I really wish I wasnt typing this…. These are never fun in tehf irst place and now add in the layer of this affecting me on a personal level, man what a buncha suck. Because there are certain bands that become attached to specific periods of your life, they define genres and their cultural relevance goes beyond words…… New Found Glory is absolutely one of those for me. Growing up in a a post-Tony Hawk, counter culture driven and Warped Tour filled pop-punk era well….. several bands came to define that decade.
Examples off ther bat: My Chemical Romance, Rise Against, Alkaline Trio….. and of course the bigger bands like Blink 182, Green Day (amonst many others), and somewhere in the middle there was NFG. Discovering music as a teenager can be life changing, realiziung there’s a WHOLE and endless world of it beyond the radio and MTV (cuz intenret wasn’t super prevelant at the time), but Among my friends New Found Glory became a huge part of that soundtrack. During those high-school years music felt like a permanent extension of your identity (and AIM away messages were life)…… So upon hearing that Chad Gilbert had died honestly caught me completely off guard, especially because I had no idea how serious his health battle was.
BEFORE I start my whole little diddy I got typed up though here are the cliff notes about his passing. If nothing else it’ll TLDR things for ya but please read on in memory of an awesome duuude:
Gilbert died peacefully in his sleep on September 20, 2026, at 45, surrounded by family and friends. His wife Lisa and mother Jackie were reportedly beside him during his final moments. His family and New Found Glory confirmed the death through statements shared publicly after his passing. The specific cause of death has not been publicly disclosed, although Gilbert had spent years battling cancer and underwent extensive treatment, including brain surgery earlier this year. I won’t pretend I’m a NFG superfan or even follow them religiously, they dropped off my radar the last fews years do to the ebb and flow of life and other than releasing a 3rd ‘From the Screens to your stereo’ I had 0 idea what they were even up to. TBH, I didn’t even know they were really still around. But once I heard this news I knew something had to be done as a tribute, so now we are at the purpose of this article… An Ode and tribute, credit where credit is due.
The New Found Glory Story
New Found Glory began taking shape in Florida during the late 1990s. Before that, Chad Gilbert had already made his mark within hardcore through Shai Hulud (which fun fact, was my FIRST ever concert…. h20 head lined while Mad cap opened and SHAI HULUD played next at the St. Andrew’s ‘shelter’ venue), giving him roots that stretched beyond straightforward pop-punk. New Found Glory eventually combined those heavier influences with pleasant melodies, mega catchy hooks (emphasis on CATCHY), and the kind of youthful energy that defined our early-2000s pop-punk. Their 1999 debut Nothing Gold Can Stay helped establish the foundation for everything that followed (yes it F-ing did).
Then came the band’s self-titled 2000 album and it became their major-label breakthrough….introducing New Found Glory to an enormous audience (which is around trhe time they came into MY life). From there came Sticks and Stones in 2002 and Catalyst in 2004, and those albums firmly connected the band with pop-punk’s early-2000s explosion. Around this time they were also touring alongside bands like blink-182 and making appearances surrounding the American Pie era helped push their music even further into mainstream youth culture. Our guy Chad Gilbert remained central throughout that evolution as guitarist, songwriter, backing vocalist, and one of the band’s defining creative personalities.
Now….What makes Gilbert’s career particularly interesting is that New Found Glory represented only PART of his musical output. He returned to Shai Hulud, created International Superheroes of Hardcore, recorded under the ‘What’s Eating Gilbert’ name, and worked extensively as a producer. To tout his accolades a bit… His production credits included projects involving A Day to Remember, H2O, State Champs, and other punk and alternative artists. That means his influence extended wayyyy beyond the records carrying the New Found Glory name.
More Accolades and Cultural Impact
New Found Glory’s impact cannot really be measured through trophies alone though because their influence, as stated, is entwined heavily to an entire musical generation. Their albums became staples for listeners discovering pop-punk (me) through skate videos, Warped Tour culture (also me), music television, movies, and endless touring. Their self-titled record eventually earned RIAA gold certification after shipping more than 500,000 copies. It’s all quite impressive looking back.
Gilbert also helped connect different corners of the punk world that sometimes existed separately, and this was at a time were everything wasn’t ‘real’ punk and being a sellout was a bad thing….. Plus, don’t forget, Chad also had a background in hardcore, work with younger pop-punk bands, some production credits, and his songwriting gave him a footprint that even casual listeners noticed. For the people who grew up during pop-punk’s explosion New Found Glory was part of our cultural landscape so naturally Gilbert’s guitar work and songwriting were fundamental pieces of that identity.
From the Screen to Your Stereo (my personal Fav)
Now we get to the gold of it all (purely my opinion but I’m injecting it anyways), out came ‘From the Screen to Your Stereo’, which deserves its own section because I still listen to those albums constantly ( I mean literally….for some reason SPOTIFY loves cramming then in my daily listening with a few songs always back to back). The original 2000 EP took songs people already associated with movies and completely transformed them through New Found Glory’s hyperactive pop-punk approach (Spoiler Alert: It worked like a charm….they bottled the S*** out of that lightning). IT…WAS….AWESOME. I mean who could hate hearing songs from The Goonies, Titanic, The NeverEnding Story, and other films with some NFG injected into it?
Those records also perfectly captured what made that generation of pop-punk so much fun. There was absolutely nothing wrong with taking something sentimental, nostalgic, or ridiculously cheesy and throwing distorted guitars underneath it. From the Screen to Your Stereo understood that nostalgia could be sincere without becoming boring. For me, those albums remain connected to an era when skateboarding, video games, movies, punk music, and teenage stupidity all somehow occupied the same cultural ecosystem.
A Shock I Wasn’t Prepared For
What hits me hardest about Gilbert’s death is simply how unexpected it feels from where I was standing…… I knew he had experienced serious health problems, but I didn’t realize his condition had progressed so dramatically before hearing the news. I found out on FB of all places from a budfdy of mine who was equally as devastateed….. His health journey had included cancer treatment, multiple surgeries, and an emergency brain operation after doctors discovered three tumors earlier in 2026. Despite everything, he returned to the stage with New Found Glory in June (which in hindsight makies his death shortly after feel even more surreal).
My condolences go out to hjis family, namely his Wife and kiddos:, his bandmates, his friends, and everyone who knew Chad personally. The family specifically described his greatest accomplishment as being a husband and father, which says something important about the person behind all those records and stages. For the rest of us, the music becomes the place where his presence remains accessible, for me it is the only place I ‘knew him’. Every time those guitars kick in, there will be another generation discovering the work he helped create and I’ll do my part to help it live on.
I can honestly say New Found Glory was part of the soundtrack to growing up for me, and that makes this one personal. Even typing this it doesn’t fully seem real. A guy I never met, I never realized would have me so shook buut it goes to show ya how easy it is for one person to change the lives of many…… Chad Gilbert helped create music that accompanied an entire culture of kids figuring themselves out through skateboards, guitars, movies, friendships, and ridiculously loud speakers. I had no idea I was listening to someone’s legacy while I was living through those years. Rest in peace, brother—you touched the hearts of millions, and that includes myself.