Bassist Phil Lesh co-founded the Grateful Dead in 1965 with Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron McKernan and Bill Kreutzmann. The band, known for their eclectic sound and lengthy live jams, were among the highest-grossing American touring acts for decades. Sadly, Lesh passed away on Friday at the age of 84.
“He was surrounded by his family and full of love,” read a statement on Lesh’s social media. “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.”
Lesh co-wrote some of the Grateful Dead’s best-known songs including “Truckin’”, “Unbroken Chain,” “Pride of Cucamonga” and “Box Of Rain.”
He spoke to CNN in 2006 about how he felt performing live with the Grateful Dead. “It’s paradise,” he said. “At that moment, I’m not really there. And no one is. We are the music, and our personalities as such really cease to exist at all. We’ve been subsumed into the greater personality of the group mind, that’s what’s been created. That’s what’s created when we are creatively improvising, and the flow is really happening. When we are actually channeling, we are opening that pipeline to another reality that speaks to us. And we are acting as transformers, and we have to step that down into musical thought. But this is not something you can do consciously, learn how to do or be taught. It’s just something that happens to you when the stars are aligned properly and when your individual consciousness is open enough.”
Lesh scaled back performing live following Jerry Garcia’s death but did take part in their 2009 tour as well as a series of concerts marking the band’s 50th anniversary in 2015.
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