Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of The Grateful Dead, passed peacefully this 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. We request that you respect the Lesh family’s privacy at this time.
I want to express how grateful we are, as a family, for the privilege of being part of this magical community. There has been, and always will be, a wonderful feeling of family, community and adventure that comes with being a Deadhead. That’s something that Phil and I never took for granted, and always cherished.
From the time we met and fell in love, Phil and I always toured together because we really, really liked to be together. We first toured as a couple in love, having so much fun being just a little crazy on the road together. Then as a family we hit the road with little kids, going to children’s museums, planetariums and aquariums on our days off. Later we went out with a bus full of teenagers, which made everything even more chaotic and fun, and finally we went on tour as empty nesters, just us together on the road again (though we always enjoyed bringing our grandson Levon, or even our wonderful dogs, along with us on the bus!).
We had so many adventures together, and through it all, there was always so much magic and music.
One of our favorite adventures happened later in life, when Phil and I opened Terrapin Crossroads together. He wanted to be able to get more creative in how his music could be presented (and also be able to play a lot of music and still be home more). At his table in the bar at Terrapin, Phil would hang out with Deadheads and listen to all the amazing stories they would tell, about shows they’d been to or adventures they’d had. He loved to play for free in the park one minute, and then do a big show later that night. Mostly, he just loved it when there was music happening, and there was always music happening at Terrapin.
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Here are some more of our Phil memories! We love reading your stories and memories. They continue to bring us all so much joy as we come up on Phil’s 85th birthday ❤️
-The Lesh Family
As we get close to Phil’s 85th Birthday, we’d like to share some of our favorite small memories of Phil with you all with these pictures! We invite you all to share any of your Phil memories in the comments of these posts. We’ll be sharing more in the coming weeks and would love to read your Phil stories from this long strange trip!
With love,
The Lesh Family
Darkstarathon Ep 9 is premiering now! Tune into our YT to watch 📺
Ft. @phillesh (of course) with Adam MacDougall, Stu Allen, Jeremy Hoenig, & Grahame Lesh 🤘
A new Clubhouse Session is premiering now on our YouTube 📺 Phil & Friends with Adam MacDougall, Stu Allen, Grahame Lesh, and Jeremy Hoenig rip through a classic Grateful Dead sandwich ✨
Go watch! YouTube.com/@TerrapinClubhouse
An extra special episode of the Darkstarathon drops on our YT channel in less than 24 hours! We had special guest @mikaeladavis join us and it was an epic session ✨
Also featuring Stu Allen, Holly Bowling, Nathan Graham, & Grahame Lesh along with our fearless leader Phil Lesh!
DS Ep 9 premieres tomorrow, Sept 4, at 9am PT! Head to our YT channel (YouTube.com/@TerrapinClubhouse ) to be notified when this episode drops.
📸 by @johnleeshannon (color) and @grahamelesh (b&w)
Phil & the TXR Clubhouse channel are taking a quick break this week, but we’ll be back next week with an AMAZING new Darkstarathon Episode! Filmed in July, Ep 8 features Mikaela Davis, Stu Allen, Holly Bowling, Nathan Graham, and Grahame Lesh joining Phil as he continues the never ending Dark Star jam ✨
In the meantime, get caught up with recent Clubhouse Sessions and Darkstarathon Episodes (recent eps feature Stanley Jordan, the North Mississippi All Stars, and Karl Denson!) on our YouTube Channel 📺 YouTube.com/@TerrapinClubhouse or at our bio link!
📸 by @johnleeshannon
