With the death of Vince Welnick on Friday (June 2) history, sadly, has repeated itself yet again.
Welnick, who was 55, was Grateful Dead's last keyboard player, from 1990 until the group disbanded in 1995. He had replaced Brent Mydland, who died of a drug overdose. Mydland had replaced Keith Godchaux, who died in a car accident a year after leaving the band. Godchaux had replaced Pigpen McKernan, who died of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage. The Sheriff's office in Sonoma County California says Welnick committed suicide at his home.
Welnick had played with The Tubes and Todd Rundgren prior to joining the Dead. After the death of his friend Jerry Garcia and subsequent breakup of the Dead, Welnick formed the group Missing Man Formation. He had been scheduled to play at Chicago's House of Blues next week.
Comments
It is sad to hear about Vince. It is yet anouther huge loss for the Grateful Dead family. But we’ve got lots of good memories with Vince as well as the others we have loved and lost.
By the way, Pigpen was their drummer….not a keybaordist.
The Dead had two drummers, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart. The credits on the Dead albums on which Pig performed include keyboards, harmonica, vocals.
This is for alli, not to be rude, and Dave may have said it best, but Pigpen without a doubt played the keyboards, not the drums.
The fact that you are incorrect in this and have the sheer gall to erroneously correct someone on this subject shows a great deal about your ignorance pertaining to as you say it, “the Grateful Dead family”
yeah, i’m pretty sure the keyboardist was Linus