Phil Lesh, Grateful Dead Founding Bassist, Passes Away at 84 .Linh

Phil Lesh, who was the bassist and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, has died. He was 84.

Lesh’s death was announced on Instagram on Friday, Oct. 25, with a statement saying he “passed peacefully this morning.” No cause of death was given.

“He was surrounded by his family and full of love,” the statement read. “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.”

The same day, Lesh’s Grateful Dead bandmates Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir released a statement honoring their longtime friend.

“Today we lost a brother. Our hearts and love go out to Jill Lesh, Brian and Grahame. Phil Lesh was irreplaceable. In one note from the Phil Zone, you could hear and feel the world being born. His bass flowed like a river would flow. It went where the muse took it. He was an explorer of inner and outer space who just happened to play bass. He was a circumnavigator of formerly unknown musical worlds. And more,” the statement began.

Hart, Kreutzmann and Weir continued: “We can count on the fingers of one hand the people we can say had as profound an influence on our development — in every sense. And there have been even less people who did so continuously over the decades and will continue to for as long as we live. What a gift he was for us. We won’t say he will be missed, as in any given moment, nothing we do will be without the lessons he taught us — and the lessons that are yet to come, as the conversations will go on.”

“Phil loved the Dead Heads and always kept them in his heart and mind. The thing is… Phil was so much more than a virtuoso bass player, a composer, a family man, a cultural icon…There will be a lot of tributes, and they will all say important things. But for us, we’ve spent a lifetime making music with Phil Lesh and the music has a way of saying it all. So listen to the Grateful Dead and, in that way, we’ll all take a little bit of Phil with us, forever,” the trio added. “For this is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon, long ago…”

A native of Berkeley, Calif., Lesh met future bandmate Jerry Garcia at a party in Menlo Park in 1962.

Lesh suggested they record one of Garcia’s performances to broadcast on the local radio station KPFA, and the recording ultimately led to a 90-minute special, according to Garcia’s website.

In 1965, after working briefly for the post office, Lesh joined forces with Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan to play their first gig as The Warlocks. By December of that year, they’d become the Grateful Dead, and started playing the local circuit across California.

Together, the group released 13 studio albums and dozens of live albums, making their name as one of the greatest jam bands to ever play.

“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,” Lesh, who celebrated his 84th birthday in March by playing five shows at the Capitol Theatre in New York City, told the Marin Independent Journal in June. “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.”

Lesh was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the Grateful Dead in 1994, and the group disbanded the following year following Garcia’s death. Lesh went on to form his own group, Phil Lesh and Friends, which has included various different members over the years, including Phish’s Trey Anastasio, Marcus King and Duane Betts.

“I always felt that following the Grateful Dead around was like running away to join the circus,” he told the Independent Journal. “It was a declaration of freedom. The sense of ‘anything is possible at a Grateful Dead concert’ is a feeling that people take with them into the real world.”

The rocker underwent a liver transplant in 1998, and went on to become an organ donor advocate. In 2015, he underwent surgery for bladder cancer, and said at the time that he was expected to make a full recovery.

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