Grateful Dead Members Pay Tribute to Phil Lesh After His Death: ‘We Lost a Brother’

The Grateful Dead pay tribute to “brother” Phil Lesh.

The bassist, 84, died “peacefully” on the morning of Friday, October 25, according to a statement posted on his verified Instagram account.

Later that day, his surviving Grateful Dead bandmates — Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann — posted a heartfelt message on Instagram about their late friend’s musicianship and influence on them.

“Today we lost a brother. Our hearts and love go out to Jill Lesh, Brian and Grahame. Phil Lesh was irreplaceable,” they began, referring to Lesh’s wife and children, whom he left behind.

“In one note from the Phil Zone, you could hear and feel the world being born. His bass flowed like a river. He went where his wife took him. He was an explorer of inner and outer space who happened to play bass. He was a traveler of previously unknown musical worlds. And much more,” the press release continues.

Phil Lesh from The Grateful Dead in 1991.

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Lesh’s bandmates added that they can “count on the fingers of one hand the people that we can say have had an equally profound impact on our development – in every sense.”

They said that “there have been even fewer people who have done this continuously over the decades and will continue to do so as long as we live. What a gift he was to us.”

“We won’t say we’ll miss him, because at any given moment nothing we do will be without the lessons he’s taught us — and the lessons yet to come, as the conversations unfold.”

The Grateful Dead Tribute to Phil Lesh on their Instagram Stories October 25, 2024

Grateful Dead/Instagram

Lesh, who was a native of Berkeley, California, first met his future bandmate Jerry Garcia in 1962, at a party in Menlo Park. A few years later, in 1965, Lesh, Garcia, Kreutzmann, Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan played their first show under the name The Warlocks.

However, by the end of the same year, the band had become known as The Grateful Dead. From there, they began playing local circuits throughout California and together released 13 studio albums, as well as dozens of live albums. Hart joined the band as a drummer in 1967.

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Mckernan died in 1973, and the group has had various additional members over the years, including keyboardist Brent Mydland. They eventually disbanded in 1995 following Garcia’s death that year at the age of 53. Lesh later formed his own group, Phil Lesh and Friends, among other musical ventures. Kreutzmann, Weir and Hart formed Dead & Company with John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti, with Jay Lane replacing Kreutzmann on drums in 2023.

An Oct. 25 statement from The Grateful Dead went on to describe how Lesh loved the “Dead Heads” — a term for the band’s fans — and that he “always kept them in his heart and mind.”

Mickey Hart of The Grateful Dead, Bill Kreutzmann, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Brent Mydland.

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“The thing is… Phil was so much more than a virtuoso bass player, a composer, a family man, a cultural icon…” they continued. “There’s going to be a lot of tributes and everyone’s going to say important things. But as far as we’re concerned, we’ve spent our whole lives making music with Phil Lesh and music has a way of saying it all. So listen to the Grateful Dead and, that way, we’ll all take a little Phil with me, forever.”

“Because this is all a dream we had one afternoon, long ago,” the tribute concluded, referencing their song “Box of Rain” from the 1970 album. American beautybefore signing off, “Mickey, Billy and Bobby.”

The post also featured a series of photos of Lesh’s performances over the years, while the band also shared their statement on their Instagram Stories, this time in the form of a letter surrounded by a border of red roses, with Lesh’s name and his date of birth and death at the top.

The statement announcing Lesh’s death did not give a cause of death, but said 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 ask that you respect the privacy of the Lesh family at this time,” the statement continued.

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Source: HIS Education