Happy Birthday Phil Lesh
-Illustration By Paul King Art – Happy Birthday Phil Lesh (March 15)! Phillip Chapman Lesh is the bassist and founding member of The Grateful Dead, and he thinks John Mayer is a douche.
Phil was born in California and was originally a violin player. He developed an interest in avant-garde classical music and free jazz and is a classically trained trumpeter. He switched to Bass after being continually beaten with his violin by neighborhood kids.
His Bass influences include: Bach, Charles Mingus, Jack Casady, Jack Bruce and Jack Klugman.
The Grateful Dead were the soundtrack of a generation. “Truckin'”, “Casey Jones”, “Friend of the Devil”, “Ripple”, “Touch of Gray”, “Fire on the Mountain”, “Sugar Magnolia”, “Box of Rain”, “Playing in the Band” and so many more.
This man is a legend and he looks like one hell of a nice guy. The Grateful Dead are rock royalty. For over 30 years, they performed over 2,300 concerts with Jerry Garcia and are still going strong in one form or another. (*See John Mayer is a douche). Lesh was at Monterey, Woodstock and Altamont. Lesh is the embodiment of the 60’s. He has seen it all and done it all.
