Grateful Dead founding member Phil Lesh dies at 84
PATCHOGUE, NEW YORK - JULY 22: Phil Lesh performs as Phil Lesh & Friends during the Great South Bay Music Festival at Shorefront Park on July 22, 2023 in Patchogue, New York. (Photo by Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images)
PALO ALTO, Calif. - Phil Lesh, a founding member of the legendary Bay Area rock band The Grateful Dead, has died at 84, according to a social media post from his account.
Lesh was the oldest and one of the longest surviving members of the band that came to define the acid rock sound emanating from San Francisco in the 1960s.
"Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of The Grateful Dead, passed peacefully this morning. 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," the post read.
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.
Lesh’s death comes two days after MusiCares named the Grateful Dead its Persons of the Year. MusiCares, which helps music professionals needing financial or other kinds of assistance, cited Lesh’s Unbroken Chain Foundation among other philanthropic initiatives. The Dead will be honored in January at a benefit gala ahead of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
The Grateful Dead formed in the Bay Area in the 1965, evolving to perfect a kind of hybrid approach to their improvisational, jam band style, a sound that spans acid rock, psychedelia, folk, jazz, Americana, Bakersfield country and beyond. They created their own counterculture centered around their touring, a community known as Dead Heads, and have become one of the most in-demand live acts.
In 2007, the Grateful Dead received the Lifetime Achievement award from the Recording Academy.
In February of this year, The Grateful Dead broke the record for the most Top 40 albums to chart on the Billboard 200, then pulling out ahead of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra with 59. Forty-one of the band’s 59 entries in the Top 40 have happened since 2012, thanks to the popularity of the series of archival albums compiled by David Lemieux.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.