Grateful Dead bassist and founding member, Phil Lesh, has died at the age of 84. News of his death was announced through his official Instagram page, confirming Lesh passed away peacefully on Oct. 25 surrounded by family and “full of love.
” No cause of death has been disclosed. While attending the University of California, Berkeley, in 1961, Lesh befriended Tom Constanten, who would later become the group’s keyboardist, before meeting future bandmate Jerry Garcia at a party in Menlo Park a couple years later. At the time, Lesh dropped out of college and took up a volunteering gig at local radio station KPFA, where he suggested Garcia record one of his performances for broadcast.
As a result, Garcia invited Lesh to join his new rock band, then called “The Warlocks,” and play bass guitar, despite him never having picked up the instrument before. Together, Lesh joined forces with Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir, and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan in 1965 before the band renamed themselves the “Grateful Dead” by the end of that year. Known for their eclectic style of music that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, bluegrass, and more, the group credited Lesh’s unconventional approach to playing his instrument as a key part to their sound.
Lesh notably co-wrote a number of songs for the rock group, including “Box of Rain,” “Unbroken Chain,” and “Truckin’.” Performing more than two-thousand shows over his three-decade career, Lesh and the “Grateful Dead.
