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

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

The Grateful Lifeless is paying tribute to “brother” Phil Lesh.

on the morning of Friday, Oct. 25, based on a press release posted on his verified account.

Later the identical day, his surviving Grateful Lifeless bandmates — Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Invoice Kreutzmann — posted a heartfelt message on about their late good friend’s musical prowess and affect on them.

“As we speak we misplaced a brother. Our hearts and love exit to Jill Lesh, Brian and Grahame. Phil Lesh was irreplaceable,” they started, referencing Lesh’s spouse and kids, by whom he’s survived.

“In a single observe from the Phil Zone, you could possibly hear and really feel the world being born. His bass flowed like a river would circulate. It went the place the muse took it. He was an explorer of interior and outer house who simply occurred to play bass. He was a circumnavigator of previously unknown musical worlds. And extra,” the assertion continued.

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Lesh’s bandmates added that they may “rely on the fingers of 1 hand the individuals we will say had as profound an affect on our growth — in each sense.”

They mentioned that “there have been even much less individuals who did so repeatedly over the a long time and can proceed to for so long as we reside. What a present he was for us.”

“We gained’t say he will probably be missed, as in any given second, nothing we do will probably be with out the teachings he taught us — and the teachings which are but to return, because the conversations will go on.”

Lesh, who was a local of Berkeley, Calif., , at a celebration in Menlo Park. A number of years later in 1965, Lesh, Garcia, Kreutzmann, Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan performed their first gig underneath the identify The Warlocks.

Nonetheless, by the top of the identical 12 months, the band had grow to be referred to as The Grateful Lifeless. From there, they started taking part in the native circuit throughout California and launched 13 studio albums collectively in addition to dozens of reside albums. Hart joined the band as drummer in 1967.

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Mckernan died in 1973 and the group had varied further members over time, together with keyboardist Brent Mydland. They ultimately disbanded in 1995 following Garcia’s demise that 12 months at age 53. Lesh later fashioned his personal group, Phil Lesh and Mates, amongst different musical ventures. Kreutzmann, Weir and Hart went on to type with , Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti, with Jay Lane changing Kreutzmann on drums in 2023.

The Grateful Lifeless’s Oct. 25 assertion went on to explain how Lesh beloved the “Lifeless Heads” — the time period for the band’s followers — and that he “all the time saved them in his coronary heart and thoughts.”

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“The factor is … Phil was a lot greater than a virtuoso bass participant, a composer, a household man, a cultural icon…,” they continued. “There will probably be lots of tributes, and they’ll all say necessary issues. However for us, we’ve spent a lifetime making music with Phil Lesh and the music has a manner of claiming all of it. So take heed to the Grateful Lifeless and, in that manner, we’ll all take a bit little bit of Phil with us, endlessly.”

“For that is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon, way back,” they concluded the tribute, referencing their music “Field of Rain” from the 1970 album American Magnificence, earlier than signing off, “Mickey, Billy and Bobby.”

The publish additionally featured a sequence of photographs of Lesh performing all through the years, whereas the band shared their assertion on as effectively, this time within the type of a letter surrounded by a border of pink roses, with Lesh’s identify and his beginning and demise date a the highest.

Within the assertion asserting Lesh’s demise, no reason behind demise was given, however it was famous that, “He was surrounded by his household and full of affection.”

“Phil introduced immense pleasure to everybody round him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We request that you simply respect the Lesh household’s privateness at the moment,” the assertion continued.

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