Lesh and Garcia’s friendship lasted three decades, starting from when the band was known as the Warlocks until Lesh joined, replacing Dana Morgan Jr., and the band was renamed the Grateful Dead. When Garcia died in 1995, Lesh continued to keep the band’s legacy alive through various incarnations of the group with former members and in various iterations of Phil Lesh and Friends.

“Jerry was the lynchpin,” Lesh said Rolling stone. “We were the spokespersons. And the music was the tread on the steering wheel.”

The pair met in 1959 at a house party in the Bay Area and again after a performance by the Warlocks in 1964. Garcia invited Lesh to join the band on bass guitar, an instrument he had never played. The following year, Lesh performed at his first show with the Warlocks at the Bikini A-Go-Go in Hayward, California.

In the family’s statement Friday, they wrote: “We are eternally grateful and hope everyone joins us in wishing him a wonderful and peaceful journey into the great beyond. Thanks Phil! May your blessed cosmic brain beats continue.”