Chad Gilbert spent nearly three decades helping build New Found Glory into one of the most recognizable bands of its generation. But in the final months of his life, the guitarist spoke less about records, tours and career milestones than he did about something far more personal: the family he had always hoped to have.

Gilbert, a founding member and guitarist of New Found Glory, died on Sunday, Sept. 20, at age 45 following a years-long battle with cancer. His wife, Lisa Cimorelli, and his bandmates announced his death that same day.

According to the announcement, Gilbert died peacefully in his sleep with loved ones surrounding him. His wife and mother were beside him during his final moments.

For those closest to him, the speed of his decline brought shock and devastation. Friends and relatives quickly gathered at the hospital, filling the lobby as word spread that his condition had worsened.

Yet amid the grief, his family and bandmates emphasized that Gilbert had spent his life achieving the things that mattered most to him.

Music had been one dream.

Becoming a husband and father, he had said, was the biggest one.

A Life Defined by More Than Music

Gilbert co-founded New Found Glory in Florida in 1997, beginning a career that would stretch across nearly three decades.

Alongside Jordan Pundik, Ian Grushka and Cyrus Bolooki, Gilbert became a central creative force in the band. His guitar work, songwriting, personality and determination helped shape New Found Glory through more than a dozen albums and years of international touring.

The band developed a devoted following while building a catalog that included songs such as “Hit or Miss” and “My Friends Over You.”

In their tribute after his death, Gilbert’s bandmates reflected on how deeply he had influenced not only the group’s sound, but also the people around him.

They remembered his constant drive to improve and the way he pushed his fellow musicians to grow both professionally and personally.

The bond between them, they made clear, went far beyond sharing a stage.

Although Gilbert’s musical career gave him opportunities he had dreamed about when he was younger, his perspective changed as his health became increasingly uncertain.

In an interview earlier this year, he reflected on what he considered his greatest success.

He had always wanted to make music, he explained, but he also dreamed of finding a loving partner and becoming a father.

Gilbert married Cimorelli, and the couple shared a daughter, Lily, who is 5.

Looking at the family he had built, Gilbert said simply that he had gotten his dream.

A Cancer Journey That Began in 2021

Gilbert had been receiving cancer treatment since 2021.

His medical journey involved metastatic pheochromocytoma, a rare adrenal cancer. Over time, he underwent multiple treatments as doctors addressed tumors affecting several areas of his body.

Before early 2026, Gilbert had described his condition as relatively stable while receiving immunotherapy and other treatments for tumors in his spine, lungs and stomach.

Then, in February, everything changed.

Gilbert collapsed at home and required emergency brain surgery.

After the operation, he said his diagnosis had shifted to the more aggressive adrenocortical carcinoma, or ACC.

The sudden crisis represented a dramatic turn after years of treatment.

Even after emergency surgery, however, Gilbert continued to focus on the life he still had rather than only on the illness threatening it.

His reflections increasingly centered on gratitude — for his wife, his daughter, his creative life and the people helping him through treatment.

He also began seeing his cancer journey as another way he could connect with others.

New Found Glory had always wanted to create music that ordinary people could relate to, Gilbert said earlier this year. As he faced serious illness himself, he realized his experience might offer encouragement to people enduring their own difficult circumstances.

One More Night on Stage

One of the most emotional moments of Gilbert’s final year came on June 8.

New Found Glory was performing in Nashville, Gilbert’s hometown, when he returned to the stage only months after undergoing emergency brain surgery.

He was not able to perform in the same way he had during the countless concerts of his career.

Instead, Gilbert appeared onstage using a motorized scooter.

For longtime fans, simply seeing him holding a guitar again carried enormous significance.

He joined his bandmates for “Hit or Miss” and “My Friends Over You,” reconnecting with the music that had been at the center of his adult life.

But the most important person in the audience, from Gilbert’s perspective, was his daughter.

After the concert, he shared how meaningful it had been to play in front of Lily.

There had been a time when he believed he might never have another opportunity to perform while she watched.

That night changed that.

Gilbert later expressed gratitude to the doctors, nurses and medical professionals who had helped keep him alive through his cancer journey and made moments like that possible.

The Nashville appearance would become especially poignant after his death three months later.

What initially looked like a comeback became one of his final public musical memories — a father playing songs he helped create while his daughter watched from the crowd.

Family Became His Greatest Achievement

In announcing his death, Gilbert’s loved ones described a musician who had accomplished extraordinary things professionally but valued his personal life even more.

His career included albums, tours, loyal fans and decades spent influencing the sound of New Found Glory.

Still, those closest to him said being a husband and father stood above everything else.

That idea was something Gilbert himself had expressed repeatedly.

By April, after his emergency surgery and amid an uncertain future, he was already looking at his life through the lens of what he had been fortunate enough to experience.

He had made music.

He had built a creative career.

He had traveled and performed.

But most importantly to him, he had the family he had once imagined.

Rather than focusing only on what cancer might take away, Gilbert seemed determined to recognize what life had already given him.

New Found Glory Faces a Future Without Its Co-Founder

Gilbert’s death leaves New Found Glory without one of the musicians who had shaped the band since its earliest days.

For nearly 30 years, his guitar playing and songwriting remained closely connected to the group’s identity.

His bandmates said that influence will continue even though he is no longer physically present.

Every future performance and every note they play, they said, will carry some part of the musician and friend who helped build their shared history.

For a band that spent decades touring together, recording together and growing up together, the loss is not simply professional.

It is the loss of someone they considered family.

Gilbert is survived by his wife Lisa, daughter Lily, mother Jackie and brother Brian.

His final years were marked by surgeries, treatments and uncertainty, but they also contained moments he once feared he might never experience again.

He returned to the stage.

His daughter saw him perform.

He remained surrounded by the people he loved.

And when Gilbert looked back on everything that had happened — from starting a band in Florida in 1997 to becoming a husband and father — he had already decided what mattered most.

For him, the dream had not been unfinished.

He believed he had lived it.