As tributes to late Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh poured in from around the music world and beyond in the wake of his death on Friday, three voices rose above the many—those of his longtime bandmates Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart.
Together with Lesh, their late compatriot Jerry Garcia, and a string of keyboardists starting with Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, the group made what is now widely recognized as one of music history’s most influential bands and became a powerful force in American culture. Since Garcia’s death in 1995, Lesh, Weir, Kreutzmann, and Hart have become known as the “core four”—i.e., the four remaining members of the Dead’s core lineup—last performing together for the band’s Fare Thee Well 50th anniversary concerts in 2015.
With the loss of one member, the core four was reduced to just three, and fans were understandable eager to see what each had to say in reaction to Lesh’s unexpected departure.
In a deeply sentimental post, Bob Weir, who was still a teenager when he started playing music with Phil, expressed love and gratitude to Phil, detailing how his interest in the many musical influences that contributed to the Dead’s revolutionary sound was directly inspired by the late bassist.
“At the age of seventeen, I listened to the John Coltrane Quartet, focusing on McCoy Tyner’s work, feeding Coltrane harmonic and rhythmic ideas to springboard off of – and I developed an approach to guitar playing based off of it. This happened because Phil turned me on to the Coltrane Quartet,” Weir wrote.
He continued. “Early on, he also introduced me (and us) to the wonders of modern classical music, with its textures and developments, which we soon tried our hands at incorporating into what we had to offer. This was all new to peoples’ ears. Igor Stravinsky’s work wasn’t news to me at that point, but what he did and how he did it were ongoing topics of discussion for Phil and I – and boy, did I ever grow.”
Weir went on to acknowledge their differences before closing his remarks with reflections on the inspiration Lesh provided throughout his life:
Concurrent with all this was the ongoing conversation about the things (ideas) we present outside of music, and the effect it would have in shaping the world around us – let’s just say Phil wasn’t particularly averse to ruffling a few feathers. We had our differences, of course, but it’s not platitudinous to say that that only made our work together more meaningful.
Our conversation and interaction will last, at very least, ‘til the end of my days.
The Muse gives us the people and tools to work with. Where we go with that work emerges from somewhere between our intuition and her inspiration. It’s a process always cloaked deep in Mystery, and at its best, the Mystery is forever lasting after its rendering. *Look out of any window…* has that ring to it.
Meanwhile, given that death is the last and best reward for a life *well and fully lived*, I rejoice in his liberation…
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Bill Kreutzmann likewise wrote about how Lesh helped expand his musical horizons by introducing him to jazz artists like John Coltrane, calling him a brother and a mentor.
“Phil Lesh was my brother,” he began. “Not by blood but still by family. I’ve heard so many of you tell me that the Grateful Dead changed your life. Yeah, well… Phil Lesh changed mine.
“Phil turned me onto John Coltrane. Back in the early days of our friendship, he wasn’t just like a brother to me – he was like an older brother. A roommate. A bandmate. A mentor.”
He too acknowledged the complexities of their brotherly dynamic before finishing with words of gratitude and mourning.
“All lifelong friendships and family relationships are complicated and dynamic, but ultimately stand the test of time. So keep only the good memories, for they are the only ones that matter. That’s what I’m going to do. Because love is real, not fade away.
“Thank you Phil. I’ll miss you, darn it.”
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Hart began with the powerful statement, “Phil Lesh changed my life,” before elaborating:
There are only a few people you meet in your lifetime that are special, important, who help you grow spiritually as well as musically. He turned me on to the world’s music, gave me my first Alla Rakha record when we lived on Belvedere Street, changing forever what I thought was musically possible. Phil was foremost an improvisationalist and taught me, all of us. Phil was bigger than life, at the very center of the band and my ears, filling my brain with waves of bass. All those years we all rode the third rail together creating something that cannot be defined in words. Phil was a master of a style he invented, he was singular, an original, nobody sounded like him, nobody. He had wisdom, was older and showed us the way. Later he became first and foremost a family man.. There is no one who loved his wife and sons more than Phil and no one was more dedicated to the Grateful Dead. His sound is indelibly embedded in my mind as is Jerry’s sound…and always will be.
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As the remaining core three and fans gear up for the Dead’s 60th anniversary next year, the future of the group is uncertain. Lesh was set to be honored alongside the others at the 47th Kennedy Center Honors in December, which fans speculated could be an opportunity for the core four’s first reunion since the 2015. The Grateful Dead were also recently named MusiCare‘s 2025 persons of the year, with a ceremony set to honor the group during Grammy week on January 31st.
One thing is clear, however: Lesh’s contributions to the Grateful Dead and to American music and culture in general were vast, and his memory will not fade away.