Booking Phil Lesh

Phil Lesh Biography

Phil Lesh was born in 1940 in Berkeley, California. As a young man, he studied jazz, classical music, and composition while attending Mills College. He began as a violin player, but eventually switched to trumpet and then ultimately to guitar. He met Jerry Garcia while volunteering as a recording engineer, and in 1965, he and Garcia joined forces to create the Grateful Dead. Lesh spent the next thirty years of his life as the band's bass guitarist.

After Garcia's death in 1995, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, and Mickey Hart established the Other Ones, and in 1999, Lesh began touring as a solo act following the release of his debut, Love Will See You Through. There and Back Again followed in 2002, and Lesh began touring as Phil Lesh & Friends in the latter part of the millennium's first decade. In 2009, he and the remaining members of the Grateful Dead launched a successful reunion tour, but Phil Lesh continues to pursue other projects as well, including the recently established band Further, alongside Bob Weir. In 2012, Phil Lesh opened Terrapin Crossroads, a music venue, which would become the home for Phil Lesh & Friends performances.

In addition to his accomplishments in music, Phil Lesh and his wife run the Unbroken Chain Foundation, a charitable organization. Despite some health challenges, including a liver transplant, Phil Lesh continues to perform, tour, and record.