PHIL'S NEW ZONE
Grateful Dead bassist is feeling fine after his successful liver transplant and will
celebrate with three shows at the Warfield
Bassist Returns to Stage in Phil Lesh & Friends Shows
James Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 13, 1999
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle
URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/04/13/DD3153.DTL&type=music
When Phil Lesh went in for a liver transplant in December, old friend and transplant
survivor David Crosby kidded him about his hospital gown.
``He wanted a picture of me with my ass hanging out,'' Lesh says with a laugh.
At the time, it was no laughing matter. Last September the Grateful Dead bassist, 59,
was rushed to the hospital with an acute case of internal bleeding. After he had lived
for years with the symptoms of liver disease, diagnosed in 1991 as hepatitis C, the
infection finally caught up with him.
This week Lesh celebrates his successful surgery, returning to the concert stage with
three Phil Lesh & Friends shows at the Warfield. Proceeds from Thursday's opening
night will benefit Lesh's Unbroken Chain foundation, which he plans to use to increase
awareness about liver disease.
He feels good. ``The doctors are extremely pleased,'' Lesh says in his first interview
since the operation. ``The first weeks after the transplant they were using words like
`beautiful' and `perfect.' There've been a couple of little bumps, but they've been
minor ones.''
Helping himself to a piece of lemon cake, he's sitting alongside his wife, Jill, at
the dining room table of their new Marin County home. Through tall plate-glass windows
they share a view of the morning dew on the property's lush greenery.
Having experienced a hepatitis ``flareup'' as far back as the early 1970s, Lesh
cleaned up more than a decade ago, around the birth of his first of two sons, Grahame
and Brian. He quit drinking, started exercising and became a vegetarian.
Still, the disease began to affect his energy and appearance. Lesh struggled last
summer through the first tour of the Other Ones, the eight-piece post-Dead group he
established with band mates Bob Weir and Mickey Hart. He was 30 pounds underweight.
But the performances drew raves from fans and critics around the country and kept him
going.
``You can be in bad shape, and if the music is happening you don't even notice,'' Lesh
says. ``When I was playing with those guys, I was in heaven.''
But when he got home, he knew it was time to deal with his illness. ``People were
saying, `Wow, you don't look good, man,' '' he says.
``You could see he was gray,'' says his wife, who lost her father to liver cancer
several years ago.
As word spread of Lesh's illness, the Deadhead community rallied via the Internet.
``One Sunday just before we went out of town (to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville,
Fla.), they all agreed to send me good vibes at the same time.
``We sat out here'' -- he waves a hand at the porch -- ``and you could feel it.''
Such serenity, he says, isn't always the norm within the Dead camp. ``After Jerry
(Garcia) died there was a lot of stress in the organization. We had to consolidate our
operations, and there was resistance to that.''
Lesh's wife now goes to the Dead's board meetings. ``While Jerry was alive, let me
say, it wasn't as difficult as it is now,'' he says. ``Now I feel I'm in the minority
most of the time.''
After Garcia's death in 1995, Lesh fought against bringing investors into the Dead
fold, which was reeling from the loss of its touring income. ``Phil was kind of the
lone cowboy,'' says his wife. ``It seemed like a quick fix at the time, but then you'd
be hearing `Truckin' ' for Chevy trucks and stuff like that.''
When the Other Ones formed a year ago, there was much speculation over who would take
Garcia's place. The band compromised, hitting the road with two guitarists, Steve
Kimock and Mark Karan. (Kimock and Other Ones drummer John Molo will play in Lesh's
band this week, along with guitarist Trey Anastasio and keyboardist Page McConnell of
the band Phish.)
Lesh fought to keep the Other Ones lineup compact. ``I know that it could be even more
successful musically if there wasn't quite so much clutter -- not so much solo after
solo after solo, but more of a conversation. Which was what the Grateful Dead were all
about.''
Originally intended as a one-time reunion, the Other Ones were preparing to tour again
this summer. Lesh declined.
``It was not so much a question of my health as the issues that are still
unresolved,'' he says. Among other things, the band needs new material, he says.
``Otherwise it's just going to be the best Grateful Dead cover band in the world,'' he
chuckles, folding his hands.
In the meantime, he is returning to his early training as a classical composer,
working on a ``symphonic tapestry'' of Dead riffs and themes tentatively titled ``Keys
to the Rain.''
``I have sketches for all seven movements and a little bit of the introduction
composed, and I'm hoping to get down to it seriously this year,'' he says.
The Phil Lesh & Friends shows are an opportunity for him to collaborate with musicians
outside the Dead's immediate circle. ``What I'm interested in doing now is pursuing my
own path. That certainly doesn't preclude playing with those guys,'' including ``Open
Nature,'' an April 27 benefit at the Luther Burbank Center in Santa Rosa billed to
Lesh, Weir and Hart individually.
``It's just that the Grateful Dead was my band for 30 years. I never went out and
played with other musicians.
``The neat thing is there are as many people interested in playing with me as I am
interested in playing with them.''
