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Dead Keyboards; The Hot Seat

16th Jul 2021 in

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan

Ron Pigpen McKernan
Ron "Pigpen" McKernan

Pigpen (Ron McKernan) played and sang with the Grateful Dead, and their earlier incarnations as Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions and The Warlocks, from 1965 until 1972. Pigpen was the band’s original frontman, but as the band became more and more oriented toward psychedelic rock, Pigpen’s influence faded a little.

Tom Constanten was hired and replaced Pigpen on keyboards from 1968 until January 1970. After that, Pigpen moved back toward his previous role, but things weren’t the same. Pigpen avoided psychedelic drugs. He preferred alcohol, namely whiskey and fortified wine. By 1971, when he was 26 years old, doctors advised him to stop touring because of liver damage and associated medical conditions. Pigpen joined the Dead on their famous European Tour in 1972 but was forced to retire altogether from the band after that. Pigpen was found dead from a gastrointestinal hemorrhage on March 8, 1973, aged 27.

The song He's Gone became associated with Pigpen. This version was played on May 26, 1973, about two months after his death:

Keith Godchaux (and Donna too!)

Keith Godchaux

With Pigpen’s diminishing strength, the band was forced to look for another keyboard player. Keith and Donna Godchaux had been paying attention to the Dead, and they met with Jerry a few times. At one point, Jerry and Keith were playing together, and Jerry called Billy Kreutzman and told him to come right over and hear what was going on. Kreutzman was astounded, and the rest of the band followed in step as they heard Keith’s playing. Keith and Donna joined the band and debuted on October 19, 1971. Keith backed up Pigpen from then until Pigpen’s last show on June 17, 1972.

Keith played keyboards and Donna sang backup until February 17, 1979. Sadly, Keith died three days after his birthday in 1980 after being involved in a serious automobile accident. Keith’s association with the band metamorphosed several times over the course of his tenure. The band took almost a full year off in 1975, and that hiatus played a large role in Keith’s final role change. After 1975, Keith’s musical style changed from one of instant grasp and domination to one of background haze. Many attribute this change to Keith’s downward spiral into heroin addiction. The other members of the band tried to work around this change, but in the end, no one was happy with the new setup, so it was agreed that Donna and Keith would end their term with the band.

Brent Mydland

Brent Mydland
Brent Mydland

For the past year before this, Brent Mydland had been playing with Bob Weir in his band Bobby and the Midnites. Weir confessed to having groomed Mydland during this time to take Keith’s place when the time came. Mydland debuted with the Dead on April 22, 1979, and became a keyboardist, lyricist, songwriter, and singer with the band for the next 11 years. Brent’s strong musical skills wrapped tightly with the rest of the band, and the 80’s were a triumphant decade for them. Sadly, but in keeping with the other two keyboardists who had occupied the "hot seat", Brent Mydland died shortly after the Dead’s 1990 summer tour on July 26th of that year. His death was due to an overdose of cocaine and morphine.

Bruce Hornsby

Bruce Hornsby
Bruce Hornsby

Bruce Hornsby was a lifelong Grateful Dead fan who got his chance to join the band. Already an established musician himself, known best for the 1986 hit “The Way It Is”. He first performed with the Dead at the Rainforest Benefit at Madison Square Garden in September of 1988, joining the boys for a rocking “Not Fade Away”. After that, he would occasionally sit in with the Dead whenever possible, and then in 1990, he joined somewhat officially for 18 months after Brent’s death, contributing keys and accordion.

He eventually left the band in March of 1992, and would occasionally join them again right up until the end of the road in 1995. Many consider Bruce’s contributions on piano in the 1990s to be some of the only shining moments for the band from that era, and some even say that there aren’t many post-Brent shows worth listening to other than the ones with Bruce, who managed to avoid the curse of the "hot seat" and is still alive today.

Vince Welnick

Vince Welnick
Vince Welnick

When Brent Mydland died in 1990, the Grateful Dead ran auditions for a new keyboardist. Many argue that the band should have taken some time off to regroup after Brent’s death, but the truth is that the Grateful Dead had become a machine at this point, employing hundreds of people who counted on them continuing to tour to pay their bills. There was immense pressure to find a new keyboard player and rush back out on the road, and that’s exactly what they did. Vince, the former keyboardist for The Tubes, was chosen from among a few other candidates, most likely because he was able to provide the vocal support that the band was looking for in the absence of Brent, who was a remarkable singer.

Vince remained with the Grateful Dead until 1995, when Jerry died and the whole machine came to a grinding halt. Six months later, while touring with Bob Weir & Rat Dog, he attempted suicide on the tour bus. He had been diagnosed with cancer and emphysema in 1994 and had been struggling with depression after that and the death of Jerry in such a short time. Around ten years later, after a continued battle with depression, in June of 2006, Vince Welnick was found dead in his home of apparent suicide. He was 51 years old.