctors found another malignant spot on his back in 2025.
The most dramatic turn came in early 2026, when CT scans revealed three tumors in his brain, one of which was pressing on regions controlling movement on his left side. Surgeons performed emergency operations to remove the tumors, an event Deadline and The Sun both place in this year's early months. Following that surgery, Gilbert's diagnosis was updated from metastatic pheochromocytoma to the more severe stage 4 adrenocortical carcinoma, a distinction his medical team relayed to him directly and which he later discussed publicly.
In an interview published months before his death, Gilbert reflected on his ability to keep performing and spend time with his family despite the severity of his illness, telling IBTimes UK, "I feel very, very lucky." That sense of gratitude, paired with his decision to return to the stage roughly three months before he died, became a defining image of his final chapter — a musician determined to keep playing even as his body fought a relentless disease.
Founding Architect of a Pop-Punk Sound
Born March 9, 1981, Gilbert helped found New Found Glory in Florida in the late 1990s, serving as lead guitarist, backing vocalist, songwriter and occasional producer throughout the band's career. According to Clash Magazine and Stereogum, he was widely credited with shaping the group's rhythm-driven guitar work and melodic sensibility, elements that helped define the early-2000s pop-punk explosion and influenced a generation of bands that followed.
His musical footprint extended beyond New Found Glory. Earlier in his career, Gilbert played in the hardcore band Shai Hulud, and he later worked as a producer and collaborator across the punk and alternative scene, according to his Wikipedia entry. That dual identity — a bridge between hardcore's intensity and pop-punk's melodic accessibility — is repeatedly cited in obituaries from Variety, Deadline and Clash as central to his lasting influence.
Gilbert's personal life included a brief marriage to Paramore vocalist Hayley Williams before he later married Cimorelli; the couple had one daughter together. Tributes following his death, including from outlets like The Sun, frame him not only as a "legendary musician" but as a devoted husband and father whose final wish was to be surrounded by loved ones.
What Comes Next for New Found Glory
As of the latest reporting, New Found Glory's statement addresses only Gilbert's death and offers no announcements regarding future tours, recordings or lineup decisions. The band's focus, according to the joint statement with Cimorelli, remains on mourning a member described as both a creative cornerstone and a close friend.
Industry observers note that any pause in touring or recording would follow standard practice after the loss of a founding member, though this remains speculative rather than confirmed by the band. What is clear from the reporting is the scale of tribute already pouring in from major outlets — Variety, Deadline, Stereogum, TMZ and others — each emphasizing Gilbert's role in shaping a genre that soundtracked skate parks, Warped Tour stages and basement shows for more than two decades. His death, following a public and unflinching battle with two rare and aggressive cancers, closes a chapter defined as much by resilience as by musical legacy.
