Dead and Company Pay Tribute to Phil Lesh With ‘Box of Rain’ at Sphere

Grateful Dead offshoot closes out first weekend back at venue with performance of bassist’s signature song

Dead and Company closed out their first weekend back at Las Vegas’ Sphere Saturday by paying tribute to the late Phil Lesh with a rendition of “Box of Rain,” the bassist’s signature Grateful Dead song.

The performance marked the first time the Dead offshoot had played the American Beauty classic since Lesh’s death. As John Mayer led the band on the song, archival photos of the Grateful Dead were shown on the Sphere’s massive screen.

Lesh, who co-founded the Grateful Dead, died in October 2024 at the age of 84. “The Muse gives us the people and tools to work with. Where we go with that work emerges from somewhere between our intuition and her inspiration. It’s a process always cloaked deep in Mystery, and at its best, the Mystery is forever lasting after its rendering,” Bob Weir said in a statement following Lesh’s death. “Meanwhile, given that death is the last and best reward for a life *well and fully lived*, I rejoice in his liberation…”

The surviving members of the Grateful Dead — Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann — added, “Phil Lesh was irreplaceable. In one note from the Phil Zone, you could hear and feel the world being born. His bass flowed like a river would flow. It went where the muse took it. He was an explorer of inner and outer space who just happened to play bass. He was a circumnavigator of formerly unknown musical worlds. And more.”

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Weir revealed that he had spoken to Lesh shortly before his death to discuss the band’s Kennedy Center honors as well as potentially reuniting to mark the Dead’s 60th anniversary. “The last phone call I had from him was when the news came out that we were being honored at the Kennedy Center,” Weir said.

“He called me just simply to congratulate me and us, and that was his entire reason for calling. And when we were done talking about that, I was spun out, he was spun out. We tried to make sense of it for a little bit. And then said, ‘Well, OK, see you there,’ basically.”

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