Grahame Lesh Honors Dad Phil Lesh With Donor Rap Before Midnight North Encore In San Francisco

Midnight North performed a concert on Saturday at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. Guitarist Grahame Lesh carried on a tradition started by his father, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, and talked to the audience about the importance of organ donation before the start of the encore.

Lesh, who died on October 25 at age 84, was the recipient in 1998 of a liver transplant from a man named Cody. Beginning in 1999, Lesh prefaced encores of his performances with what became known as his “donor rap” in which he gave thanks for his transplant and encouraged others to become organ donors.

Grahame Lesh continued the 25-year “donor rap” tradition before Midnight North’s encore Saturday night. Speaking from the stage where the Grateful Dead played once in 1975, Grahame spoke about the loss of his father as well as the health challenges Midnight North’s Elliott Peck faced this year.

Addressing the GAMH audience, Grahame’s “donor rap” explained:

“This has been quite a tough month or so, and a tough year for Midnight North, for all of us. And definitely for me and I know for all of us too because my dad passed away about a month ago. And I know you all loved him too and I love you all for that.

“I’ve done a couple of shows back East a few weeks ago, [Midnight North’s] Nathan [Graham] and I, and I’ve been doing a thing my dad used to do, which is to ask all of you to become organ donors. He used to say it’s the simplest thing in the world, you can turn to someone that you love and that loves you and tell them if anything ever happens to me I want to be an organ donor.

“I got 25 extra years with my dad because someone told someone they love they want to be an organ donor.”

Watch the emotional address courtesy of Deadhead Land below: