Grateful Dead bassist and founding member Phil Lesh says he has cancer.
On Friday afternoon, through the website for his San Rafael restaurant and music venue Terrapin Crossroads, Lesh revealed that he was diagnosed with bladder cancer and would have to cancel upcoming concerts due to his treatment. "I am very fortunate to have the pathology reports show that the tumors are all non aggressive, and that there is no indication that they have spread," he wrote. Lesh is being treated at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona and will eventually have surgery to have the tumors removed.
In 2006, Lesh was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which he had successfully removed.
Lesh is one of the original members of the Dead, and played bass for them until they disbanded in 1995, after Jerry Garcia's death. He would continue his music career in their wake, primarily with the band Phil Lesh And Friends, who reinterpreted the music of the Dead. He reunited with the surviving Grateful Dead members earlier this year for the Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead concerts, two of which were Levi's Stadium.
In his message, Lesh wrote that he will only need two weeks of recovery after surgery and would be able to return to "normal activities," including concerts.