Grateful Dead members pay tribute to Phil Lesh after his death: ‘We lost a brother’

Surviving band members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann posted a touching message on Instagram on October 25.

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

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

Later that day, fellow Grateful Dead survivors Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann posted a heartfelt message on instagram about their late friend’s musical prowess and his 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, who survive him.

“On a Phil Zone note, you could hear and feel the world being born. His bass flowed like a river would flow. It was where the muse took him. He was an explorer of inner and outer space who happened to play bass. He was a circumnavigator of hitherto unknown musical worlds. And more,” the statement continues.

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Lesh’s bandmates added that they could “count on one hand the people who we can say had such a profound influence on our development, in every way.”

They said “there have been even fewer people who did it continually over the decades and will continue to do it as long as we live. What a gift it was to us.”

“We won’t say we’ll miss him, because at some point, nothing we do will be without the lessons he taught us, and the lessons that are yet to come, as conversations continue.”

Lesh, originally from Berkeley, California, he met his future bandmate Jerry García in 1962at a party in Menlo Park. Several years later, in 1965, Lesh, García, Kreutzmann, Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan gave their first concert under the name The Warlocks.

However, at the end of the same year, the band became known as The Grateful Dead. From there, they began playing the local California circuit 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 several additional members over the years, including keyboardist Brent Mydland. They finally disbanded in 1995 after García’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 formed Dead and company with Juan MayerOteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti, with Jay Lane replacing Kreutzmann on drums in 2023.

The Grateful Dead’s October 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.”

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“The thing is… Phil was much more than a virtuoso bassist, a songwriter, a family man, a cultural icon…” they continued. “There will be a lot of tributes and everyone will say important things. But for us, 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 away a little bit of Phil with us forever.”

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

The post also included a series of photos of Lesh performing over the years, while the band shared their statement about their instagram stories also, 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.

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 a legacy of music and love. “We request that you respect the privacy of the Lesh family at this time,” the statement continued.

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