CNN
—

Phil Lesh, bassist and founder of the iconic rock band Grateful Dead, has died. He was 84.

The news was announced on Lesh’s verified Instagram on Friday, which said he died “peacefully” on Friday morning.

“He was surrounded by his family and full of love. Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love,” the announcement on social media said. “We ask that you respect the privacy of the Lesh family at this time.”

CNN has reached out to a representative for the Grateful Dead. No immediate cause of death was available, but the Associated Press reported that Lesh had previously survived prostate cancer, bladder cancer and a liver transplant in 1998 caused by a hepatitis C infection and years of heavy drinking.

Born in Berkeley, California, Lesh co-founded the Palo Alto band Grateful Dead in 1965 with Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Bill Kreutzmann.

Also trained on the violin and trumpet, Lesh eventually earned second chair in the Oakland Symphony Orchestra in California as a teenager.

Lesh was driving a mail truck and working as a sound engineer for a small radio station in 1965 when Garcia asked him to play bass for a fledgling rock band then known as The Warlocks.

After developing a feel for the instrument and studying with Garcia, they often alternated who would lead the melody of the songs they created, creating one of the many specialties the Dead would become known for: long and improvised passages that meant no two live performances of a given song were ever the same.

“It’s always fluid, we figure it out pretty much right away,” Lesh said during a rare interview with the AP in 2009. “You can’t set those things in stone in the rehearsal room.”

Although best known for his legendary and freestyle bass playing, Lesh composed music for some of the band’s most beloved songs, as well as occasionally providing vocals. Among those songs were ‘Pride of Cucamonga’, ‘Unbroken Chain’ and ‘Box of Rain’.

In 2002, Lesh and Weir observed what it felt like for the history-making group to perform on stage.

“It’s when the pipeline is open, and that eternal moment – ​​as he describes – where music is truly alive, is open to us and we become the vessel through which that passes, so in a sense music is about bringing the eternity in time. ,” Lesh told CNN at the time, in response to Weir’s comments.

The band became known for its legendary live performances, paving the way for other popular groups such as Phish.

Regarding The Dead’s loyal fanbase and following, Lesh said in 2002 that “it’s the community that really generates this music, and we’re just on the receiving end of tapping into the pipeline and feeding it back to them, maybe at a higher level. So we get it from them, and we give it back to them.”

After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995 following Garcia’s death, Lesh mostly refrained from joining the other surviving members for their on-stage reunion performances.

However, he did participate in the 2009 Grateful Dead tour, and again in 2015 for a series of “Fare Thee Well” concerts celebrating the band’s 50th anniversary.

He continued to play regularly with a rotating cast of musicians he called Phil Lesh and Friends.

The Dead will be honored at a benefit gala ahead of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in January. The band was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy in 2007.

Speaking to CNN in 2006, Lesh reflected on the feeling of performing with his bandmates.

“It’s a paradise. At that moment I’m not really there. And that’s no one. We are the music, and our personalities as such really don’t end there at all. We are incorporated into the greater personality of the group mind, that is what has been created. This happens when we improvise creatively and the flow really happens. When we actually channel, we open that pipeline to another reality that speaks to us. And we act as transformers, and we have to convert that into musical thinking. But this is not something you can consciously do, learn how to do, or not learn. It’s just something that happens to you when the stars align and your individual consciousness is open enough.”

Lesh is survived by his wife Jill and sons Brian and Grahame.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Jason Morris contributed to this report.