Phil Lesh, who was instrumental in forming the Grateful Dead, has passed away. He was 84.
An Instagram post from the late musician’s account on Friday said, “Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of Grateful Dead, passed peacefully this morning.” Many were shocked by the news.
“With his loved ones by his side, he was overflowing with joy.”
The message paid tribute to Lesh, who brought “immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love,” and included a photo of him playing bass onstage.
“We ask that you honor the Lesh family’s privacy during this period,” the memorial said in its last words.
His representative did not promptly respond to Page Six’s request for comment, and the official cause of death is still unknown.
But in 2015, Lesh revealed that he had bladder cancer.
His pathology findings revealed that his tumors were “non-aggressive” and that there had been no signs of cancer spreading; he expressed his gratitude for this in a Facebook post he made at the time.
A two-week treatment session at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, was disclosed by the “Terrapin Station” rocker, who revealed that he will eventually have surgery to remove the tumors.
In addition to overcoming prostate cancer, he underwent a liver transplant in 1998 as a result of the crippling consequences of a hepatitis C infection and years of excessive alcohol consumption.
Several followers and friends of Lesh have taken to social media after the news of his death broke to pay tribute to him.
“Thank you Phil,” one Instagram user wrote. The late lead guitarist and vocalist of the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, passed away from a heart attack in 1995. “Say hello to Jerry for me 🥀,” he said, referring to Garcia.
“A joker, a prankster, a thunder-bomb thrower, a rainmaker, a box builder, a headband wearer, a rocker of tie-dyes, a weaver of chains, broken and unbroken, already on the four winds and probably safely home at that,” commented journalist Ron Lieber. His legacy lives on.
In 1965, Lesh was one of the original members of the Grateful Dead, along with Garcia, guitarist and vocalist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Bob Weir (keyboards and harmonica), and Bill Kreutzmann (drums).
Their sound was characterized by a fusion of many musical traditions, including rock, blues, jazz, folk, and psychedelia. The name for their die-hard fan base is “Deadheads.”
Dead & Company, one of several forms of the band that emerged following Garcia’s death, performed their last concert in July 2023.
But Lesh wasn’t a member of that band; from 1998 to 2000, he performed on tour with Phil Lesh and Friends, a group that had a rotating cast of musicians. While he was with the Phil Lesh Quartet, he was a member from 2000 to 2003.
The Grateful Dead, led by Lesh, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.