photo by Marc Millman

In the newest episode of our podcast The Relix Audio Hour, we present the second installment of our “Conversations with Kraz” series, in which guitarist Eric Krasno chats with musicians about their craft and more. This time around, Kraz speaks with Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh and his son Grahame, a chat that took place backstage at Phil Lesh & The Terrapin Family Band’s SummerStage performance at New York’s Central Park this past September

The conversation begins with Krasno and the elder Lesh on-on-one, speaking about the bassist’s formal music education, how his unique playing style with the Dead was inspired by classical music—especially Bach—being invited by Jerry Garcia to join the Grateful Dead (even before he’d played bass), the merits of collective improvisation and Lesh’s appreciation of all the bands playing the Dead’s music these days. “Songs are like fairy tales,” Lesh says, “all versions are true. I can predict that they’ll still be playing these songs in 100 years.”

Grahame then joins the discussion, talking with his father and Krasno about his own early bands when he was in school, learning Dead songs from Phil and singing harmonies with his brother Brian, playing shows with Phil and The Terrapin Family Band and more, including how TFB have been writing and recording some new songs. Both Lesh’s also speak on the importance of Phil’s Terrapin Crossroads venue in San Rafael, CA, which Phil calls “a game changer” in his later musical career.

Listen to episode seven of The Relix Audio Hour now on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Relix Audio Hour is a podcast supplement to Relix magazine and is a part of the Osiris Podcast Network. A unique audio experience for music fans of all varieties, it presents everything from exclusive interviews to concert and album reviews in a compact, easily listenable format. Listen to all previous Relix Audio Hour episodes here.