Phil Lesh, a founding member of influential band the Grateful Dead, has been diagnosed with non-aggressive bladder cancer and has canceled a pair of October concerts. Lesh battled prostate cancer in 2006. The 75-year-old bassist announced his illness Friday on the Facebook page of his San Rafael restaurant and concert hall, Terrapin Crossroads.
“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,” Lesh said in the statement.
“So thanks to my local doctor Cliff Sewell and the incredible team at the Mayo Clinic, all is well and I can return to normal activities in two weeks from my surgery.”
Lesh is a founding member of the Grateful Dead, an American jam band that formed in the 1960s. The San Francisco group disbanded in the mid-1990s and Lesh went on to form his own music group Phil & Friends.
Recently, his band was touring with Chris Robinson, a singer with the Black Crowes.
After the death of Grateful Dead lead singer Jerry Garcia in 1995, the band has been revived in various forms.
In July, the four surviving members of the Grateful Dead, including Lesh, gave what they said will be their last group performance at Chicago’s Soldier Field.