Phil Lesh, founding member of The Grateful Dead, dies at 84

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Phil Lesh performs as Phil Lesh & Friends at the Great South Bay Music Festival at Shorefront Park on July 22, 2023 in Patchogue, New York. (Photo: Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images)

Bassist Phil Lesh, a founding member of The Grateful Dead, has passed away, according to an Instagram post on the band’s official account.

The post stated that Lesh passed peacefully Friday morning.

“He was surrounded by his family and full of love,” she continued. “Phil brought great joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We ask that you respect the Lesh family’s privacy at this time.”

Cause of death not disclosed

Details regarding the cause of Lesh’s death were not shared in the statement shared by the group on Instagram.

Lesh had previously survived bouts of prostate cancer. bladder cancer and a 1998 liver transplant necessitated by the debilitating effects of hepatitis C infection and years of heavy drinking.

Popular musician of the legendary band

Phillip Chapman Lesh was born on March 15, 1940, in Berkeley, California, the only child of office equipment repairman Frank Lesh and his wife, Barbara.

In later years, he would say that his love of music came from listening to broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic on his grandmother’s radio. One of his earliest memories was listening to the great German composer Bruno Walter conduct this orchestra in Brahms’s First Symphony.

The musical influences he often cited were not rock musicians, but composers such as Bach and Edgard Varese, as well as jazz greats such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis.

When he arrived at the College of San Mateo, Lesh turned from classical music to cool jazz, eventually becoming the first trumpeter in the school’s big orchestra and the composer of many of the orchestral works performed by the group.

But after college, he put the trumpet aside and concluded that he did not have the lung strength to be an elite musician.

Shortly after taking up bass, The Warlocks renamed themselves the Grateful Dead, and Lesh began wowing audiences with his dexterity. Crowds gathered in what became known as the “Phil Zone” just in front of his position on the stage.

Although he was never a prolific songwriter, Lesh also composed and sometimes sang the music for some of the band’s best-loved songs. These included the upbeat country-rocker “Pride of Cucamonga,” the jazz-inspired “Unbroken Chain” and the ethereally beautiful “Box of Rain.”

Lesh composed the latter on guitar as a gift to his dying father, and recalled that Grateful Dead songwriter Robert Hunter approached him the next day with a lyric sheet after hearing the instrumental recording. He said the page contained “some of the most touching and heartfelt lyrics I’ve ever had the chance to sing.”

The group often closed its concerts with a song.

In later years, he often performed these performances at the “Terrapin Crossroads” restaurant and nightclub, which he opened near his home in Northern California in 2012 and was named after the Grateful Dead song and album “Terrapin Station”.

Lesh is survived by his wife Jill and sons Brian and Grahame.