Chad Gilbert Dead at 45: New Found Glory Guitarist’s Cause of Death

• Chad Gilbert, founding guitarist of New Found Glory, died in his sleep on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 20. He was 45.
• The statement from the band and his wife did not give a cause. He had been treated for a rare adrenal cancer since 2021, and in April said it was stage 4.
• His wife, Lisa Cimorelli, and his mother were with him. The band has two shows left on the 2026 calendar.

Chad Gilbert, the guitarist who co-founded New Found Glory in Coral Springs, Florida, in 1997, died on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 20. He was 45.

The band and his wife, Lisa Cimorelli, announced it in a joint post on Instagram the same day. He died, they wrote, with his wife and mother by his side, “just as he wished.”

We are devastated and shocked by how quickly he left us, yet so grateful for how peacefully and smoothly he went.

New Found Glory and Lisa Cimorelli, via Instagram

What was Chad Gilbert’s cause of death?

The statement does not say. What is on the record is Gilbert’s own account of his illness, which he shared publicly for five years, including photos from hospital visits on his personal Instagram.

He had been treated since 2021 for metastatic pheochromocytoma, a rare tumor of the adrenal glands, which sit on top of the kidneys. By the time he spoke about it, it had spread to his spine and lungs.

In March 2026 he had brain surgery to remove three tumors. In April, he and Cimorelli told People that doctors had also diagnosed a stage 4 adrenocortical carcinoma, a second adrenal cancer.

Cimorelli said at the time that the new diagnosis meant “a much shorter lifespan than he’s already lived.” Five months later, the statement described a hospital lobby that filled with visitors “at a moment’s notice.”

He kept working through all of it. Listen Up!, the band’s 14th studio album, came out in February 2026, a month before the brain surgery.

Who was Chad Gilbert?

Chad Everett Gilbert was born on March 9, 1981, in Coral Springs. He started New Found Glory as a teenager with singer Jordan Pundik, bassist Ian Grushka, guitarist Steve Klein and drummer Joe Moreno, who was soon replaced by Cyrus Bolooki.

Before that he sang in the Florida hardcore band Shai Hulud, and he later revived that side of himself in International Superheroes of Hardcore, a New Found Glory side project.

The band’s breakout was the early-2000s pop-punk run. Sticks and Stones (2002) and Catalyst (2004) both reached the top 10 of the U.S. albums chart, and “My Friends Over You” became the song the genre still gets measured against.

Here he is in February, in the label’s own video, walking through how Listen Up! was made.

Who was Chad Gilbert married to?

He was married to Lisa Cimorelli at the time of his death. He was previously married to Paramore singer Hayley Williams, from 2016 to 2017, and before that to singer Sherri DuPrey.

He is survived by Cimorelli, his daughter Lily, his mother, Jackie, and his brother, Brian. The statement said being a husband and a father was “his favorite accomplishment.”

Tributes came in within hours from Joel and Benji Madden of Good Charlotte, Dashboard Confessional, the Offspring, Taking Back Sunday and the Ataris. Dashboard Confessional wrote that they had “never seen anyone carry themselves through something like this with such positivity and strength.”

New Found Glory has two dates left on this year’s calendar, in October and November, including Vans Warped Tour Orlando. The band has not said whether they will go ahead.

Gilbert’s death comes three days after Duncan Sheik, another voice of the same late-’90s radio, died at 56 in Manhattan. More from Music: Macklemore’s $1 million decision on the Ed Sheeran tour.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: joint statement from New Found Glory and Lisa Cimorelli, via Instagram, Sept. 20, 2026; People (April 2026 interview on the stage 4 diagnosis); NBC News (Phil Helsel); The Hollywood Reporter (Carly Thomas); TMZ; Billboard (chart history). National Cancer Institute (definitions of pheochromocytoma and adrenocortical carcinoma). Photos: frames from Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory talks about making their Listen Up! album (Pure Noise Records).