Phil Lesh’s unique request on every stage!

Phil Lesh’s unique request on every stage! All of the Dead’s progeny and fans were aware that the Dead had always swapped out their setlists for each concert, thus no two concerts were ever the same. It began with one or another aspect of an original bassist, Phil Lesh at almost every show since the late 1990s. Lesh passed on Friday aged 84 years.

It was not a song at all: Lesh encouraging everybody in the crowd to become organ donors, take a few moments of his time to do sign up for it. He got interested in the topic because he underwent liver surgery in 1998 and he was 58 years old then; he had chronic hepatitis C.

He explains this by saying, this year I am alive because a man called Cody decided to be an organ donor, ‘So, it’s been a good year, thank for asking … there’s me, Bill [Garcia], Donna [Godchaux], and Keith [Godchaux]’ he stated at a show in 2015 with the other three original members of the Grateful Dead. Someone knew him well when he said to the man or woman, “Say, if you have to anymore with me, just take my organs and donate.” That was it.

In a Relix magazine interview in 2002, he posed this rhetorical question; ‘‘Would you take an organ if you needed it or for somebody you love needed it?” in that year. Of course you would. Okay, fair is fair. And the same applies here: if you are willing to get it, you must also be willing to give.

However, it’s important to note that Lesh donated parcel three years before one of the other founders of the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia died. Lesh said that the transplant was a life saver and enabled him to go on a packed touring schedule for the next three decades with such bands as Furthur and his own Phil Lesh and Friends.

Certain fans and websites that documents the set lists of bands that Lesh was linked to would occasionally come into the speech before the encore as the “Donor Rap” or the “Phil’s Donor Rap”.

Phil Lesh and Friends performance a benefit show for the American donation Foundation a six years ago at Red Rocks Amphithear Colorado Denver. The show was to comMEMorate the 20th year anniversary of Lesh’s stem cell donation.

When briefly interviewed on Friday, Anastasia Henry, the executive head of the foundation, only said, “We didn’t have to persuade him to sign up.” “He didn’t have needs – very simple.”

Before the last two songs ‘Fire on the Mountain’ which Lesh stated could easily be the most famous Grateful Dead song he had written, ‘Box of Rain,’ Lesh went round the arena doing the donor rap. Having known the donor’s first name only, Lesh said that thanks to Cody’s choice, seven people lived on after the boy had died. He also said, “Cody and I have been together for 20 years and are very happy.”