The Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh dies at 84: NPR

Phil Lesh of The Grateful Dead, seen here in 2005, died Friday at age 84.

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Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of the countercultural rock band The Grateful Dead, has died. He was 84 years old. His family posted the news on Lesh's official Instagram page.

Lesh was born in Berkeley, California in 1940 and was initially drawn to classical music. He played the violin as a child before turning to the trumpet, which he studied throughout high school and during his time at the College of San Mateo. In the early '60s, he met banjo player Jerry Garcia, who later asked him to join his rock band The Warlocks as bassist – an instrument Lesh did not play. He accepted it anyway and in 1965 “The Grateful Dead” was born, with Lesh gaining a foothold in the improvisational group over time.

“In everyday life, Phil Lesh, the most aggressive purist, the anti-bourgeois artist, is the psychological fulcrum of the dead,” wrote Grateful Dead biographer Dennis McNally in his 2002 book A Long, Strange Journey: The Inside Story of the Grateful Dead. “It is he who most often and loudest demands that they dance as close as possible to the edge of the nearest available abyss. Intellectual, energetic and intense, he was once called “Reddy Kilowatt” in recognition of his high mental and physical speed.”

The Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh (right) played with drummer Bill Kreutzmann and lead singer Jerry Garcia in 1970.

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Over the Dead's decades of musical longevity and reinvention, Lesh sang lead vocals on some of the band's most memorable songs, including “Box of Rain” from the 1970 album American Beautywhich he composed with longtime Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, and 1974's “Unbroken Chain.” From the Mars Hotel.

After Garcia's death in 1995, Lesh reunited with bandmates Bob Weir and Mickey Hart and keyboardist Bruce Hornsby to tour as The Other Ones and later as The Dead. He also released albums with his own group Phil Lesh and Friends and operated a popular venue called Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, California for a decade. Lesh often performed there with his sons Grahame and Brian. Although Terrapin closed in 2021, the Lesh family continued to champion live music in Northern California, most recently organizing a festival called Sunday Daydreams, where Lesh headlined last summer.

“I have to say that music and performing are just as important to me as food and drink, but even more important the older I get,” Lesh said The Marin Independent Journal in June. “Although it can sometimes be more physically challenging than when I was younger, I have found that age brings wisdom and with it musical experience and knowledge that I did not have when I was younger.”