Beginnings

Also trained on the violin and trumpet, Lesh eventually earned second chair in California’s Oakland Symphony Orchestra while still a teen.

Lesh was driving a mail truck and working as a sound engineer for a small radio station in 1965 when Garcia asked him to play bass for a fledgling rock band, then known as The Warlocks.

After getting a feel for the instrument and studying with Garcia, the pair would often trade off on who would lead the melody of the songs they created, thereby establishing one of the many specialties the Dead would become known for – long and improvised passages that meant no two live performances of a certain song were ever alike.

“It’s always fluid, we just pretty much figure it out on the fly,” Lesh said during a rare interview with the AP in 2009. “You can’t set those things in stone in the rehearsal room.”

Although mostly known for his legendary and freestyle bass playing, Lesh composed music for some of the band’s most beloved songs, and also occasionally provided vocals. Among those tracks were “Pride of Cucamonga,” “Unbroken Chain” and “Box of Rain.”

In 2002, Lesh along with Weir observed what it felt like for the history-making group to perform onstage.

“It’s when the pipeline is open, and that eternal moment – as he is describing. Which is where music really lives, is open to us and we become the vessel to which that passes, so in a way music is about bringing eternity to time,” Lesh told CNN at the time, in response to Weir’s remarks.

The band became known for its legendary live performances, blazing the trail for other popular groups to follow, like Phish.

Regarding the Dead’s staunch fanbase and following, Lesh said in 2002 “that it’s the community that really generates this music. We are just there on the receiving end to tap into the pipeline and feed it back to them, maybe at a higher level. So we get it from them, and we give it back to them.”

Later years