Phil Lesh and Friends played to a sold-out show at Stern Grove in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 14, 2022. The show, Lesh's first free concert in San Francisco in more than 30 years, was the final concert in Stern Grove's 85th season.
Phil Lesh, a classically trained violinist and jazz trumpeter who found his true calling reinventing the role of rock bass guitar as a founding member of The Grateful Dead, died Friday at age 84.Grateful Dead bassist and founding member Phil Lesh, pictured playing with Phil Lesh and Friends in 2022, died Friday at age 84.
The statement did not cite a specific cause of death, and attempts to reach representatives for additional details were not immediately successful. Lesh had previously survived bouts of prostate cancer, bladder cancer and a 1998 liver transplant necessitated by the debilitating effects of a hepatitis C infection and years of heavy drinking.
But he had largely put both instruments aside and was driving a mail truck and working as a sound engineer for a small radio station in 1965 when Garcia recruited him to play bass in a fledgling rock band called The Warlocks. Lesh and Garcia would frequently exchange leads while the band as a whole would frequently break into long, experimental jazz-influenced jams during concerts. The result was that even well-known Grateful Dead songs likerarely sounded the same two performances in a row, something that would inspire loyal fans to attend show after show.
Lesh would say in later years that his love of music came from listening to broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic on his grandmother's radio. One of his earliest memories was hearing the great German composer Bruno Walter lead that orchestra through Brahms' First Symphony. But he set the trumpet aside after college, concluding he didn't have the lung power to become an elite player.Soon after he took up the bass, The Warlocks renamed themselves the Grateful Dead and Lesh began captivating audiences with his dexterity. Crowds gathered in what came to be known as "The Phil Zone" directly in front of his position on stage.
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