Phil Lesh of The Grateful Dead, seen here in 2005, died on Friday at the age of 84.

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Michael Buckner/Getty Images North America

Phil Lesh, bassist and founder of countercultural rock band The Grateful Dead, has died. He was 84 years old. His family posted the news on Lesh’s official Instagram page.

Born in Berkeley, California, in 1940, Lesh was initially drawn to classical music. As a child he played the violin before turning his attention to the trumpet, which he studied during high school and his time at the College of San Mateo. In the early 1960s, he met banjoist Jerry Garcia, who later asked him to join his rock band The Warlocks as a bassist – an instrument Lesh did not play. He accepted anyway, and in 1965 The Grateful Dead was born, with Lesh gradually finding his way into the improvisation-driven group.

“On a daily basis, the psychic lynchpin to the dead is Phil Lesh, the most aggressive of purists, the anti-philistine artist,” wrote Grateful Dead biographer Dennis McNally in his 2002 book. A long strange journey: the history of the grateful dead. “It is he who most often and most loudly demands that they dance as close as possible to the edge of the nearest abyss. Intellectual, kinetic, intense, he was once nicknamed Reddy Kilowatt in recognition of his high mental and physical speed.

The Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh (right), playing with drummer Bill Kreutzmann and singer Jerry Garcia in 1970.

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Throughout The Dead’s decades of musical longevity and reinvention, Lesh sang lead vocals on some of the band’s most memorable songs, including “Box of Rain” from the 1970 album. American beautywhich he co-composed with longtime Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, and 1974’s ‘Unbroken Chain’ From the Marshotel.

After Garcia’s death in 1995, Lesh reunited with fellow bandmates Bob Weir and Mickey Hart and keyboardist Bruce Hornsby to tour as The Other Ones and later The Dead. He also released albums with his own group, Phil Lesh and Friends, and operated a popular venue called Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, California for ten years. Lesh often performed there with his sons, Grahame and Brian. Although Terrapin closed in 2021, the Lesh family has continued to champion live music in Northern California, most recently hosting a festival called Sunday Daydreams, which Lesh headlined last summer.

“I would have to say that music and performance are as essential to me as food and drink, but even more so as I get older,” Lesh said. The independent magazine Marin in June. “Although it can sometimes be more physically challenging than when I was a young whippersnapper, I have discovered that age brings with it wisdom, and with it, musical experience and knowledge that I did not have when I was younger.”