Bassist Phil Lesh, a founding member of the Grateful Dead, passed away recently at the age of 84. Phil was one of the weirdest bass players in the history of rock. His idiosyncratic style was partly the result of his antiauthoritarian personality, and partly the unusual route he took to being a rock musician.
Many bassists begin on another instrument, but usually that other instrument is the guitar. Phil came to it from classical trumpet and avant-garde composition. The band that was soon to become the Grateful Dead needed a bass player, and Jerry Garcia thought that his friend Phil had enough overall musicality to be able to learn the instrument in a hurry.
