Of Garcia's students, a 16 year old named Bob Weir became good friends with Garcia. In 1965 Garcia, Weir and Kreutzman formed Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions.
The band added a man named Ron McKernan, better known as Pig Pen, to sing their blues songs. Pig Pen's. father was the first R&B DJ in the Bay Area. At the time, Pig Pen was a fifteen year old harmonica player who was often found skipping school and drinking wine. It was Pig Pen who convinced the rest of the band members to make Mother McCree's go electric; thus forming The Warlocks.
The Warlocks needed a bass player and music major Phil Lesh was chosen after playing around with the bass for two weeks. Lesh had a background in jazz and electronic music.
Fall of 1965 - Warklocks start performing as a house band for LSD-feuled parties hosted by Ken Kesey, which would later evolve into multimedia shows known as Acid Tests.
After Lesh claimed he saw an album by another band calling themselves the Warlocks, the band went in search of another name. They finally stumbled on the phrase Grateful Dead in a randomly opened dictionary. The words referred to a genre of folktales in which a Good Samaritan arranges for the burial of a penniless stranger. At some point later, the Samaritan encounters life-threatening peril and is, himself, aided by the spirit of the man he helped bury, hence "grateful dead."
By 1966 the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore began holding Grateful Dead gigs regularly, and the Dead began to draw a following. The Dead headlined with other Bay Area psychedelic bands such as The Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish, and Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Jan. 1967 - the band's first album appears on Warner Bros. label.
Over the next four years the Dead released the studio experimentations, Anthem of the Sun and Aoxomoxoa, live concert footage, Live/Dead, and a couple acoustic albums, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty.
The group's mission statement as voiced by Garcia in 1967: "We're trying to make music in such a way that it doesn't have a message for anybody. We don't have anything to tell anybody. We don't want to change anybody. We want people to have the chance to feel a little better. That's the absolute most we want to do with our music. The music that we make is an act of love and act of joy...we're not telling [anybody] to go get stoned, or drop out.... We are trying to make things groovier for everybody so more people can feel better more often, to advance the trip, to get higher - however you want to say it - but we're musicians and there's just no way to put the idea 'save the world' into music."
A few weeks after meeting him, Kreutzman invited Mickey Hart to sit in and jam with the band on September 29, 1967. Hart was invited to join the Dead after the show.
October 19, 1971: Keith Godchaux hired as additional keyboardist to augment an ailing Pigpen.
March 25, 1972: Donna, his wife, hired as an additional vocalist.
Summer 1972: Europe tour. Last album Pig Pen is heard on.
Fall '72: Pigpen passes.
late '74 - early '76: Short hiatus for Dead
Spring '76: Reunion. Release Blues for Allah, followed by Terrapin Station the next year.
Late 70's: Dismiss the Godchauxs and hire Brent Mydland.
July 1986: Garcia enters a life-threatening diabetic coma. Garcia regained consciousness a few days later, but a period of extended convalescence kept the band from touring until the following spring.
1990: Brent Mydland passes. Vince Welnick brought on board as new keyboardist.
August 1992: Garcia diagnosed with exhaustion and a congested heart. Band breaks up until December.
Around 4 AM on August 9, 1995: Garcia is found comatose and without a pulse in Serenity Knolls treatment facility in Marin County. He was 53 years old.
The band discussed continuing without Garcia, but in December 1995, they announced that the Dead would be no more.
This page was last modified on 4/16/98
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