Jerome John "jerry" Garcia (August 1, 1942-August 9, 1995)
Jerry Garcia was born in San Francisco, California to a Spanish father, Jose Ramon "Joe" Garcia, and an Irish and Swedish mother, Ruth Marie "Bobbie" Garcia. His parents named him Jerome John, after Bobbie's favorite American composer, Jerome Kern. Jerry's childhood was a troubled one, his father passed away in a tragic drowning during the summer of 1947, when Jerry was only five. Bobbie was an artistic student of opera rather than a particularly domestic women and with Joe gone she now had to make a living on her own, for these reasons, the care of her children fell more to her parents, Tillie and Bill Clifford, "Nan" and "Pop," as Jerry would know them. Aside from accidentally having the top two joints of his middle finger lobbed off by an ax, Jerry's time with Nan and Pop had it's rewards. During the five years in which he lived with his Grandparents, he was opened up to the world of art thanks to his third grade teacher, Miss Solomon, who encouraged creativity. He was also introduced to country and bluegrass by Tillie, this prompted the purchase of his first stringed instrument, the banjo. The summer of 1957 was a revolutionary one, Jerry discovered cigarettes and marijuana after graduating from the eighth grade at Menlo Oaks school in San Francisco and received an electric guitar for his fifteenth birthday. Moving from school to school, Garcia was a trouble maker and often skipped class. His trouble making days would reach a pinnacle when he stole his mother's car 1960 and subsequently was sent to join the United States Army. This did little for Garcia's attitude as his time in the Army consisted of playing his guitar that he snuck in, relaxation , and missing role call. Not surprisingly, Garcia despised the militant lifestyle, and he was given a general discharge in December of 1960, after serving just nine months.
The next few months would be tough for Garcia, he spent his time playing folk and bluegrass guitar at clubs within the San Francisco area, alone and with pickup groups, and slept where ever friends would allow, occasionally living out of his 1950 Cadillac sedan. He also had a life changing experience when he and three friends were part of a terrible car accident, leaving one Paul Speegle fatally injured. Instead of crippling him, as his father's death left him, Speegle's death gave his life a newfound sense of seriousness and purpose, he was given a second chance, and he was to make it count by focusing all of his effort on music. This included playing at coffee shops in Palo Alto like Kepler's Books and a folk club called the Boar's Head. With his new friend Robert Hunter, who would later be a major contributor to the lyrics of the Grateful Dead, he was introduced to many people in the San Francisco folk music scene, many of them congregating at a place they called the Chateau, a hangout in Palo Alto. It was here that Jerry Garcia met Phil Lesh, a student in the U.C. Berkeley musicology department, and the two would form a partnership that would last for thirty years to come. Around this same time, Garcia began playing and teaching acoustic guitar and banjo at a local music shop, sixteen year old Bob Weir was one of his students. The years between 1962 and 1964, for Garcia, consisted of rigorous blue-grass and folk music playing, something he was well known throughout the city for. Eventually, in 1964, he joined Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions which featured three of the five original Grateful Dead members; Jerry Garcia on guitar and vocals, Bob Weir on washtub bass and jug, and another one of Garcia's friends, Ron "pigpen" McKernan on harmonica and vocals. That same year, Garcia would discover a molecule gaining popularity in the San Francisco scene that he said made him feel freer to live outside a conventional lifestyle; musically, he longer felt constrained by the rigid forms and structure of folk music. LSD revealed to Garcia a free flowing world of unity and his view on music would take on a different form.
Once Phil Lesh's bass guitar and Bill Kreutzmann's drum set joined Garcia's band, they're style was converted from jug to electric and they're name from Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions to the Warlocks. Eventually, the name was changed again, and members settled on the Grateful Dead, a name pulled from Garcia's dictionary. In 1965 the band was born, and from 1966-1968 they didn't enjoy much commercial success. Rather, they experimented with being the house band at Ken Kesey's Acid Tests and served as reluctant co-leaders of the hippie movement during San Francisco's Summer of Love. While the Grateful Dead always remained Garcia's main priority, he was an eclectic multi-instrumentalist and experimented with numerous side-projects throughout the Dead's long and storied career. He was listed as "spiritual advisor" by Jefferson Airplane on the 1967 psychedelic pop breakthrough Surrealistic Pillow and two years later helped co-found the psychedelic country-rock band New Riders of the Purple Sage as a pedal-steel guitar player. In early 1972, Garcia began collaborating on a regular basis with his good friend and talented bassist, John Kahn. Their chemistry paid dividends after the release of Garcia's second solo album, Compliments, in 1974, and marked the beginning of the Jerry Garcia Band, which consisted mainly of regulars Garcia, Kahn, and sometimes keyboardist Merl Saunders and various members of the Grateful Dead.
Garcia's romantic life was rather complicated and difficult to document due to the hippie, communal lifestyle he and members of the Grateful Dead were used to. He married his first wife, Sara Garcia, when he was 21 in April of 1963, and no sooner than eight months later did she give birth to their only child together, Heather Garcia. A few years later, Jerry met Carolyn "mountain girl" Adams, a member of Ken Kesey's psychedelic tribe the Merry Pranksters and rewarded Garcia with a second marriage as well as his second and third daughters, Annabelle, born in 1970, and Theresa Adams, born in 1974. The following year, while he was still seeing Carolyn, he began a relationship with Deborah Koons, the women who would much later become his third and final wife. Sometime around the late 1970's Garcia began experimenting with harder drugs like cocaine and heroin, a decision that would change the band and ultimately result in the rapid decline of his health.
Despite his marriage to Mountain Girl in 1981, his drug use escalated very much throughout the eighties, sometimes he would be seen practically falling asleep on stage, high as a kite on heroin in a zombie like state. The band, concerned about their humble leader, forced him into several rehabilitation attempts before the inevitable happened when Garcia slipped into a five day diabetic coma in 1986. This was a major setback and blow to Garcia and the Grateful Dead as he was required to re-learn the guitar, things would never be the same with the band again. He remained somewhat healthy for around two years as the band went back on tour, but unfortunately relapsed on heroin in 1989, attempting treatment once more. He would remain clean and in decent health up until around the time he reunited with and married Deborah Koons in 1994. Within one bleak year, Garcia had become a full-blown addict, barely able to perform on stage, so in July of 1995 he checked himself into the Serenity Knolls Treatment Center in Forest Knolls, California. Many were hoping he could finally kick his nasty habit for good, but Garcia's luck ran out when he died of a heart attack, still in treatment, on August 9th 1995. Fans across the globe were heartbroken and memorials were held in his honor around every corner of the world, one being in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, in which more than 25,000 people attended. Jerry Garcia embodied the spirit that was the Grateful Dead, although quick to downplay his role as the "leader," there is no doubt that his warm, charismatic personality and unique musical sound attracted thousands of people to join the Dead in their musical journey.
The next few months would be tough for Garcia, he spent his time playing folk and bluegrass guitar at clubs within the San Francisco area, alone and with pickup groups, and slept where ever friends would allow, occasionally living out of his 1950 Cadillac sedan. He also had a life changing experience when he and three friends were part of a terrible car accident, leaving one Paul Speegle fatally injured. Instead of crippling him, as his father's death left him, Speegle's death gave his life a newfound sense of seriousness and purpose, he was given a second chance, and he was to make it count by focusing all of his effort on music. This included playing at coffee shops in Palo Alto like Kepler's Books and a folk club called the Boar's Head. With his new friend Robert Hunter, who would later be a major contributor to the lyrics of the Grateful Dead, he was introduced to many people in the San Francisco folk music scene, many of them congregating at a place they called the Chateau, a hangout in Palo Alto. It was here that Jerry Garcia met Phil Lesh, a student in the U.C. Berkeley musicology department, and the two would form a partnership that would last for thirty years to come. Around this same time, Garcia began playing and teaching acoustic guitar and banjo at a local music shop, sixteen year old Bob Weir was one of his students. The years between 1962 and 1964, for Garcia, consisted of rigorous blue-grass and folk music playing, something he was well known throughout the city for. Eventually, in 1964, he joined Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions which featured three of the five original Grateful Dead members; Jerry Garcia on guitar and vocals, Bob Weir on washtub bass and jug, and another one of Garcia's friends, Ron "pigpen" McKernan on harmonica and vocals. That same year, Garcia would discover a molecule gaining popularity in the San Francisco scene that he said made him feel freer to live outside a conventional lifestyle; musically, he longer felt constrained by the rigid forms and structure of folk music. LSD revealed to Garcia a free flowing world of unity and his view on music would take on a different form.
Once Phil Lesh's bass guitar and Bill Kreutzmann's drum set joined Garcia's band, they're style was converted from jug to electric and they're name from Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions to the Warlocks. Eventually, the name was changed again, and members settled on the Grateful Dead, a name pulled from Garcia's dictionary. In 1965 the band was born, and from 1966-1968 they didn't enjoy much commercial success. Rather, they experimented with being the house band at Ken Kesey's Acid Tests and served as reluctant co-leaders of the hippie movement during San Francisco's Summer of Love. While the Grateful Dead always remained Garcia's main priority, he was an eclectic multi-instrumentalist and experimented with numerous side-projects throughout the Dead's long and storied career. He was listed as "spiritual advisor" by Jefferson Airplane on the 1967 psychedelic pop breakthrough Surrealistic Pillow and two years later helped co-found the psychedelic country-rock band New Riders of the Purple Sage as a pedal-steel guitar player. In early 1972, Garcia began collaborating on a regular basis with his good friend and talented bassist, John Kahn. Their chemistry paid dividends after the release of Garcia's second solo album, Compliments, in 1974, and marked the beginning of the Jerry Garcia Band, which consisted mainly of regulars Garcia, Kahn, and sometimes keyboardist Merl Saunders and various members of the Grateful Dead.
Garcia's romantic life was rather complicated and difficult to document due to the hippie, communal lifestyle he and members of the Grateful Dead were used to. He married his first wife, Sara Garcia, when he was 21 in April of 1963, and no sooner than eight months later did she give birth to their only child together, Heather Garcia. A few years later, Jerry met Carolyn "mountain girl" Adams, a member of Ken Kesey's psychedelic tribe the Merry Pranksters and rewarded Garcia with a second marriage as well as his second and third daughters, Annabelle, born in 1970, and Theresa Adams, born in 1974. The following year, while he was still seeing Carolyn, he began a relationship with Deborah Koons, the women who would much later become his third and final wife. Sometime around the late 1970's Garcia began experimenting with harder drugs like cocaine and heroin, a decision that would change the band and ultimately result in the rapid decline of his health.
Despite his marriage to Mountain Girl in 1981, his drug use escalated very much throughout the eighties, sometimes he would be seen practically falling asleep on stage, high as a kite on heroin in a zombie like state. The band, concerned about their humble leader, forced him into several rehabilitation attempts before the inevitable happened when Garcia slipped into a five day diabetic coma in 1986. This was a major setback and blow to Garcia and the Grateful Dead as he was required to re-learn the guitar, things would never be the same with the band again. He remained somewhat healthy for around two years as the band went back on tour, but unfortunately relapsed on heroin in 1989, attempting treatment once more. He would remain clean and in decent health up until around the time he reunited with and married Deborah Koons in 1994. Within one bleak year, Garcia had become a full-blown addict, barely able to perform on stage, so in July of 1995 he checked himself into the Serenity Knolls Treatment Center in Forest Knolls, California. Many were hoping he could finally kick his nasty habit for good, but Garcia's luck ran out when he died of a heart attack, still in treatment, on August 9th 1995. Fans across the globe were heartbroken and memorials were held in his honor around every corner of the world, one being in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, in which more than 25,000 people attended. Jerry Garcia embodied the spirit that was the Grateful Dead, although quick to downplay his role as the "leader," there is no doubt that his warm, charismatic personality and unique musical sound attracted thousands of people to join the Dead in their musical journey.