Grateful Dead Members Pay Tribute to Phil Lesh After His Death: ‘We Lost a Brother’

Mar. 15, 2025

The Grateful Dead members Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan, Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir in 1970 in San Francisco.Photo:Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

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 verifiedInstagramaccount.

Later the same day, his surviving Grateful Dead bandmates — Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann — posted a heartfelt message onInstagramabout their late friend’s musical prowess and influence on them.

“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.

Phil Lesh of The Grateful Dead in 1991.Tim Mosenfelder/Getty

Tim Mosenfelder/Getty

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.”

The Grateful Dead’s tribute to Phil Lesh on their Instagram Stories on Oct. 25, 2024.Grateful Dead/Instagram

Grateful Dead/Instagram

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.

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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 formDead & CompanywithJohn 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 Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir Brent Mydland.Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/VCG via Getty

Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/VCG via Getty

“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.”

“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.

source: people.com