Grateful Lifeless bassist and co-founder Phil Lesh dies aged 84
Phil Lesh, the co-founder and bassist of Grateful Lifeless, has died on the age of 84.
The musician’s loss of life was confirmed in an announcement on social media, which shared that he “handed peacefully” as we speak (October 25).
“He was surrounded by his household and full of affection. Phil introduced immense pleasure to everybody round him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We request that you just respect the Lesh household’s privateness at the moment,” the assertion learn.
No reason behind loss of life has been given at the moment.
Initially a classically educated trumpeter, Lesh was a part of the unique line-up of Grateful Lifeless in 1965, alongside Jerry Garcia on lead guitar and vocals), Bob Weir on rhythm guitar and vocals, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan on keyboards, harmonica, and vocals), and Invoice Kreutzmann on drums. He was the final to affix the band underneath their authentic identify of the Warlocks earlier than they modified it to Grateful Lifeless.
On the time of becoming a member of, Lesh had by no means picked up a bass guitar however grew to develop a particular type influenced by jazz particularly that typically made his instrument sound like a second lead guitar. He contributed particularly considerably to a number of the band’s earliest works and performed on all 13 of the Lifeless’s studio releases and 10 official dwell albums between 1967 and 1990.
Following the loss of life of Jerry Garcia in 1995, Lesh participated in numerous touring iterations of the band together with the Different Ones (1998-99), the Lifeless (2003-04, 2008-09) and Furthur (2009-13). The surviving members carried out publicly collectively for the final time on the ‘Fare Thee Nicely’ tour exhibits in Northern California and Chicago.
Lesh was not part of the latest incarnation Lifeless & Firm that includes Weir and the band’s different important drummer Mickey Hart alongside John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane.
He did, nevertheless, play in Phil Lesh and Mates and with the Terrapin Household Band, an offshoot of his family-run music corridor and restaurant Terrapin Crossroads, which opened in California in 2012.
Lesh had run into well being points within the last many years of his life, together with a liver transplant in 1998. He was handled for prostate most cancers in 2006 and later bladder most cancers in 2015 earlier than present process surgical procedure on his again in 2019.
Simply two days earlier than he died, Grateful Dead were named Persons of the Year by the charity MusiCares. The ceremony is predicted to be the beginning of the group’s sixtieth anniversary celebrations.
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