Phil Lesh, founding bassist for the Grateful Dead, dies aged 84

Phil Lesh, founding bassist for US rock band the Grateful Dead, died Friday morning at 84, according to a post on his official Instagram account.

Lesh’s cause of death was not immediately clear.

“Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of The Grateful Dead, passed peacefully this morning,” the social media post said.

“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 request that you respect the Lesh family’s privacy at this time.”

It was not clear who wrote the post.

Lesh was born in Berkeley, California on March 15, 1940.

He had previously survived prostate cancer, bladder cancer and a liver transplant in 1998 brought on by a hepatitis C infection and years of heavy drinking, as reported by the Associated Press.

Alongside Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron McKernan and Bill Kreutzmann, Lesh formed the Grateful Dead in Palo Alto in 1965, and the band had a devoted following known as “Deadheads”.

Lesh was trained on the violin and trumpet, and eventually earned second chair in California’s Oakland Symphony Orchestra while still a teen.

He was driving a mail truck and working as a sound engineer for a small radio station in 1965 when Garcia asked him to play bass for a fledgling rock band, then known as The Warlocks.

After getting a feel for the instrument and studying with Garcia, the pair would often trade off on who would lead the melody of the songs they created, thereby establishing one of the many specialities the Dead would become known for — long and improvised passages that meant no two live performances of a certain song were ever alike.

“It’s always fluid, we just pretty much figure it out on the fly,” Lesh said during a rare interview with the AP in 2009. “You can’t set those things in stone in the rehearsal room.”

Although mostly known for his legendary and freestyle bass playing, Lesh composed music for some of the band’s most beloved songs, and also occasionally provided vocals. Among those tracks were Pride of Cucamonga, Unbroken Chain and Box of Rain.

In 2002, Lesh along with Weir observed what it felt like for the history-making group to perform onstage.

“It’s when the pipeline is open, and that eternal moment — as he is describing — which is where music really lives, is open to us and we become the vessel to which that passes, so in a way music is about bringing eternity to time,” Lesh told CNN at the time, in response to Weir’s remarks.

The band became known for its legendary live performances, blazing the trail for other popular groups to follow, like Phish.

Regarding the Dead’s staunch fanbase and following, Lesh said in 2002 “that it’s the community that really generates this music, and we are just there on the receiving end to tap into the pipeline and feed it back to them, maybe at a higher level”.

“So we get it from them, and we give it back to them.”

Later years

After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995 following Garcia’s death, Lesh mostly abstained from joining the other surviving members for their onstage reunion performances.

However, he did take part in the 2009 Grateful Dead tour, and again in 2015 for a series of “Fare Thee Well” concerts marking the band’s 50th anniversary.

He continued to play frequently with a rotating cast of musicians he called Phil Lesh and Friends.

The Dead will be honoured in January at a benefit gala ahead of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. The band was honoured with a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2007.

In a conversation with CNN in 2006, Lesh reflected on the feeling of performing with his bandmates.

“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 channelling, 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 is survived by his wife Jill, and sons Brian and Grahame.

- With NBC