Dead And Company Honor Phil Lesh During Las Vegas Sphere Performance

Dead and Company honored the late Phil Lesh, co-founder of the Grateful Dead, by performing his signature song, “Box of Rain,” at Las Vegas’ Sphere on Saturday (March 22) during their first weekend back at the state-of-the-art venue. The tribute was led by guitarist John Mayer on vocals alongside original Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann, with the touching performance accompanied by archival photos of the band and preceded by an uplifting old message from Lesh. This marked the first time that the Dead offshoot had played the American Beauty classic following Lesh’s death in October 2024. In a new Rolling Stone interview, Weir discussed the final conversation he had with Lesh shortly before his death. “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. We tried to make sense of it for a little bit.” (Rolling Stone)