“In one note from the Phil Zone, you could hear and feel the world being born. His bass flowed like a river”: Surviving Grateful Dead members pay tribute to bassist Phil Lesh, who has died aged 84
Phil Lesh, the Grateful Dead’s innovative bass giant, has died aged 84.
The news was announced on the bassist’s Instagram page with a statement that reads, “Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of The Grateful Dead, passed peacefully this morning. 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.”
Following the news, the surviving core members of the Grateful Dead – Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann – posted their own tribute, stating, “Today we lost a brother.”
“Phil Lesh was irreplaceable,” the post reads. “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.
“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 was so much more than a virtuoso bass player, a composer, a family man, a cultural icon… 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.”
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Born on March 15 1940 in Berkley, California, Lesh was a student of classical music, and developed an interest in avant-garde styles, including free jazz. He played violin and trumpet, before he was recruited by Jerry Garcia to play bass in his new band, then called The Warlocks.
Lesh, however, had never played bass before. His trial by fire resulted in a unique style that wasn’t indebted to the instrument’s typical role of emphasizing the root note, instead taking influence from Bach counterpoint, as well as more adventurous bass players such as Jack Casady and Jack Bruce.
“Phil is an iconoclast by nature and to some degree I think he actually disdains the traditional role of the bass player,” Bob Weir told Guitar World in 2016.
That improvisatory style pioneered a lead approach that put bass front and center with Jerry Garcia’s guitar, and Lesh’s solos were often a highlight of the Grateful Dead’s best live performances.
In 2017, he told Classic Rock that their shows were about “the moment and collective improvisation. When we were really on it, we could open the valve. And if the company didn’t like it, we didn’t give a shit. Fire us. We don’t care.”
The bassist was also a pioneer in the gear realm. His custom Alembic bass, known to Deadheads as ‘Mission Control’, paved the way for the modern boutique bass movement.
Lesh performed with the Grateful Dead throughout its original tenure from 1966 to 1995, and was responsible for writing some of the band’s most iconic tracks, including Truckin’, Box of Rain and Unbroken Chain.
He would continue to perform with offshoots The Other Ones and The Dead and his own band, Phil Lesh and Friends, alongside Furthur with fellow Dead member Bob Weir. He retired from touring full time in 2014, but continued to play occasional concerts.
Lesh underwent a liver transplant in 1998, and treatment for prostate cancer in 2006 and bladder cancer in 2015. He was inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead in 1994.
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