Bassist Phil Lesh, one of the founding members of the iconic band Grateful Dead, died on Friday. He was 84.
The sound Lesh and the other musicians in the group created would go on to become a defining element of the burgeoning mid-1960s culture of psychedelic music and style with its incarnation in and around San Francisco.
A message posted to social media by representatives of Lesh spoke of his final moments and the mark he made on culture and the arts.
"He was surrounded by his family and full of love," a message on Lesh's Instagram account read. "Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We request that you respect the Lesh family’s privacy at this time."
The American rock band Grateful Dead became a symbol of a type of psychedelic-inspired counterculture in which the term "flower power" described the groovy 1960s hippies that explored their free spirit and cannabis culture.
Grateful Dead was known for their long sets and improvisational style becoming one of the most successful touring bands in the history of rock music. All this and the band had almost no success on mainstream radio.
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Lesh founded the group as an original member with vocalist Jerry Garcia, guitarist and vocalist Bob Weir and keyboard player Ron McKernan.
Garcia died in 1995 in California.
Variety reported that Lesh trained classically as a trumpeter, also studying avant-garde styles with composer Luciano Berio. He was recruited to play bass for the first time by Garcia — his friend at the time. After the show at a Menlo Park, Calif. pizza parlor in a band fronted by Garcia called the Warlocks, the rest is history.
Historian Dennis McNally wrote in his 2002 book "A Long Strange Trip" about how Garcia and Lesh played so well together over the years.
In a sample chapter published online, McNally writes of Lesh that he "goes ape, his face contorted, almost duckwalking across the stage toward Garcia, then backing up, his head bobbing. Weir gets a particularly dopey ecstatic grin, and inspiration moves brightly across the stage. The drums burst into double time, the band erupts as one in a focused line that reaches crescendo one more time."
Variety confirmed that Lesh is survived by his wife Jill and their sons who are musicians.
This story was originally published by Scripps News with reporting from Scripps News Richmond.
