Grateful Dead Members Pay Tribute to Phil Lesh After He Died at Age 84

The Grateful Dead is paying tribute to “brother” Phil Lesh.

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

Later the same day, his surviving Grateful Dead bandmates — Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann — posted a heartfelt message on Instagram about their late friend’s musical prowess 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, referencing Lesh’s wife and children, by whom he is survived.

“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,” the statement continued.

Lesh’s bandmates added that they could “count on the fingers of one hand the people we can say had as profound an influence on our development — in every sense.”

They said that “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.”

Lesh, who was a native of Berkeley, Calif., first met his future bandmate Jerry Garcia in 1962, at a party in Menlo Park. Several years later in 1965, Lesh, Garcia, Kreutzmann, Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan played their first gig 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 the local circuit across California and released 13 studio albums together as well as dozens of live albums. Hart joined the band as drummer in 1967.

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

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

“The thing is … Phil was so much more than a virtuoso bass player, a composer, a family man, a cultural icon…,” they continued. “There will be a lot of tributes, and they will all say important things. But for us, 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.”

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

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

In the statement announcing Lesh’s death, no cause of death was given, but it was noted that, “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,” the statement continued.