Greatful Dead Keyboardist Dead at 51

[Texsox]

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LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Vince Welnick, the Grateful Dead's last keyboard player and a veteran of several other bands, including the Tubes and Missing Man Formation, has died at age 51, the Grateful Dead's longtime publicist said.

 

Welnick died Friday, said Dennis McNally, who declined to release the cause. The Sonoma County coroner's office said Saturday that an autopsy would be performed next week. Welnick lived in the northern California town of Forestville, but McNally said he did not know if he died at home or in a hospital.

 

"His service to and love for the Grateful Dead were heartfelt and essential. He had a loving soul and a joy in music that we were lucky to share," the group said in a statement on its Web site. "Our Grateful Dead prayer for the repose of his spirit: May the four winds blow him safely home."

 

With long, frizzy hair and tie-dyed clothes, Welnick clearly looked the part of a member of a band that was born in 1965 in San Francisco, then the cradle of the country's emerging psychedelic counterculture. But the fact was he was largely unfamiliar with the band's music when he joined the group in 1990, and he would recall afterward that he was so nervous he could barely play at his first show with them in Cleveland. He was quickly put at ease when the audience gave him a warm welcome.

 

"The big thing about Vince was that he had that fearlessness to be able to go and just jump into our madness and just operate on it like it was a normal, everyday procedure," Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart recalled Saturday. "A lot of people can play but with us they just don't know how to navigate. Our music is different."

 

Hart recalled Welnick as not only a "nimble" keyboard player but also a fine background singer whose vocals added much to the group's songs.

 

"He had this real high harmony. He could go where others couldn't," Hart said.

 

Welnick, who grew up in Phoenix, moved to San Francisco in the early 1970s with the Beans, which soon renamed itself the Tubes. After the group temporarily disbanded in the mid-1980s, he worked with Todd Rundgren before joining the Grateful Dead.

 

He was the last in a long line of Grateful Dead keyboardists, several of whom died prematurely, leading some of the group's fans to conclude that the position came with a curse

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[Leonard Zelig]

My first Grateful Dead show was Brent Mydland's last before he died. I got to hear VInce with the Dead 7 times I guess. As far as keyboard playing went, Vince was possibly the best the band had, although that was well past their creative prime. It's sad, but not as sad as Jerry dying on my 21st birthday.

 

Years later, I went to luthiery school in Phoenix, and one of my instructors played in a Grateful Dead cover band. I got to hear Vince sit in with them on several occasions, which was very cool, as well as "hanging out" with him in the parking lot between sets.

 

R.I.P. Vince

 

Thanks for the memories.

[Texsox]

Has any band been more fan friendly then the Dead? I actually liked the seemingly absurd pairing of Hornsby and the Dead. It reminded me of the Munsters

 

I only attended a couple Dead concerts, and they were past their prime, but what a party.

[Felix]

Has any band been more fan friendly then the Dead?

Phish maybe? Its probably close between the two.

 

Its a shame about Welnick

Edited June 4, 2006 by Felix

[Kid Gleason]

Years later, I went to luthiery school...

 

Really??? I've been thinking of going to one. Do you build or do you repair?

 

Not a Dead fan at all, one of my most despised bands in fact, but this is a shame. That's much too young to die. RIP.

[Texsox]

Years later, I went to luthiery school in Phoenix,

Word of the Day:

 

luthier

 

n : a craftsman who makes stringed instruments (as lutes or guitars or violins)

[bmags]

Has any band been more fan friendly then the Dead? I actually liked the seemingly absurd pairing of Hornsby and the Dead. It reminded me of the Munsters

 

I only attended a couple Dead concerts, and they were past their prime, but what a party.

 

if you consider being fan friendly overcharging everything.

[Kyyle23]

if you consider being fan friendly overcharging everything.

 

ooooh *spit* hiss *spit*

 

lol

[Leonard Zelig]

Really??? I've been thinking of going to one. Do you build or do you repair?

 

Not a Dead fan at all, one of my most despised bands in fact, but this is a shame. That's much too young to die. RIP.

 

I sent you a PM.

[FlaSoxxJim]

if you consider being fan friendly overcharging everything.

 

What about considering fan friendly as letting concertgoers openly tape their shows, even giving them the best acoustical seats in the house and letting some of them patch into the house soundboard?

 

Most of the overcharging was out among the tradersin the lot, but the band was always more than fair to their fans.

 

RIP Vince. Curse, yes.

 

Hornsby has got to be hearing footsteps. . . .

[The Ginger Kid]

Sad passing. Rock is getting old, I guess.

 

I saw the Dead in Seattle less than a year before Jerry threw ace-duece. I thought they still had it, IMO.

 

I am enjoying Rat Dog quite a bit, some of Bob's best work ever.