Founding Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh has died at age 84. No explanation for demise was instantly given, although Lesh had revealed a bout with bladder most cancers in 2015. He additionally had a liver transplant following a persistent hepatitis C an infection in 1998.

“He was surrounded by his family and full of love,” in keeping with an official assertion. “Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We request that you respect the Lesh family’s privacy at this time.”

A classically educated trumpeter, Lesh switched to bass on the late Jerry Garcia’s request after becoming a member of a fledgling Bay Area band referred to as the Warlocks. He’d met Garcia in passing a few instances, they usually hit it off. The Warlocks have been quickly rechristened because the Grateful Dead, then took over as the home band throughout Ken Kesey’s legendary Acid Tests.

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In a cool happenstance, Lesh’s self-taught model – and a ardour for jazz – created a collection of latest musical vistas for the group. “What you can do is prepare yourself to be open – open for the pipeline to open and the magic to flow down through us,” Lesh later enthused. “It means leaving yourself behind. It’s not a question of, ‘Oh God, don’t let me f— up,’ or anything like that. It’s a question of, ‘Here I am. Work me, Lord.’”

Soon, Lesh was co-writing a few of their best-known songs, together with “Truckin,’” “St. Stephen” and “Box of Rain.” He additionally initially offered tenor backing vocals, as heard on their turn-of-the-’70s classics Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty. In later years, Lesh’s voice darkened into a pleasing baritone.

He by no means uninterested in their wildly ingenious musical journeys. “In terms of the Grateful Dead,” Lesh advised Forbes, “the medium is the message in the sense that when you see us up there playing music, collaborating and making music together, making music that’s never been made before, there’s always some new element in it.”

The Grateful Dead toured and recorded from 1965 till Garcia’s sudden demise in 1995, a loss that deeply impacted Lesh. “Jerry was the hub,” he advised Rolling Stone. “We were the spokes – and the music was the tread on the wheel.”

Listen to the Grateful Dead’s ‘Box of Rain’

Phil Lesh Remained Active After the Grateful Dead

By that time, nonetheless, Lesh admitted that a few of the magic had begun to fade. “It was wildly successful for me until we took the break from touring [in the mid-’70s],” he stated in 2016. “When we came back, it was never quite the same. Even though it was great and we played fantastic music, something was missing. … It would come back now and then, on some awesome evening, some particularly great performance. But that was even more frustrating, because it would disappear again for X number of shows – just disappear.”

Lesh introduced the identical honesty and mind to the one memoir from a band member so far, 2005’s Searching for the Sound: My Life With the Grateful Dead. He and his spouse Jill opened a restaurant and reside music venue referred to as Terrapin Crossroads in 2012 in San Rafael. Lesh additionally continued to carry out lengthy after his time with the Grateful Dead was over.

The Berkeley native fronted Phil Lesh and Friends, appeared in Further and the Other Ones with former bandmates, and continued to play together with his household band into 2024. Lesh took half within the 2015’s Fare Thee Well exhibits in Chicago to have fun the Dead’s fiftieth anniversary, showing with Trey Anastasio of Phish. He would additionally sometimes sit in with the home band at Terrapin Crossroads, which featured his sons.

“I would have to say that music and performing are as essential as food and drink to me, but even more so as I get older,” he advised Mercury News earlier this 12 months. “While it can sometimes be more of a challenge physically than it was when I was a young whippersnapper, I’ve found that age brings wisdom, and with that comes musical experience and knowledge that I didn’t have when I was younger.”

He issued The Strange Remain with the Other Ones and Love Will See You Through with Phil Lesh and Friends within the ’90s. The following decade noticed the discharge of There and Back Again and Live on the Warfield, each from Phil Lesh and Friends.

Sadly, the Grateful Dead had simply been named 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year earlier this week. Lesh was to be celebrated with fellow surviving unique members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir on the group’s profit gala throughout Grammy Week. The band’s founding lineup additionally included the late Ron “Pigpen” McKernan.

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