Phil Lesh, co-founder of The Grateful Dead, dies at 84

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Phil Lesh, an innovative bassist and founder of The Grateful Dead, died on Friday, according to a statement on his Instagram account. He was 84 years old.

Over three decades, classically trained Lesh and Grateful Dead icon Jerry Garcia shared a close musical partnership that resulted in the eclectic California rock band’s psychedelic sound and famous onstage improvisation.

Lesh “passed away peacefully” and was “surrounded by his family and full of love,” the statement said.

“Phil brought tremendous joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love.”

Lesh was an early pioneer in the burgeoning electric bass sound of the 1960s, taking a more melodic, improvisational approach to the instrument that was traditionally more of a timekeeper, with his chords dominating rather than in the background.

He was far from the band’s most prolific writer, but he co-wrote some of the Dead’s most notable, jam-worthy songs — including “Dark Star” and “St. Stephen’ – and also sang harmonies for the band, and less often led vocals.

Born March 15, 1940 in Berkeley, California, Lesh’s life as a musician began with the violin. Later he started playing the trumpet and composing for orchestras, because his studies gave him a great interest in avant-garde classical and free jazz.

As a volunteer recording engineer at a local public radio station while studying with Italian modernist Luciano Berio, Lesh met bluegrass banjoist Garcia.

He joined Garcia’s new band The Warlocks in the fall of 1964 and took up bass.

He would later say that he was more inspired by Bach’s counterpoint style – a classical music theory focused on the relationship between harmonically interdependent musical parts – than by his contemporaries.

As the Grateful Dead, the band members became key figures in the counterculture beginning in the 1960s and revolutionized fan engagement, with “Deadheads” traveling from show to show.

Many followers recorded and traded illegal tapes of the concerts, enjoying a communal, drug-addled camp environment.

The rockers split in 1995, a few months after Garcia’s death.

“Jerry was the lynchpin,” Lesh later told Rolling Stone. “We were the spokes. And the music was the tread on the steering wheel.”

Lesh continued to perform in the tradition of the Dead in various iterations for decades. He retired from regular touring in 2014.

In 1998, Lesh underwent a liver transplant after a hepatitis C infection, after which he used his concerts as a platform to encourage fans to become organ donors.

In 2015, he said he had bladder tumors following his battle with prostate cancer in 2006.

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