Phil Lesh, Grateful Dead co-founder and bassist, dead at 84

Phil Lesh, 1 of nan founding members of nan stone set Grateful Dead, has died. He was 84.

“Phil Lesh, bassist and founding personnel of Grateful Dead, passed peacefully this morning,” an announcement shared connected nan precocious musician’s Instagram Friday reads.

“He was surrounded by his family and afloat of love.”

The post, which featured a photograph of Lesh playing his bass onstage, honored him for bringing “immense joyousness to everyone astir him and leaves down a bequest of euphony and love.”

The tribute concluded, “We petition that you respect nan Lesh family’s privateness astatine this time.”

An charismatic origin of decease has not been revealed astatine this time, and his rep did not instantly return Page Six’s petition for comment.

However, Lesh shared successful 2015 that he had been diagnosed pinch bladder cancer.

He said via a Facebook post astatine nan clip that he felt “very fortunate” that his pathology reports showed his tumors were “non-aggressive” and that location had been nary denotation that nan crab spread.

The “Terrapin Station” rocker shared he had been seeking curen for 2 weeks astatine nan Mayo Clinic successful Scottsdale, Ariz., and would yet beryllium undergoing room to region nan tumors.

Since nan announcement of Lesh’s death, respective friends and fans person posted tributes online.

One personification commented connected Instagram, “Thank you Phil. Say hullo to Jerry for maine 🥀,” referencing nan precocious Grateful Dead lead guitarist and vocalist Jerry Garcia, who died of a bosom attack successful 1995.

Journalist Ron Lieber added, “A joker, a prankster, a thunder-bomb thrower, a rainmaker, a container builder, a headband wearer, a rocker of tie-dyes, a weaver of chains, surgery and unbroken, already connected nan 4 winds and astir apt safely location astatine that. His representation is simply a blessing.”

Lesh co-founded Grateful Dead successful 1965 on pinch Garcia, vocalist and guitarist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, and keyboard and harmonica subordinate Bob Weir and drummer Bill Kreutzmann.

The group was known for infusing elements of rock, blues, jazz, folk, psychedelia and different genres into their music. Their devoted fandom is known arsenic nan “Deadheads.”

After Garcia died, different iterations of nan set were formed, including Dead & Company, which just played their last show in July 2023.

However, Lesh was not a portion of that group and alternatively toured pinch Phil Lesh and Friends alongside a rotating group of musicians from 1998 to 2000. He besides played pinch nan Phil Lesh Quartet from 2000 to 2003.

In 1994, Lesh and different Grateful Dead members were inducted into nan Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.