Peter Shapiro, the concert promoter who organized the Grateful Dead‘s 50th anniversary Fare Thee Well shows, spoke to Rolling Stone following the death of the band’s bassist, Phil Lesh.
In recent years, Lesh staged annual birthday concerts for himself at the Shapiro-owned Capitol Theatre venue in Port Chester, New York. Lesh’s five shows at the venue this March, marking his 84th birthday, were among his final live performances before his death on Oct. 25.
In a tribute given to Rolling Stone, Shapiro reminisced about meeting Lesh more than 20 years ago, the storied Fare Thee Well gigs, the bassist’s annual visits to the Capitol, and more.
I loved him. He was like a dad to me. He actually showed us all, in a lot of ways, how to live a life. In March of this year, he was turning 84, and he had health issues, but he still came and did five nights at the Capitol [Theatre]. He kept going and going. He just had this inner strength, and he loved to play.
I met Phil in 2005, when I did something called the Jammy Awards, and he co-hosted it. He did “Wharf Rat,” it’s legendary. That’s almost 20 years ago. We got to do so many shows. I did 200 shows with him, and over 100 at the Capitol. We did Central Park SummerStage. I did this really cool show with him at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. I got him with Talib Kweli at the Apollo. He played at Brooklyn Bowl in New York, Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas. When we opened Brooklyn Bowl Nashville in 2021, he did it. He just would come in and bless these venues.
He loved playing with new people, introducing new musicians to the music of the Grateful Dead — whether it was Robert Randolph, the pedal steel player, or Eric Krasno from Soulive or the Preservation Hall [Jazz Band] guys or Luther Dickinson or Jackie Greene or Chris Robinson from the Black Crowes. Gary Clark Jr.. Mike Gordon from Phish. John Medeski. Joe Russo. George Porter from the Meters. Dave Schools from Widespread Panic. He played a lot with his son, Grahame, in the Terrapin Family Band. It was really important to him to pass the baton to the next generation, and he did a lot of that over the last 20 years.
After Fare Thee Well in 2015, the rest of the guys did the Dead & Company thing, and Phil wanted to continue to perform with these unique people. He wouldn’t do lots of rehearsals. He wanted to drop in these new performers and these young cats. He liked them to have to figure it out in real time. He loved the improvisation that the Grateful Dead were known for. He was always open to creative ideas. He was up for exploring where the music could go.
He really loved the Capitol, which was the home of the Dead in ’70, ’71. He came and played there for the first time with me in 2012. He was there with his wife, Jill, and they’re like, “You know what? We will just play here. We don’t need to get the tour bus and go to Philly [or] D.C.” And so we did over 100 shows over the next 12 years. We would do 10 shows a year, and we did his birthday every year. People would come from from all over America.
This past March, he was not quite the same health-wise, strength-wise. And you see it in these musicians. Maybe you’ve seen the Stones or Elton or McCartney or Springsteen — the way these musicians can keep going and going. He went almost to 85. His style, I don’t know if it can fully be matched by anyone. Those Phil Lesh bass bombs were completely unique. I don’t think anyone else can do it. That’s gone. And it’s sad, but I’m trying to focus on how lucky we all were to get to hear them for so long. It’s been 30 years since a member of the Grateful Dead passed away. That’s amazing.
I’ve done more shows with him than anyone probably in my life. And he had a lot of trust in me, which meant a lot. I mean, I wanted a few more years with him. I was hoping. I really was. We should all treasure these moments we have with our musical heroes, because the road is long and winding, but eventually it ends for everyone. And at the end, you just got to look back and hopefully the rear view mirror is a good one. I just pulled up — the car in front of me, the license plate says CHINA CAT. I feel lucky.