Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh has died at 84

Phil Lesh, a founding member and longtime bassist for legendary rock outfit the Grateful Dead, died on Friday (October 25). He was 84 years old.

The news has been announced on social mediawith a statement that read, “Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of the Grateful Deadpassed peacefully this morning. He was surrounded by his family and full of love. Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We ask that you respect the privacy of the Lesh family at this time.” No cause of death was given at the time of publication.

As one of the co-founders and longest-serving members of the Grateful Dead, Lesh was an essential part of a group that became synonymous with touring and live performances in rock music. With their unique instrumental interplay, trademark iconography, strong sense of community and connection to the hippie lifestyle, they became the progenitors of the jam band movement — with a fan base as devoted as any other band. of the 20th century, which endures into the new millennium.

Born in Berkeley, California in 1940, Lesh grew up as a trumpet player and appreciator of avant-garde classical and free jazz. After brief studies at various music schools, he met banjo player Jerry Garcia in 1962 and was persuaded to join Garcia's new rock band, The Warlocks, as their bassist — even though he never played the instrument again. The band, which also featured Bob Weir as co-singer/guitarist with Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann as drummer and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan as keyboardist, was renamed the Grateful Dead in 1965, after a phrase found by Garcia in the dictionary.

Once proficient on the bass, Lesh's playing style was heavily influenced by his musical interests in jazz and classical, giving his sound a melodic and improvisational quality rarely heard from the four-string in rock before. He came to be regarded as one of the instrumental innovators of his era, and his playing became as crucial (and recognizable within) the Grateful Dead's sound as the group's guitar.

By the late '60s, the Dead had become one of the leading lights of the psych-rock movement coming out of San Francisco, known for their smooth, folk-influenced jams, sprawling, joyous live shows and affinity for psychedelics. drugs like DMT and LSD. (“We found that while it was high we were able to go very far musically, but still return to some kind of recognizable space or song structure,” Lesh wrote in his 2006 autobiography Search for audio. (I knew immediately that this combination – acid and music – was the tool I was looking for.)

Lesh was not the lead singer or songwriter in the group, but his tenor often contributed to the group's three-part harmonies, and he wrote and sang a handful of original Dead songs. The best of these was probably “Box of Rain”, the opening track of their classic 1970 album american beauty – co-wrote with lyricist Robert Hunter about Lesh's then-dying father — which ended up being the last song played at the group's final concert with Garcia in 1995.

While the group sold steadily in the '60s and '70s — six of their '70s LPs reached the top 30 on the Billboard 200, with the 1970s Workingman's Dead and American Beauty and 1972's live triple album were all certified platinum by the RIAA—they were a less regular presence on the Billboard Hot 100, where they scored just four entries in their first decade, and none higher than the No. 64 peak of “Truckin'” in 1971. But the group's live reputation kept them an essential part of the rock fabric well into the 80s, and in 1987 they scored their only pop hit with the catchy 10 smash “Touch of Grey” — which along with its popular music video, featuring the band performing as skeletons, introduced them to a new generation of fans.

However, in the late 1980s Garcia's health began to fail, and in 1995 he died, with the band deciding to disband shortly thereafter. After the group broke up, Lesh continued to play with The Other Ones (originally featuring Bob Weir, longtime drummer Mickey Hart, and keyboardist Bruce Hornsby), which gradually expanded its lineup to include more former members of Grateful Dead and renamed The Dead in 2003. Additionally, Lesh started Phil Lesh and Friends in 1999, with a rotating live and recorded cast re-interpreting old songs by the Grateful Dead and some of their peers, and a decade later created Furthur, another jam band they co-founded with Weir.

Despite staying busy with these Grateful Dead offshoots—as well as a handful of anniversary stadium shows put on by the band's surviving members as the Fare Thee Well celebration—Lesh largely avoided writing or recording any original song in the following years, preferring to keep the focus on his live show. “What's the point?” remarked to Bulletin board in 2012. “Nobody makes money off of recordings anymore — at least not people like us. And the more I'm into music, the less time I like the idea of ​​freezing music in amber so it's the same every time you play it. I want it to be different every time, so I don't do much recording.”

In 2017, Bass player The magazine ranked Lesh as the 57th greatest bassist of all time. “More improvisational composer than simple bass player, Lesh elevated the Grateful Dead from a hippie jam band to an artistic ensemble capable of reaching heights of interactive ecstasy,” wrote the magazine. “Balancing his roots with swelling, improbable figures in the highest register, he could make long propulsive statements that sometimes lasted over a minute, often leading the band into bold new harmonic territory.”

The Grateful Dead will be honored as MusiCares Persons of the Year for 2025. The 34th annual Persons of the Year Benefit Gala will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Friday, January 31, 2025, two nights before the 67th Annual Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Arena.