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Garcia
FYI
Bulletin: Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia dead
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[1](c) 1995 Associated Press
NOVATO, Calif. (Aug 9, 1995 - 12:36 EDT) -- Jerry Garcia, the master
guitarist whose band the Grateful Dead symbolized the 1960s
counterculture and remained a top concert draw three decades later,
died today at a drug treatment center. He was 53.
No cause of death was immediately given.
He was found at 4:23 a.m. by a counselor at Serenity Knowles, a
residential treatment center for drug addiction, said Dan Murphy of
the Marin County sheriff's office.
A nurse attempted CPR, and sheriff's department staff who were
summoned also failed to revive him, Murphy said.
The Grateful Dead, with its roots in the Bay Area's psychedelic scene
of the 1960s, combined rock, bluegrass and folk influences into a
unique stew. Garcia was lead guitarist, composer and vocalist.
Among the band's best known songs were "Truckin'," "Casey Jones," and
"Friend of the Devil." Its only top 10 hit was the 1987 song "Touch of
Grey," with its refrain "I will survive." But the Dead was almost more
a way of life than a band to the thousands of "Deadheads," many of
whom followed the group from concert to concert.
The band has been the most popular act in the United States, grossing
tens of millions of dollars each year.
"You need music," Garcia once said. "I don't know why; it's probably
one of those Joe Campbell questions, why we need ritual. We need
magic, and bliss, and power, myth, and celebration and religion in our
lives, and music is a good way to encapsulate a lot of it."
The bearded, rotund Garcia had a history of health problems that
caused frequent breaks in the Dead's grueling concert schedule. In
1986, he entered the hospital in a diabetic coma.
He also has admitted past drug abuse.
Garcia slimmed down, stopped smoking and hired a personal fitness
trainer after falling ill with exhaustion in 1991.
In recent years, Garcia also developed a line of colorful neckties.
But the years of constant touring took its toll.
"It was a meltdown. Too many cigarettes, too much junk food and too
little exercise," band spokesman Dennis McNally said last year.
McNally was unavailable for immediate comment today.
AP-DS-08-09-95 1218EDT
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