Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh died this morning (October 25), according to a statement on his official social media accounts. A cause of death was not released, just that he “passed peacefully” and that he was “surrounded by his family and full of love.” Les was 84 years old.
Philip Chapman Less was born and raised in Berkeley, California. He enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley in 1961, where he studied music and composition under the Italian composer Luciano Berio. He was also a classmate of Steve Reich at university.
In 1965, Lesh, a bass player in training, joined Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Bill Kreutzmann in a band called the Warlocks. On Saturday, December 4, 1965, they adopted a new name for one of Ken Kesey's Acid Test parties in San Jose: They were the Grateful Dead.
The Grateful Dead released their first album, also called Grateful Deadin March 1967, but were equally known throughout the Bay Area for their large, free-form concerts. More albums followed as the band's acclaim and reputation grew. Lesh did not lead, as a writer or singer, on many songs, but he co-wrote the opening and closing songs in the 1970s American Beauty“Box of Rain” and “Truckin'”. He also sang lead vocals on “Box of Rain”. And, of “Truckin',” Lesh once said, “We took our experiences on the road and turned it into poetry… the last chorus defines the band itself.”
Lesh was involved with the Grateful Dead until the band broke up in 1995, following the death of Jerry Garcia. He soon began playing with a rotating lineup of members as Phil Lesh and Friends. However, he did not join his former bandmates in the revival act Dead & Company.
In the mid-2000s, Lesh wrote about his years with the Grateful Dead in the book Searching for the Sound. At the time, the musician also revealed that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and eventually underwent surgery to treat it. Almost a decade later, he had surgery for bladder cancer.
