The Grateful Dead would celebrate 60 years live with Phil Lesh

THE Grateful Dead will be among the winners at Kennedy Center Honors next month (the annual honor given to those who have distinguished themselves by their contribution to art and culture), but they will do so without the bassist Phil Leshwho died last month at the age of 84.

The surviving members of the band – Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann And Mickey Hartwho still play together in Dead & Company — met with Anthony Mason for an interview on CBS This Morning five days after Lesh’s death.

The interview had already been scheduled for some time and Lesh should have been there too. During the chat, which aired today, they revealed that they had intended to play together again before Lesh passed away. And they even had some tests scheduled in anticipation of the event which should have taken place a few days after the death of their companion.

The idea was for the four original members to take the stage together next year to celebrate the band’s 60th anniversary. “We wanted to see how it would go,” Weir said. “But we were planning on just the four of us playing. And now there’s only three of us.”

The founding leader and guitarist of the band Jerry Garcia he had already disappeared on August 9, 1995.