Grateful Dead’s Lesh in new cancer battle

Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh has revealed he’s battling cancer for the second time.

He was diagnosed with tumours in his bladder earlier this month and he’s preparing undergo surgery in Scottsdale, Arizona, to remove tumours.

And he reports the prognosis is good.

Lesh – who underwent successful prostate cancer surgery in 2006 – says: “I am very fortunate to have the pathology reports show that the tumours are all non-aggressive, and that there is no indication that they have spread.”

He’s postponed two planned Phil & Friends shows with Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson, which were due to take place on October 24 and 25 at his Terrapin Crossroads restaurant in California. He aims to return to action two weeks after the surgery, and his six scheduled performances at New York’s Capitol Theatre starting on October 30 are expected to go ahead as planned.

The Grateful Dead brought the curtain down on their career earlier this year with a run of Fare Thee Well shows at Chicago’s Soldier Field. The three performances were filmed for a live release, out on November 20.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.