Get the latest gossip
Phil Lesh, Bassist for the Grateful Dead, Dies at 84
Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh died Friday. He was 84.
After the group was formally laid to rest in 2015 with their “Fare Thee Well” concerts in Northern California and Chicago, Lesh sat out a latter-day incarnation, Dead & Company, in which he was replaced by Allman Brother Band bassist Otell Burbridge. He was making a living driving a postal service truck when he dropped into Magoo’s Pizza Parlor to catch the second gig by the group that had grown out of the guitarist’s previous endeavor, Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions. For his part, Lesh – who was portrayed unflatteringly by San Francisco journalist Joel Selvin in his 2018 book, about the Dead’s later years, “Fare Thee Well” — strived to create a musical identity for himself apart from the reunion circuit, and appeared annually as a headliner every Halloween at his “Phil-O-Ween” dates at the Dead-friendly New York venue the Capitol Theatre.
Or read this on Variety