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Phil Lesh performs as Phil Lesh & Friends during the Great South Bay Music Festival at Shorefront Park on July 22, 2023 in Patchogue, New York. (Photo by Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images)

Phil Lesh, bassist and one of the founding members of The Grateful Dead, has died, according to an Instagram post published on the band’s official account.

Lesh passed peacefully Friday morning, the post said.

“He was surrounded by his family and full of love,” she continued. “Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and left behind a legacy of music and love. Please respect the Lesh family’s privacy at this time.”

The cause of death was not disclosed

The statement shared by the band on Instagram did not share details about the cause of Lesh’s death.

Lesh had previously survived bouts of prostate cancer, bladder cancer and a 1998 liver transplant, necessitated by the debilitating effects of a hepatitis C infection and years of heavy drinking.

Beloved musician of a legendary band

Phillip Chapman Lesh was born on March 15, 1940, in Berkeley, California, the only child of Frank Lesh, an office equipment repairman, and his wife, Barbara.

He would say in later years that his love of music came from listening to the New York Philharmonic broadcasts on his grandmother’s radio. One of his earliest memories was hearing the great German composer Bruno Walter lead that orchestra through Brahms’s First Symphony.

The musical influences he often cited were not rock musicians, but composers such as Bach and Edgard Varese, as well as jazz greats such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis.

By the time he arrived at the College of San Mateo, Lesh had gravitated from classical music to cool jazz, eventually becoming the first trumpet player in the school’s big band and the composer of several orchestral pieces performed by the group.

But he put the trumpet aside after college, concluding that he didn’t have the lung power to become an elite player.

Shortly after taking up bass, the Wizards renamed themselves the Grateful Dead, and Lesh began captivating audiences with his dexterity. Crowds gathered in what became known as the “Phil Zone”, right in front of his stage position.

Although never a prolific songwriter, Lesh also composed music for, and sometimes performed on, some of the band’s best-loved songs. These included the country rocker “Pride of Cucamonga,” the jazz-influenced “Unbroken Chain,” and the ethereally beautiful “Box of Rain.”

Lesh composed the latter on guitar as a gift for his dying father, and recalled that Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, upon hearing the instrumental recording, approached him the next day with a sheet of lyrics. On that sheet, he said, were “some of the most moving and heartfelt lyrics I’ve ever had the good fortune to sing.”

The band often closed their concerts with the song.

In recent years, he performed those shows at “Terrapin Crossroads,” a restaurant and nightclub he opened near his Northern California home in 2012, which was named after the Grateful Dead song and album “Terrapin Station.”

Lesh is survived by his wife Jill and sons Brian and Grahame.