Jerry Garcia

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> was an American musician who was the lead guitarist and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence during the counterculture of the 1960s.<ref>Template:Harvnb: "Jerome John Garcia, ("JERRY"), U.S. musician (born Aug. 1, 1942, San Francisco, Calif.—died Aug. 9, 1995, Forest Knolls, Calif.), personified the hippie counterculture for three decades as the mellow leader of the rock band the Grateful Dead. Garcia was the singer, songwriter, and lead guitarist of the San Francisco-based group that emerged from the Haight-Ashbury psychedelic-drug-and-music scene in the mid-1960s."</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb: "Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Jerry Garcia was known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead, the rock band for which he served as de facto leader for 30 years, from 1965 until his death in 1995. [...] In addition to his musical efforts, Garcia was viewed as an icon and spokesman for the hippie movement of the 1960s, the counterculture fueled by psychedelic drugs and rock & roll that the Grateful Dead embodied for their fervent fans, the Deadheads, as well as to the public at large."</ref> Although he disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader of the band.<ref name="The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2019">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="harvnb|Ruhlmann|n.d.">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="rockandroll">Template:Cite web</ref> He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 as a member of the Grateful Dead.

As one of its founders, Garcia performed with the Grateful Dead for the band's entire 30-year career (1965–1995). Garcia also founded and participated in a variety of side projects, including the Saunders–Garcia Band (with longtime friend Merl Saunders), the Jerry Garcia Band, Old & In the Way, the Garcia/Grisman and Garcia/Kahn acoustic duos, Legion of Mary, and New Riders of the Purple Sage (which he co-founded with John Dawson and David Nelson).<ref name="harvnb|Ruhlmann|n.d."/> He also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician. He was well known for his distinctive guitar playing, and was ranked 13th in Rolling StoneTemplate:'s "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" cover story in 2003.<ref name="greatguitarist">Template:Cite magazine</ref> In the 2015 version of the list he was ranked at #46.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2023, Garcia was ranked 34th by Rolling Stone.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Garcia was renowned for his musical and technical ability, particularly his ability to play a variety of instruments and sustain long improvisations. Garcia believed that improvisation took stress away from his playing and allowed him to make spur of the moment decisions that he would not have made intentionally. In a 1993 interview with Rolling Stone, Garcia noted that "my own preferences are for improvisation, for making it up as I go along. The idea of Template:Em, of eliminating possibilities by deciding, that's difficult for me". Originating from the days of the "Acid Tests", these improvisations were a form of exploration rather than playing a song already written.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Later in life, Garcia struggled with diabetes. On July 10, 1986,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> he went into a diabetic coma and nearly died. Although his overall health improved somewhat after the incident, he continued to struggle with obesity, smoking, and long-standing heroin and cocaine addictions.<ref name= "rockandroll" /><ref name="Stratton 2010">Template:Harvnb</ref> He was staying in a California drug rehabilitation facility when he died of a heart attack in August 1995.<ref name="The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2019"/><ref>Template:Harvnb: "JERRY Garcia, white-bearded leader of the 1960s cult rock band the Grateful Dead, died yesterday in a drug rehabilitation centre. The 53-year-old erstwhile hippie who founded the band 30 years ago was discovered dead by a counsellor at Serenity Knowles, a residential drug treatment centre near his home in Marin County, California."</ref>

Early life

Garcia's ancestors on his father's side were from Galicia in northwest Spain. His mother's ancestors were Irish and Swedish.<ref>Template:Harvnb: "The Romans conquered the territory, which they called Galicia, in the second century B.C. The city now known as La Coruña was a small but important trading post for the Romans for several centuries. [...] If you were to scour the streets and alleys of La Coruña, you might well encounter a Garcia who can trace the lineage of Jerry's family back many centuries. But in the United States, where two branches of the Garcias settled in the second decade of this century, we must rely on the memories of the lone surviving sibling from the original transatlantic voyage, Leonor Garcia Ross — still spry at ninety — and on family lore passed along to Jerry's brothers and cousins. [...] Though Leonor considers La Coruña the family's ancestral home, the Garcias who emerge from the family's oral history in the mid-nineteenth century actually came from a nearby coastal fishing village called Sada, on an inlet called the Ría de Betanzos."</ref> He was born in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, California, on August 1, 1942, to Jose Ramon "Joe" Garcia and Ruth Marie "Bobbie" (née Clifford) Garcia,<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>Template:Efn who was herself born in San Francisco.<ref>Template:Harvnb: "Sometime in 1934 Joe met the woman of his dreams, a twenty-four-year-old nurse at San Francisco General Hospital named Ruth Marie Clifford. Ruth also had deep immigrant roots stretching back even further than the Garcias': Her grandfather Patrick Clifford was born in Ireland in the middle of the nineteenth century and emigrated to California, where he married another Irish expatriate named Ellen Callahan. Ruth's father, William Henry Clifford, was born in San Francisco in 1883. In his twenties he got involved in the laundry business and married nineteen-year-old Tillie May Olsen, whose ancestors had sailed to California from Sweden around the time of the Gold Rush. Shortly after they were married, Bill and Tillie bought a newly built home on the fringes of the Excelsior district. The house at 87 Harrington Street, where Jerry would spend much of his youth, was built in 1907. In June 1910 Jerry's mother, Ruth, was born at that address. She lived there until she married Joe Garcia."</ref> His parents named him after composer Jerome Kern.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name= "lst7">McNally, p. 7</ref> Jerome John was their second child, preceded by Clifford Ramon "Tiff", who was born in 1937.<ref name="lst6">McNally, p. 6</ref><ref name="cp3">Template:Harvnb</ref> Shortly before Clifford's birth, their father and a partner leased a building in downtown San Francisco and turned it into a bar, partly in response to Jose being blackballed from a musicians' union for moonlighting.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>Template:Efn

Garcia was raised as a Catholic.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was influenced by music at an early age,<ref name = "jginterview1972"/> taking piano lessons for much of his childhood.<ref name="motm">Template:Cite web</ref> His father was a retired professional musician and his mother enjoyed playing the piano.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> His father's extended family—which had immigrated from Spain in 1919—would often sing during reunions.<ref name="cp3"/>

In 1946,<ref name=page24>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> two-thirds of four-year-old Garcia's right middle finger was cut off by his brother in a wood splitting accident, while the family was vacationing in the Santa Cruz Mountains.<ref name="cp4">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="lst8">McNally, p. 8</ref><ref>"Garcia, Jerry." Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th ed.. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed September 29, 2014.</ref> Garcia later confessed that he often used it to his advantage in his youth, showing it off to other children in his neighborhood.

Less than a year after this incident his father died in a fly fishing accident when the family was vacationing near Arcata in Northern California. He slipped after entering the Trinity River, part of the Six Rivers National Forest,<ref name=page11>Template:Harvnb</ref> and drowned before other fishermen could reach him. Although Garcia claimed he saw the incident, Dennis McNally, author of the book A Long Strange Trip: The Inside Story of the Grateful Dead, argues Garcia formed the memory after hearing others repeat the story.<ref name="lst7"/> Blair Jackson, who wrote Garcia: An American Life, notes that a local newspaper article describing Jose's death did not mention Jerry being present when he died.<ref name=page11/>

Excelsior District

Following his father's death, Garcia's mother Ruth took over her husband's bar, buying out his partner for full ownership. She began working full-time there, sending Jerry and his brother to live nearby with her parents, Tillie and William Clifford. During the five-year period in which he lived with his grandparents, Garcia enjoyed autonomy and he attended Monroe Elementary School.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At the school, Garcia was greatly encouraged in his artistic abilities by his third grade teacher: through her, he discovered that "being a creative person was a viable possibility in life." According to Garcia, it was around this time that he was opened up to country and bluegrass music by his grandmother, whom he recalled enjoyed listening to the Grand Ole Opry. His elder brother, Clifford, however, staunchly believed the contrary, insisting that Garcia was "fantasizing all [that] ... she'd been to Opry, but she didn't listen to it on the radio." It was at this point that Garcia started playing the banjo, his first stringed instrument.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

Menlo Park

In 1953, Garcia's mother married<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Wally Matusiewicz.<ref name="lst10">McNally, p. 10</ref> Subsequently, Garcia and his brother moved back home with their mother and new stepfather. However, due to the roughneck reputation of their neighborhood at the time, Garcia's mother moved their family to Menlo Park.<ref name="lst10"/> During their stay in Menlo Park, Garcia became acquainted with racism and antisemitism, things he disliked intensely.<ref name="lst10"/> The same year, Garcia was also introduced to rock and roll and rhythm and blues by his brother, and enjoyed listening to Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, B. B. King, Hank Ballard, and, later, Chuck Berry.<ref name="cp10">Template:Harvnb</ref> Clifford often memorized the vocals for his favorite songs, and would then make Garcia learn the harmony parts, a move to which Garcia later attributed much of his early ear training.<ref name="cp10"/>

In mid-1957, Garcia began smoking cigarettes and was introduced to marijuana.<ref name = "lst13"/><ref name="cp11">Template:Harvnb</ref> Garcia would later reminisce about the first time he smoked marijuana: "Me and a friend of mine went up into the hills with two joints, the San Francisco foothills, and smoked these joints and just got so high and laughed and roared and went skipping down the streets doing funny things and just having a helluva time".<ref name="jginterview1972">Template:Cite magazine</ref> During this time, Garcia also studied at what is now the San Francisco Art Institute.<ref name=page24/> There he was taught by Wally Hedrick, an artist who came to prominence during the 1960s. During the classes he often encouraged Garcia to draw and paint, noting that Garcia had skill in both areas.<ref name="lst14">McNally, p. 14</ref> Hedrick also introduced Garcia to the fiction of Jack Kerouac, whom Garcia later cited as a major influence.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

San Francisco

In June, Garcia graduated from the local Menlo Oaks school. He then moved with his family back to San Francisco, where they lived in an apartment above the family bar, a newly built replacement for the original, which had been torn down to make way for a freeway entrance.<ref name="lst12">McNally, p. 12</ref> Two months later, on Garcia's fifteenth birthday, his mother bought an accordion for him, to his great disappointment.<ref name="jginterview1972"/> Garcia had long been captivated by many rhythm and blues artists, especially Chuck Berry, Elmore James and Bo Diddley, leaving him craving an electric guitar.<ref name="lst12"/> After some pleading, his mother exchanged the accordion for a Danelectro with a small amplifier at a local pawnshop.<ref name="cp14">Template:Harvnb</ref> Garcia's stepfather, who was somewhat proficient with instruments, helped tune his guitar to an unusual open tuning.<ref name="lst13">McNally, p. 13</ref>

Cazadero

After a short stint at Denman Junior High School,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Garcia attended tenth grade at Balboa High School in 1958, where he often got into trouble for skipping classes and fighting.<ref name="lst15">McNally, p. 15</ref> Consequently, in 1959, Garcia's mother again moved the family to a safer environment, to Cazadero, a small town in Sonoma County, Template:Convert north of San Francisco.<ref name="lst15"/> This turn of events did not sit well with Garcia, who had to travel by bus Template:Convert to Analy High School in Sebastopol, the nearest school.<ref name="cp15">Template:Harvnb</ref> Garcia did, however, join a band at his school known as the Chords. After performing in and winning a contest, the band's reward was recording a song. They chose "Raunchy" by Bill Justis.<ref name="lst16">McNally, p. 16</ref>

Recording career

Relocation and band beginnings

File:San Francisco CA, Haight Ashbury 1.jpg

The corner of Haight and Ashbury, center of the San Francisco neighborhood where the Grateful Dead shared a house at 710 Ashbury from fall 1966 to spring 1968.

Garcia stole his mother's car in 1960 and was given the option of joining the U.S. Army in lieu of prison. He received basic training at Fort Ord.<ref name="jginterview1972"/> After training, he was transferred to Fort Winfield Scott in the Presidio of San Francisco.<ref name="cp16">Template:Harvnb</ref> Garcia spent most of his time in the army at his leisure, missing roll call and accruing many counts of being AWOL.<ref name="lst17">McNally, p. 17</ref> As a result, Garcia was given a general discharge on December 14, 1960.<ref name="lst21">McNally, p. 21</ref>

In January 1961, Garcia drove to East Palo Alto to see Laird Grant, an old friend from middle school.<ref name="lst22">McNally, p. 22</ref> He had purchased a 1950 Cadillac sedan from a cook in the army, which barely made it to Grant's residence before it broke down.<ref name="lst22"/> Garcia spent the next few weeks sleeping where friends would allow, eventually using his car as a home. Through Grant, Garcia met Dave McQueen in February, who, after hearing Garcia perform some blues music, introduced him to local people and to the Chateau, a rooming house located near Stanford University which was then a popular hangout.<ref name="lst23">McNally, p. 23</ref>

On February 20, 1961, Garcia got into a car with Lee Adams, the house manager of the Chateau and driver; Paul Speegle,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> a sixteen-year-old artist and acquaintance of Garcia; and Alan Trist, a companion of theirs.<ref name="lst23"/> After speeding past the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital, the driver encountered a curve and, speeding around Template:Convert, crashed into the guard rail, sending the car rolling turbulently.<ref name="lst24">McNally, p. 24</ref><ref name="cp26">Template:Harvnb</ref> Garcia was hurled through the windshield of the car into a nearby field with such force that he came out of his shoes and had no memory of the ejection.<ref name="lst24"/> Lee Adams, the driver, and Alan Trist, who was seated in the back, were thrown from the car as well, resulting in abdominal injuries and a spine fracture, respectively.<ref name="lst24"/> Garcia escaped with a broken collarbone, while Speegle, still in the car, was fatally injured.<ref name="cp26"/>

Lee's reckless driving and crash served as an awakening for Garcia, who later said, "That's where my life began. Before then I was always living at less than capacity. I was idling. That was the slingshot for the rest of my life. It was like a second chance. Then I got serious."<ref name="cp27">Template:Harvnb</ref> As a result, Garcia began playing the guitar in earnest—a move which meant giving up his love of drawing and painting.<ref name="lst25">McNally, p. 25</ref>

In April 1961, Garcia first met Robert Hunter, who would become a long-time friend of and lyricist for the Grateful Dead, collaborating principally with Garcia.<ref name="harvnb|Ruhlmann|n.d."/> The two involved themselves in the South Bay and San Francisco art and music scenes, sometimes playing at Menlo Park's Kepler's Books.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Garcia performed his first concert with Hunter, each earning five dollars. Garcia and Hunter also played in bands (the Wildwood Boys and the Hart Valley Drifters) with David Nelson, who would later play with Garcia in the New Riders of the Purple Sage and contribute to several Grateful Dead album songs.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

In 1962, Garcia met Phil Lesh, the eventual bassist of the Grateful Dead, during a party in Menlo Park's bohemian Perry Lane neighborhood (where author Ken Kesey lived).<ref name="perry">Template:Cite book</ref> Lesh would later write in his autobiography that Garcia reminded him of pictures he had seen of the composer Claude Debussy, with his "dark, curly hair, goatee, Impressionist eyes". While attending another party in Palo Alto, Lesh approached Garcia to suggest they record Garcia on Lesh's tape recorder and produce a radio show for the progressive, community-supported Berkeley radio station KPFA. Using an old Wollensak tape recorder, they recorded "Matty Groves" and "The Long Black Veil", among several other tunes. The recordings became a central feature of a 90-minute KPFA special broadcast, "The Long Black Veil and Other Ballads: An Evening with Jerry Garcia".<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> The link between KPFA and the Grateful Dead continues to this day, having included many fundraisers, interviews, live concert broadcasts, taped band performances and all-day or all-weekend "Dead-only" marathons.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Garcia soon began playing and teaching acoustic guitar, as well as banjo.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> One of Garcia's students was Bob Matthews, who later engineered many of the Grateful Dead's albums.<ref name="musicbox">Template:Cite web</ref> Matthews attended Menlo-Atherton High School and was friends with Bob Weir, and on New Year's Eve 1963, he introduced Weir and Garcia.<ref name="musicbox"/>

Between 1962 and 1964, Garcia sang and performed mainly bluegrass, old-time, and folk music. One of the bands Garcia performed with was the Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers, a bluegrass act. The group consisted of Garcia on lead guitar, banjo, vocals, and harmonica, Marshall Leicester on banjo, rhythm guitar, and vocals, and Dick Arnold on fiddle and vocals.<ref name="sleepyhollow">Template:Cite web</ref> Soon after this, Garcia, Weir, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and several of their friends formed a jug band called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. Around this time, the psychedelic drug LSD was gaining popularity. Garcia first began using LSD in 1964; later, when asked how it changed his life, he remarked: "Well, it changed everything [...] the effect was that it freed me because I suddenly realized that my little attempt at having a straight life and doing that was really a fiction and just wasn't going to work out. Luckily I wasn't far enough into it for it to be shattering or anything; it was like a realization that just made me feel immensely relieved."<ref name="jginterview1972"/>

In 1965, Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions evolved into the Warlocks, with the addition of Dana Morgan, Jr. (soon replaced by Phil Lesh) on bass guitar and Bill Kreutzmann on percussion. However, the band discovered a record by another group (possibly the future Velvet Underground or Z.Z. Top, both of which used the name in their early days) called The Warlocks. In response, Garcia came up with "Grateful Dead" by opening a Funk & Wagnalls dictionary to an entry for "Grateful dead".<ref name="jginterview1972"/><ref name="motm"/><ref>Template:Harvnb:Template:SpacesLesh describes the dictionary as being "Britannica World Language Dictionary".</ref> The definition for "Grateful dead" was "a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial".<ref>Stories about the "Grateful Dead" appear in many cultures.</ref> The band's first reaction was disapproval.<ref name="jginterview1972"/><ref name="motm"/> Garcia later explained the group's reaction: "I didn't like it really, I just found it to be really powerful. [Bob] Weir didn't like it, [Bill] Kreutzmann didn't like it and nobody really wanted to hear about it."<ref name="jginterview1972"/> Despite their dislike of the name, it quickly spread by word of mouth, and soon became their official title.

Career with the Grateful Dead

Garcia served as lead guitarist and one of the principal vocalists and songwriters of the Grateful Dead for the band's entire career.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Garcia composed songs such as "Uncle John's Band", "Dark Star",<ref name="agdl">Template:Cite web</ref> "Franklin's Tower",<ref name="agdl"/> and "Scarlet Begonias",<ref name="agdl"/> among many others. Robert Hunter, an ardent collaborator with the band, wrote the lyrics to all but a few of Garcia's songs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Garcia was known for his "soulful extended guitar improvisations",<ref name="The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2019"/> which would frequently feature interplay between him and his fellow band members. His fame, as well as the band's, arguably rested on their ability to never play a song the same way twice.<ref name="rockandroll"/> Often, Garcia would take cues from rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, remarking that "there are some [...] kinds of ideas that would really throw me if I had to create a harmonic bridge between all the things going on rhythmically with two drums and Phil [Lesh's] innovative bass playing. Weir's ability to solve that sort of problem is extraordinary. [...] Harmonically, I take a lot of my solo cues from Bob."<ref name="dozin">Template:Cite web</ref>

When asked to describe his approach to soloing, Garcia commented: "It keeps on changing. I still basically revolve around the melody and the way it's broken up into phrases as I perceive them. With most solos, I tend to play something that phrases the way the melody does; my phrases may be more dense or have different value, but they'll occur in the same places in the song. [...]"<ref name="garciapt2">Template:Cite web</ref>

Garcia and the band toured almost constantly from their formation in 1965 until Garcia's death in 1995. Periodically, there were breaks due to exhaustion or health problems, often due to Garcia's drug use. During their three-decade span, the Grateful Dead played 2,314 shows.<ref name="rockandroll"/>

File:Jerry-Mickey at Red Rocks taken 08-11-87.jpg

Garcia and drummer Hart in 1987 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. His guitar "Tiger" and a McIntosh MC2300 can clearly be seen

Garcia's guitar-playing was eclectic. He melded elements from the various kinds of music that influenced him.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Echoes of bluegrass playing (such as Arthur Smith and Doc Watson) could be heard. There was also early rock (like Lonnie Mack, James Burton, and Chuck Berry), contemporary blues (Freddie King and Lowell Fulsom), country and western (Roy Nichols and Don Rich), and jazz (Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt) to be heard in Garcia's style. Don Rich was the sparkling country guitar player in Buck Owens's "the Buckaroos" band of the 1960s, but besides Rich's style, both Garcia's pedal steel guitar playing (on Grateful Dead records and others) and his standard electric guitar work, were influenced by another of Owens's Buckaroos of that time, pedal steel player Tom Brumley. And as an improvisational soloist, John Coltrane was one of his greatest personal and musical influences.

Garcia later described his playing style as having "descended from barroom rock and roll, country guitar. Just 'cause that's where all my stuff comes from. It's like that blues instrumental stuff that was happening in the late Fifties and early Sixties, like Freddie King." Garcia's style could vary with the song being played and the instrument he was using, but his playing had a number of so-called "signatures". Among these were lead lines based on rhythmic triplets (examples include the songs "Good Morning Little School Girl", "New Speedway Boogie", "Brokedown Palace", "Deal", "Loser", "Truckin'Template:-", "That's It for the Other One", "U.S. Blues", "Sugaree", and "Don't Ease Me In").

Side projects

In addition to the Grateful Dead, Garcia participated in numerous musical side projects, including the Jerry Garcia Band. He was also involved with various acoustic projects such as Old & In the Way and other bluegrass bands, including collaborations with noted bluegrass mandolinist David Grisman. The documentary film Grateful Dawg, co-produced by Gillian Grisman and former NBC producer Pamela Hamilton chronicles the deep, long-term friendship between Garcia and Grisman.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> When Garcia and Grisman released Not For Kids Only, Hamilton produced their interview and concert for NBC. After several years of producing stories on the Grateful Dead and band members' side projects, Hamilton interviewed Bob Weir for a feature on Garcia's death marking the end of an era.

Other groups in which Garcia participated at one time or another include Jerry & Sara (with his first wife), the Zodiacs (on bass), the Black Mountain Boys,<ref>Template:Cite web photo at eyecandypromo.com. Retrieved April 12, 2013.</ref> Legion of Mary, Reconstruction, and the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band. Garcia was also a fan of jazz artists and improvisation: he played with jazz keyboardists Merl Saunders and Howard Wales for many years in various groups and jam sessions, and he appeared on saxophonist Ornette Coleman's 1988 album, Virgin Beauty. His collaboration with Merl Saunders and Muruga Booker on the world music album Blues From the Rainforest launched the Rainforest Band.

Garcia spent a lot of time in the recording studio helping out fellow musician friends in session work, often adding guitar, vocals, pedal steel, sometimes banjo and piano and even producing. He played on over 50 studio albums, the styles of which were eclectic and varied, including bluegrass, rock, folk, blues, country, jazz, electronic music, gospel, funk, and reggae. Artists who sought Garcia's contribution included the likes of Jefferson Airplane (most notably Surrealistic Pillow, Garcia being listed as their "spiritual advisor"). Garcia himself recalled in a mid-1967 interview that he'd played the high lead on "Today", played on "Plastic Fantastic Lover" and "Comin' Back to Me" on that album. Others include Tom Fogerty, David Bromberg, Robert Hunter (Liberty, on Relix Records), Paul Pena, Peter Rowan, Warren Zevon, Country Joe McDonald, Pete Sears, Ken Nordine, Ornette Coleman, Bruce Hornsby, Bob Dylan, It's a Beautiful Day, and many more. In 1995 Garcia played on three tracks for the CD Blue Incantation by guitarist Sanjay Mishra, making it his last studio collaboration.

Throughout the early 1970s, Garcia, Lesh, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, and David Crosby collaborated intermittently with MIT-educated composer and biologist Ned Lagin on several projects in the realm of early ambient music; these include the album Seastones (released by Ned Lagin on the Round Records subsidiary) and L, an unfinished dance work composed by Ned Lagin. In 1970, Garcia participated in the soundtrack for the film Zabriskie Point.

Garcia also played pedal steel guitar for fellow-San Francisco musicians New Riders of the Purple Sage from their initial dates in 1969 to October 1971, when increased commitments with the Dead forced him to opt out of the group. He appears as a band member on their debut album New Riders of the Purple Sage, and produced Home, Home on the Road, a 1974 live album by the band. He also contributed pedal steel guitar to the enduring hit "Teach Your Children" by Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young. Garcia also played steel guitar licks on Brewer & Shipley's 1970 album Tarkio. Despite considering himself a novice on the pedal steel, Garcia routinely ranked high in player polls. After a long lapse from playing the pedal steel, he played it once more during several of the Dead's concerts with Bob Dylan in the summer of 1987.

In 1988, Garcia agreed to perform at several major benefits including the "Soviet American Peace Walk" concert at the Band Shell, in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, that drew 25,000 people. He was asked to play by longtime friend and fellow musician, Pete Sears, who played piano with all the bands that day, and also procured all the other musicians. Garcia, Mickey Hart and Steve Parish played the show, then were given a police escort to a Grateful Dead show across the bay later that night. Garcia also played with Nick Gravenites and Pete Sears at a benefit given for Vietnam Veteran and peace activist Brian Willson, who lost both legs below the knee when he attempted to block a train carrying weapons to military dictatorships in El Salvador.

Having previously studied at the San Francisco Art Institute as a teenager, Garcia embarked on a second career in the visual arts in the late 1980s. He created a number of drawings, etchings, and water colors. Garcia's artistic endeavors were represented by the Weir Gallery in Berkeley, California from 1989 to 1996.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> During this period, Roberta Weir (unrelated to Garcia's bandmate Bob Weir) provided Garcia with new art techniques to use, sponsored his first solo show in 1990, and prepared blank etching plates for him to draw on.<ref>S.F. Chronicle, December 9, 1992</ref> These would then be processed and printed by gallery staff and brought back to Garcia for approval and signature, usually with a passing of stacks of paper backstage at a Dead show. His annual shows at the Weir Gallery garnered much attention, leading to further shows in New York and other cities. Garcia was an early adopter of digital art media; his artistic style was as varied as his musical output, and he carried small notebooks for pen and ink sketches wherever he toured. Roberta Weir continues to maintain an archive of the artwork of Jerry Garcia.<ref name="garciaweirgallery.com">Template:Cite web</ref> Perhaps the most widely seen pieces of Jerry Garcia's art are the many editions of men's neckties produced by Stonehenge Ltd. and Mulberry Neckware.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Some began as etchings, other designs came from his drawings, paintings, and digital art. Garcia's artwork has since expanded into everything from hotel rooms, wet suits, men's sport shirts, a women's wear line, boxer shorts, hair accessories, cummerbunds, silk scarves and wool rugs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Garcia met his first wife, Sara Ruppenthal, in 1963. She was working at the coffee house in the back of Kepler's Books, where Garcia, Hunter, and Nelson regularly performed. They married on April 23, 1963, and on December 8 of that year, their daughter Heather was born.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> They divorced in 1967.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Carolyn Adams, a Merry Prankster<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> also known as "Mountain Girl" or "M.G.," had a daughter, Sunshine, with Ken Kesey in 1966.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Adams married another Prankster, George Walker, but they soon separated. She and Sunshine then moved into 710 Ashbury with Garcia in late 1966 where they would ultimately live together until 1975.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Adams gave birth to Garcia's second and third daughters, Annabelle Walker Garcia (b. February 2, 1970) and Theresa Adams "Trixie" Garcia (b. September 21, 1974).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In August 1970, Garcia's mother Ruth was involved in a car crash near Twin Peaks in San Francisco.<ref name=page188>Template:Harvnb</ref> Garcia, who was recording the album American Beauty at the time, often left the sessions to visit his mother with his brother Clifford. She died on September 28, 1970.

In the midst of a March 1973 Grateful Dead engagement at Long Island's Nassau Coliseum, Garcia met Deborah Koons, an aspiring filmmaker from a wealthy Cincinnati, Ohio-based family who would much later marry him and become his widow.<ref>Template:Harvnb: "What M.G. didn't know was that Jerry was falling in love with another woman, an aspiring filmmaker named Deborah Koons. She was a few years younger than Jerry, the daughter of wealthy Cincinnati professionals — John Fletcher Koons III was a successful businessman and his wife, Patricia Boyle, was a lawyer."</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> After a brief correspondence, he began his relationship with her in mid-1974. This gradually strained his relationship with Adams and culminated in Garcia leaving Adams for Koons in late 1975. The end of his relationship with Koons in 1977 precipitated a brief reconciliation with Adams, including the reestablishment of their household. However, she did not agree with the guitarist's persistent use of narcotics and moved with the children to the Eugene, Oregon, area, living near Kesey, in 1978.

Following Adams' departure, Garcia had an affair with Amy Moore. She was a Kentucky-born member of the extended "Grateful Dead family", and the mistress of Texas oil heir Roy Cullen. Their affair lasted circa 1980–1981, and inspired the Garcia-Hunter song "Run for the Roses."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Adams and Garcia were married on December 31, 1981, largely as a result of mutual tax exigencies. Despite the legal codification of their union, she remained in Oregon, while Garcia continued to live near the Grateful Dead's offices in San Rafael, California. Garcia lived with a variety of housemates, including longtime Grateful Dead employee and Jerry Garcia Band manager Rock Scully. Scully, who co-managed the Grateful Dead throughout the mid-to-late 1960s before serving as the band's "advance man" and publicist, was dismissed by the group in 1984 for enabling Garcia's addictions and for allegedly embezzling the Garcia Band's profits. Another housemate was Nora Sage, a Deadhead who became Garcia's housekeeper while studying at the Golden Gate University School of Law. The exact nature of their relationship remains unclear, although it is believed to have been platonic due to Garcia's addictions. She later became his art representative.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

While they would briefly reunite following his diabetic coma, Garcia and Adams ultimately divorced in 1994. Phil Lesh has subsequently stated that he rarely saw Adams on any of the band tours.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In a 1991 Rolling Stone interview, Garcia stated that "we haven't really lived together since the Seventies".<ref name="rollingstone.com">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

During the autumn of 1978, Garcia developed a friendship with Shimer College student Manasha Matheson, an artist and music enthusiast. They remained friends over the following nine years before initiating a romantic relationship in Hartford, Connecticut, on the Grateful Dead's spring 1987 tour.<ref name="Jackson 1999 p">Template:Harvnb</ref> Jerry and Manasha became parents with the birth of their daughter, Keelin Noel Garcia, on December 20, 1987. On August 17, 1990, Garcia and Matheson married at their San Anselmo, California, home in a spiritual ceremony free of legal convention.<ref>"Art of Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart and Roberta Weir". Weir Gallery. Retrieved July 8, 2015.</ref> In 1991, Garcia expressed his delight in finding the time to "actually be a father" to Keelin in contrast to his past relationships with his children.<ref name="rollingstone.com"/> A year later, Garcia dedicated his first art book, Paintings, Drawings and Sketches, "For Manasha, with love, Jerry."<ref>J. Garcia: Paintings, Drawings and Sketches. Pub. Celestial Arts, Berkeley 1992</ref>

In January 1993, Barbara "Brigid" Meier, a former girlfriend from the early 1960s, reentered Garcia's life for a brief period. Meier claimed that Garcia had considered her to be the "love of his life" and proposed to her during a Hawaiian vacation shortly after their relationship recommenced.<ref name="MarinIJ Long Strange Trip Review">Template:Cite web</ref> Garcia's "love of his life" sentiment was not reserved for one lover, as he expressed the same feelings to several other women in his life. At Garcia's 1995 funeral, Koons declared that she was "the love of his life" while paying her final respects, whereupon Meier and Ruppenthal, who were both in attendance, simultaneously exclaimed, "He said that to me!"<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

The affair with Meier marked the breakup of Garcia's family life with Matheson and Keelin.<ref name="MarinIJ Long Strange Trip Review" /> Garcia ended the affair with Meier forty-five days later while on tour in Chicago with the Grateful Dead after she confronted him about his drug use.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

Shortly thereafter, Garcia renewed his acquaintance with Deborah Koons in the spring of 1993. They married on February 14, 1994, in Sausalito, California.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Garcia and Koons were married at the time of his death.<ref name="NYTimes">Template:Cite news</ref>

Lifestyle and health

Because of their public profile, Garcia and his collaborators were occasionally singled out in the American government's war on drugs. On October 2, 1967, 710 Ashbury Street in San Francisco (where the Grateful Dead had taken up residence the year before) was raided after a police tip-off.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Grateful Dead members Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan were apprehended on marijuana charges which were later dropped, although Garcia himself was not arrested.<ref name="ew-svetky-03-93">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The following year, Garcia's picture was used in a campaign commercial for Richard Nixon.<ref>"Youth", Nixon campaign ad (at 0:12)</ref>

Most of the band was arrested again in January 1970, after it flew to New Orleans from Hawaii. After returning to their hotel from a performance, the band checked into their rooms, only to be quickly raided by police. Approximately fifteen people were arrested on the spot, including many of the road crew, management, and nearly all of the Grateful Dead except for Garcia, who arrived later, outgoing keyboardist Tom Constanten, who abstained from all drugs as a member of the Church of Scientology, and McKernan, who eschewed illegal drugs in favor of alcohol.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

According to Bill Kreutzmann, the band's use of cocaine accelerated throughout the early 1970s.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After using heroin in a brothel in 1974 (likely on the band's second European tour), Garcia was introduced to a smokeable form of the drug (initially advertised as refined opium) colloquially known as "Persian" or "Persian Base" during the group's 1975 hiatus. Influenced by the stresses of creating and releasing The Grateful Dead Movie and the acrimonious collapse of the band's independent record labels over the next two years, Garcia became increasingly dependent upon both substances. These factors, combined with the alcohol and drug abuse of several other members of the Grateful Dead, resulted in a turbulent atmosphere. By 1978, the band's chemistry began "cracking and crumbling",<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> resulting in poor group cohesion. As a result, Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux left the band in February 1979.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

With the addition of keyboardist/vocalist Brent Mydland that year amid the ongoing coalescence of the Deadhead subculture, the band reached new commercial heights as a touring group on the American arena circuit in the early 1980s, enabling them to forsake studio recording for several years. Nevertheless, this was offset by such factors as the band's atypically large payroll and Garcia's $700-a-day (Template:Inflation) drug addiction, resulting in the guitarist taking on a frenetic slate of solo touring outside of the Grateful Dead's rigorous schedule, including abbreviated acoustic duo concerts with Jerry Garcia Band bassist John Kahn that were widely rumored to be a funding conduit for their respective addictions.

Though things seemed to be getting better for the band, Garcia's health was declining. By 1983, Garcia's demeanor onstage had appeared to change. Despite still playing the guitar with great passion and intensity, there were times that he would appear disengaged; as such, shows were often inconsistent. Years of heavy tobacco smoking had affected his voice, and he gained considerable weight. By 1984, he would often rest his chin on the microphone during performances. The so-called "endless tour"—the result of years of financial risks, drug use, and poor business decisions—had taken its toll.

Garcia's decade-long heroin addiction culminated in the rest of the band holding an intervention in January 1985.<ref name="Lesh 2005 page=271">Template:Harvnb</ref> Given the choice between the band or the drugs, Garcia agreed to check into a rehabilitation center in Oakland, California. A few days later, on January 19, before the start of his program in Oakland, Garcia was arrested for drug possession in Golden Gate Park;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> he subsequently attended a drug diversion program. Throughout 1985, he tapered his drug use on tour and at home with the assistance of Nora Sage; by the spring of 1986, he was completely abstinent.

Precipitated by an unhealthy weight, dehydration, bad eating habits, and a recent relapse on the Grateful Dead's first stadium tour, Garcia collapsed into a diabetic coma on July 10, 1986,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> waking up five days later.<ref name="rockandroll"/><ref name="Stratton 2010"/> He later spoke about this period of unconsciousness as surreal: "Well, I had some very weird experiences. My main experience was one of furious activity and tremendous struggle in a sort of futuristic, space-ship vehicle with insectoid presences. After I came out of my coma, I had this image of myself as these little hunks of protoplasm that were stuck together kind of like stamps with perforations between them that you could snap off."<ref name="motm"/> Garcia's coma had a profound effect on him: it forced him to have to relearn how to play the guitar, as well as other, more basic skills. Within a handful of months, he had recovered, playing with the Jerry Garcia Band and the Grateful Dead again later that year.<ref name="Lesh 2005 page=271"/>

After Garcia's recovery, the band released a comeback album In the Dark in 1987, which became their best-selling studio album. Inspired by Garcia's improved health, a successful album and the continuing emergence of Mydland as a third frontman, the band's energy and chemistry reached a new peak in the late 1980s.

Amid a litany of personal problems, Mydland died of a speedball overdose in July 1990. His death greatly affected Garcia, leading him to believe that the band's chemistry would never be the same. Before beginning the fall tour, the band acquired keyboardists Vince Welnick and Bruce Hornsby. As the band continued through 1991, Garcia became concerned with the band's future. He was exhausted from five straight years of touring. He thought a break was necessary, mainly so that the band could come back with fresh material. The idea was put off by the pressures of management, and the touring continued. Garcia began using heroin again after several years of intermittent prescription opiate use. Though his relapse was brief, the band was quick to react. Soon after the last show of the tour in Denver, Garcia was confronted by the band with another intervention. After a disastrous meeting, Garcia invited Phil Lesh over to his home in San Rafael, California, where he explained that after the meeting he would start attending a methadone clinic. Garcia said that he wanted to clean up in his own way and return to making music.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

After returning from the band's 1992 summer tour, Garcia became sick, a throwback to his diabetic coma in 1986.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Manasha Garcia nursed Garcia back to health and organized a team of health professionals which included acupuncturist Yen Wei Choong and Randy Baker, MD, a holistic family physician to treat him at home. Garcia recovered over the following days, despite the Grateful Dead having to cancel their fall tour to allow him time to recuperate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Garcia reduced his cigarette smoking and began losing weight. He also became a vegetarian.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Despite these improvements, Garcia's physical and mental condition continued to decline throughout 1993 and 1994. He began to use narcotics again to dull the pain. In light of his second drug relapse and current condition, Garcia checked himself into the Betty Ford Center during July 1995. His stay was limited, lasting only two weeks. Motivated by the experience, he then checked into the Serenity Knolls treatment center in Forest Knolls, California, where he died.<ref name="Stratton 2010"/><ref name="newsafter">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="NYTimes"/>

Death

Garcia died in his room at the rehabilitation clinic on August 9, 1995.<ref name="Stratton 2010"/><ref name="newsafter"/> The cause of death was a heart attack, likely due to diabetes and his poor diet.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Garcia had long struggled with diabetes,<ref name="Stratton 2010"/> weight problems, sleep apnea,<ref name="Stratton 2010"/> heavy smoking, and drug addiction—all of which contributed to his physical decline. Lesh remarked that, upon hearing of Garcia's death, "I was struck numb. I had lost my oldest surviving friend, my brother."<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Garcia's funeral was held on August 12, at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Belvedere.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="newsafter"/> It was attended by his family, the remaining Grateful Dead members, and their friends, including Bill Walton and Bob Dylan. Deborah Koons barred two of Garcia's former wives from the ceremony.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

On August 13, about 25,000 people attended a municipally sanctioned public memorial at the Polo Fields of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Crowds produced hundreds of flowers, gifts, images, and a bagpipe rendition of "Amazing Grace" in remembrance.<ref name="newsafter"/> In the Haight, a single white rose was reportedly tied to a tree near the Dead's former Haight-Ashbury house, where a group of followers gathered to mourn.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On the morning of April 4, 1996, after a total lunar eclipse earlier that day, Weir and Deborah Koons, accompanied by Sanjay Mishra, spread half of Garcia's ashes into the Ganges at the holy city of Rishikesh, India,<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb: "The ashes of Grateful Dead lead guitarist Jerry Garcia were scattered in India's holy Ganges River after last week's lunar eclipse, London's Independent newspaper reported yesterday. [...] Deborah Garcia, the musician's fourth wife, and Bob Weir, his best friend, acted in secret at dawn last Thursday nearly eight months after Garcia's fatal heart attack. [...] They were accompanied by Washingtonian Sanjay Mishra, a classical guitarist who recorded his "Blue Incantation" CD at the Dead's Club Front studio in San Francisco last year."</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb: "Grateful Dead lead guitarist Jerry Garcia has made his last trip. His remains were sprinkled in a secret ceremony into India's Ganges River, the Independent newspaper reports. The British newspaper said Garcia's widow, Deborah, and fellow Dead player Bob Weir waded into India's holy river near the town of Rishikesh just after Thursday's lunar eclipse to sprinkle the musician's ashes."</ref> a site sacred to Hindus. The remaining ashes were poured into the San Francisco Bay. Koons did not allow former wife Carolyn Garcia to attend the spreading of the ashes.<ref>Template:Harvnb:Template:SpacesThen, on a cloudy day, windswept day in late April, we gathered on a boat dock in Sausalito to commit what remained of Jerry's ashes to the deep, as per his last wishes. Deborah refused to allow M.G. to board the boat, even after Bobby begged her to reconsider.</ref>

Musical equipment

File:Grateful Dead - Jerry Garcia.jpg

Garcia in 1978 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum with guitar "Wolf"

Garcia played many guitars during his career, which ranged from student and budget models to custom-made instruments. During his thirty-five-year career as a professional musician, Garcia used about 25 guitars.<ref name="guithis">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1965, when Garcia was playing with the Warlocks, he used a Guild Starfire,<ref name="guithis"/> which he also used on the début album of the Grateful Dead. Beginning in late 1967 and ending in 1968, Garcia played black or gold mid-1950s Gibson Les Paul guitars with P-90 pickups. In 1969, he picked up the Gibson SG and used it for most of that year and 1970, except for a small period in between where he used a sunburst Fender Stratocaster.

During Garcia's "pedal steel flirtation period" (as Bob Weir referred to it in Anthem to Beauty), from approximately 1969 to 1972, he initially played a Fender instrument before upgrading to the ZB Custom D-10,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> especially in his earlier public performances. Although this was a double neck guitar, Garcia used the "E9 neck and the three pedals to raise the tone and two levers to lower it."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He employed an Emmons D-10<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> at the Grateful Dead's and New Riders of the Purple Sage's final appearances at the Fillmore East in April 1971.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1969, Garcia played pedal steel on three notable outside recordings: the track "The Farm" on the Jefferson Airplane album Volunteers, the track "Oh Mommy" by Brewer and Shipley and the hit single "Teach Your Children" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young from their album Déjà Vu, released in 1970. Garcia played on the latter album in exchange for harmony lessons for the Grateful Dead, who were at the time recording Workingman's Dead.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1971, Garcia began playing a sunburst Les Paul. In March and April 1971 – the time period during which the Grateful Dead recorded its second live album, Grateful Dead – Garcia played the "Peanut," a guitar he had received from Rick Turner, who had custom built the guitar's body and incorporated the neck, pickups, and hardware from an early '60s Les Paul.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In May, Garcia began using a 1955 natural finish Stratocaster that had been given to him by Graham Nash in 1969.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Garcia added an alligator sticker to the pickguard in the fall of 1971, and the thusly-named "Alligator" would remain Garcia's principal electric guitar until August 1973.<ref name="jerrygarcia.com">Template:Cite web</ref> In the summer of 1971, Garcia also played a double-cutaway Les Paul TV Junior.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> While Alligator was in the shop in the summer of 1972, he briefly reverted to the sunburst Stratocaster; this can be seen in Sunshine Daydream.

In late 1972, Garcia purchased the first guitar ("Eagle") made by Alembic luthier Doug Irwin for $850 (Template:Inflation). Enamored of Irwin's talents, he immediately commissioned his own custom instrument.<ref name="jerrygarcia.com"/> This guitar, nicknamed "Wolf" for a sticker Garcia added below the tailpiece, was delivered in May 1973 and replaced Alligator on stage in September.<ref name="jerrygarcia.com"/> It cost $1,500 (Template:Inflation), an extremely high price for the era.<ref name="wolf">Template:Cite web</ref>

Wolf was made with an ebony fingerboard and featured numerous embellishments like alternating grain designs in the headstock, ivory inlays, and fret marker dots made of sterling silver. The body was composed of western maple wood which had a core of purpleheart. Garcia later had Irwin (who ultimately left Alembic to start his own business) replace the electronics inside the guitar, at which point he added his own logo to the headstock alongside the Alembic logo. The system included two interchangeable plates for configuring pickups: one was made for strictly single coils, while the other accommodated humbuckers. Shortly after receiving the modified instrument, Garcia commissioned another custom guitar from Irwin with one caveat: "Don't hold back."<ref name=wolf/>

During the Grateful Dead's 1974 European tour, Wolf was dropped on several occasions, one of which caused a minor crack in the headstock. Following filming of The Grateful Dead Movie (in which the guitar is prominently visible) a month later, Garcia returned it to Irwin for repairs. Throughout its absence, Garcia predominantly played several Travis Bean guitars, including the TB1000A (1975) and the TB500 (1976-1977). On September 28, 1977, Irwin delivered the refurbished Wolf back to Garcia.<ref name=wolf/> The wolf sticker which gave the guitar its name had now been inlaid into the instrument; it also featured an effects loop between the pick-ups and controls (so inline effects would "see" the same signal at all times) which was bypassable. Irwin also put a new face on the headstock with only his logo (he later claimed to have built the guitar himself, though pictures through time clearly show the progression of logos, from Alembic, to Alembic & Irwin, to only Irwin).Template:Original research inline

The Grateful Dead began using McIntosh Labs amplifiers in the mid-1960s at the insistence and funding of sound technician and prolific LSD chemist Owsley Stanley.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Garcia began using a specific McIntosh MC 2300 in 1973, eventually christened with a Budweiser Budman sticker placed on the front in 1974 and making it a unique way of identifying Garcia's specific MC 2300 out of the many that powered the Wall of Sound. "Budman" was one of the only components from the Wall to continue traveling with Garcia until 1993 when it was replaced with a cab simulation system.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:Multiple image The Budman amp is the longest continuously used piece of gear in Grateful Dead history. On 14 October 2021 during a Sotheby's auction titled "From the Vault: Property from the Grateful Dead and Friends".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Garcia's last stage rack containing a MC2300 sold for $226,800 USD. The MC2300 Budman sold for $378,000 USD.

Nearly seven years after he commissioned it, Garcia received his second custom guitar ("Tiger") from Irwin in the summer of 1979.<ref name="wald-electronics.com">Template:Cite web</ref> He first employed the instrument in concert at a Grateful Dead performance at the Oakland Auditorium Arena on August 4, 1979.<ref name="wald-electronics.com"/> Its name was derived from the inlay on the preamp cover.<ref name="tiger">Template:Cite web</ref> The body of Tiger was of rich quality: the top layer was cocobolo, with the preceding layers being maple stripe, vermilion, and flame maple, in that order.<ref name=tiger/> The neck was made of western maple with an ebony fingerboard. The pickups consisted of a single coil DiMarzio SDS-1 and two humbucker DiMarzio Super IIs; these were easily removable, accommodating Garcia's preference for replacing his pickups every year or two.<ref name=tiger/> The electronics were composed of an effects bypass loop (which allowed Garcia to control the sound of his effects through the tone and volume controls on the guitar) and a preamplifier/buffer, which rested behind a plate in the back of the guitar. Fully outfitted, Tiger weighed Template:Convert. This was Garcia's principal guitar for the next eleven years, and his most played. Due to the ongoing repair and retrofitting of other instruments, Garcia played Tiger during the last song ("Box of Rain") of his final performance with the Grateful Dead at Chicago's Soldier Field on July 9, 1995.

In the late 1980s Garcia, Weir and CSN (along with many others) endorsed Alvarez Yairi acoustic guitars. There are many photographs circulating (mostly promotional) of Garcia playing a DY99 Virtuoso Custom with a Modulus graphite neck. He opted to play with the less decorated model but the promotional photo from the Alvarez Yairi catalog has him holding the "tree of life" model. This hand-built guitar was notable for the collaboration between Japanese luthier Kazuo Yairi and Modulus Graphite of San Rafael. Since Garcia's death, the DY99 model has remained highly valued among collectors.

In 1990, Irwin completed "Rosebud", Garcia's fourth custom guitar.<ref name=rosebud>Template:Cite web</ref> While similar to Tiger in many respects, it featured different inlays and electronics in addition to a slightly lighter weight. Rosebud, unlike Tiger, was configured with three humbuckers; the neck and bridge pickups shared a tone control, while the middle had its own. Atop the guitar was a Roland GK-2 pickup which fed the controller set inside the guitar. The GK2 was used in conjunction with the Roland GR-50 rack mount synthesizer. In turn, the GR-50 synthesizer drove a Korg M1R synthesizer that produced MIDI effects during live performances of this period, as heard on the Grateful Dead's Without a Net (1990) and other contemporaneous recordings.<ref name="rosebud"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sections of the guitar were hollowed out to bring the weight down to Template:Convert. The inlay, a dancing skeleton holding a rose, covers a plate just below the bridge. The final cost of the instrument was $11,000 (Template:Inflation).<ref name=rosebud/>

In 1993, carpenter and aspiring luthier Stephen Cripe tried his hand at making a speculative instrument for Garcia.<ref name=guithis/> After researching Tiger through pictures and films, Cripe set out on what would soon become known as "Lightning Bolt", again named for its inlay.<ref name=lightbolt>Template:Cite web</ref> The guitar used Brazilian rosewood for the fingerboard and East Indian rosewood for the body, which, with admitted irony from Cripe, had been taken from a 19th-century bed used by opium smokers.<ref name=lightbolt/> Built purely from guesswork, Lightning Bolt was gifted by Cripe to Garcia, who began using the guitar exclusively. However, as Cripe had little background in electronics, Garcia hired San Francisco-based repairman Gary Brawer to reconfigure the pickups and make the instrument MIDI-compatible. Additionally, Cripe "hadn't known that the oval-shaped body inlays on Tiger and Rosebud concealed their batteries, so Brawer had to remove his inlay and put it on a cover-plate."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A new bridge also was installed during the final Grateful Dead tour.

File:Jerry Garcia's Lightning Bolt guitar.jpg

Lightning Bolt

Soon after, Garcia requested that Cripe build a backup of the guitar. Cripe, who had not measured or photographed the original, was told simply to "wing it."<ref name=lightbolt/> Cripe later delivered the backup, which was known by the name "Top Hat", in April 1995. Garcia bought it from him for $6,500, making it the first guitar that Cripe had ever sold.<ref name=lightbolt/> Still infatuated with Lightning Bolt, Garcia rarely used the backup.

After Garcia's death, the ownership of Wolf and Tiger came into question. According to Garcia's will, his guitars were bequeathed to Doug Irwin, who had constructed them.<ref name=cnet>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="sfgate">Template:Cite news</ref> The remaining Grateful Dead members disagreed – they considered his guitars to be property of the band, leading to a lawsuit between the two parties.<ref name=cnet/><ref name=sfgate/> In 2001, Irwin won the case. However, nearly having been left destitute from a traffic accident in 1998, he decided to place the guitars up for auction in hopes of being able to start another guitar workshop.<ref name=sfgate/><ref name=cnet/>

On May 8, 2002, Wolf and Tiger, among other memorabilia, were placed for auction at Studio 54 in New York City.<ref name=cnet/> Tiger was sold for $957,500, and Wolf for $789,500. Together, the pair sold for $1.74 million, setting a new world record.<ref name=sfgate/> Wolf went into in the private collection of Daniel Pritzker who kept it in a secure climate controlled room in a private residence at Utica, New York. Tiger went to the private collection of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay.<ref name="New York Times">Template:Cite news</ref> In May 2017, Wolf was again auctioned, but this time for charity. Pritzker decided to sell the guitar and donate all proceeds to the Montgomery, Alabama based Southern Poverty Law Center.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Brian Halligan placed the winning bid totaling $1.9 million.<ref name=Blistein2017>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name=Rosen2017>Template:Cite web</ref>

For the majority of 2019 Wolf and Tiger were included in the Play it Loud exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. On June 23, 2019 John Mayer played Wolf with Dead & Company at Citi Field.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Legacy

Garcia was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead in 1994. He declined to attend the ceremony; the band jokingly brought a cardboard cutout of Garcia out on stage in his absence.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1987, Vermont ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's introduced their Cherry Garcia flavor dedicated to him. It was the first ice cream flavor dedicated to a musician.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Shortly after Garcia's death, astronomers Simon Radford and Ed Olszewski named an asteroid that orbits between Mars and Jupiter after him in November 1995. Tom Gehrels, who had originally discovered the asteroid in 1985 but never named it, offered it to them for the occasion.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1998, a newly discovered species of roach was named Cryptocercus garciai after Garcia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2000, the network NBC broadcast an animated sitcom, God, the Devil and Bob, which featured a "God" character based on Garcia's appearance. Amid backlash from religious groups and low ratings, the series was cancelled after four episodes.

In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked Jerry Garcia 13th in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.<ref name="greatguitarist"/>

According to fellow Bay Area guitar player Henry Kaiser, Garcia is "the most recorded guitarist in history. With more than 2,200 Grateful Dead concerts, and 1,000 Jerry Garcia Band concerts captured on tape – as well as numerous studio sessions – there are about 15,000 hours of his guitar work preserved for the ages."<ref>Kaiser, Henry. "Jerry Garcia Live!", Guitar Player, October 2007</ref>

On July 30, 2004, Melvin Seals was the first Jerry Garcia Band (JGB) member to headline an outdoor music and camping festival called "The Grateful Garcia Gathering". Jerry Garcia Band drummer David Kemper joined Melvin Seals and JGB in 2007. Other musicians and friends of Garcia include Donna Jean Godchaux, Mookie Siegel, Pete Sears, G.E. Smith, Chuck Hammer, Barry Sless, Jackie Greene, Brian Lesh, Sanjay Mishra, and Mark Karan.

On July 21, 2005, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission passed a resolution to name the amphitheater in McLaren Park the "Jerry Garcia Amphitheater."<ref name="sfgov">Template:Cite web</ref> The amphitheater is located in the Excelsior District, where Garcia grew up. The first show to happen at the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater was Jerry Day 2005 on August 7, 2005. Jerry's brother, Tiff Garcia, was the first person to welcome everybody to the "Jerry Garcia Amphitheater." Jerry Day is an annual celebration of Garcia in his childhood neighborhood. The dedication ceremony (Jerry Day 2) on October 29, 2005, was officiated by mayor Gavin Newsom.

On September 24, 2005, the Comes a Time: A Celebration of the Music & Spirit of Jerry Garcia tribute concert was held at the Hearst Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California.<ref name="rstreyanas">Template:Cite web</ref> The concert featured Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, Bruce Hornsby, Trey Anastasio, Warren Haynes, Jimmy Herring, Michael Kang, Jay Lane, Jeff Chimenti, Mark Karan, Robin Sylvester, Kenny Brooks, Melvin Seals, Merl Saunders, Marty Holland, Stu Allen, Gloria Jones, and Jackie LaBranch.

Georgia-based composer Lee Johnson released an orchestral tribute to the music of the Grateful Dead, recorded with the Russian National Orchestra, entitled "Dead Symphony: Lee Johnson Symphony No. 6." Johnson was interviewed on NPR on the July 26, 2008 broadcast of Weekend Edition, and gave much credit to the genius and craft of Garcia's songwriting. A live performance with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Johnson himself, was held Friday, August 1.<ref name="deadsymphony">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2010, the Santa Barbara Bowl in California opened Jerry Garcia Glen along the walk up to the venue. There is a statue of Garcia's right hand along the way.

Seattle rock band Soundgarden wrote and recorded the instrumental song "Jerry Garcia's Finger", dedicated to the singer, which was released as a b-side with their single "Pretty Noose".

Numerous music festivals across the United States and Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK hold annual events in memory of Jerry Garcia.

On May 14, 2015, an all-star lineup held a tribute concert for Garcia at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. The event was called "Dear Jerry".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2015, Hunter and Garcia were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Hunter accepted the award along with Garcia's daughter, Trixie Garcia, who accepted on behalf of her father.

In 2015, Jerry Garcia's wife, Manasha Garcia and their daughter, Keelin Garcia launched The Jerry Garcia Foundation, a nonprofit charity that supports projects for artistic, environmental, and humanitarian causes. The Foundation's Board members are Bob Weir, Peter Shapiro, Glenn Fischer, Irwin Sternberg, Daniel Shiner, TRI Studios CEO, Christopher McCutcheon and Fender Music Foundation Executive Director, Lynn Robison. Keelin Garcia said, "It is a tremendous honor to participate in nonprofit work that is in accordance with my father's values."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebrations have occurred over several years (2013, 2014, 2016, 2022, and 2025) and in numerous venues. In addition to various symphony orchestras, participating musicians have included Warren Haynes, Jeff Sipe, Lincoln Schleifer, Jasmine Muhammad, Jaclyn LaBranch, Melvin Seals, Duane Trucks, Lady Chi, Dave Schools, Tom Hamilton, Oteil Burbridge, and John Morgan Kimock.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2017 Garcia's music was featured in Red Roses, Green Gold, an off-Broadway musical featuring the music of Garcia and Robert Hunter, with additional music by Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Hunter's longtime collaborator Greg Anton. The production was directed and choreographed by Rachel Klein, featured a book by Michael Norman Mann, had Jeff Chimenti serving as music supervisor, and was performed at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2018, Jerry Garcia family members, Keelin Garcia and Manasha Garcia launched the Jerry Garcia Music Arts independent music label.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

On November 18, 2021, it was announced Jonah Hill would portray Garcia in a forthcoming Grateful Dead biopic written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski directed by Martin Scorsese for Apple TV+.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Discography

• New Riders of the Purple Sage – New Riders of the Purple Sage – 1971
• Hooteroll? – Howard Wales and Jerry Garcia – 1971
• Garcia – Jerry Garcia – 1972
• Live at Keystone – Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, Bill Vitt – 1973
• Compliments – Jerry Garcia – 1974
• Old & In the Way – Old & In the Way – 1975
• Reflections – Jerry Garcia – 1976
• Cats Under the Stars – Jerry Garcia Band – 1978
• Run for the Roses – Jerry Garcia – 1982
• Vintage NRPS – New Riders of the Purple Sage – 1986
• Keystone Encores – Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, Bill Vitt – 1988
• Almost Acoustic – Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band – 1988
• Jerry Garcia / David Grisman – Jerry Garcia and David Grisman – 1991
• Jerry Garcia Band – Jerry Garcia Band – 1991
• Not for Kids Only – Jerry Garcia and David Grisman – 1993
• Shady Grove – Jerry Garcia and David Grisman – 1996

See also

• List of most valuable celebrity memorabilia

Sources

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External links

• Template:Official
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• The Jerry Site (archived)
• Jerry Garcia discography at deaddisc.com
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• Jerry Day: A Civic and Cultural Celebration of Jerry Garcia held in San Francisco
• FBI Records: The Vault—Jerry Garcia at vault.fbi.gov
• Jerry Garcia's Army personnel file (Template:Webarchive) at the National Archives
• Template:IMDb name

Equipment

• Guitars—Listed with details, chronology and current owner
• Replica Wolf and Replica Rosebud guitars by original maker, Alembic
• Replica Alligator Guitar by original maker Fender
• MC2300 Page at McIntosh Labs