Grateful Dead Keyboard Curse Continues

Keyboardist for Grateful Dead dies at 51

THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: June 4th, 2006 01:00 AM

Vince Welnick, the Grateful Dead’s last keyboard player and a veteran of other bands, including the Tubes and Missing Man Formation, has died, the Grateful Dead’s longtime publicist said Saturday.

Welnick died Friday, said Dennis McNally, who would not release the cause. He said Welnick was 51. The Sonoma County coroner’s office said an autopsy would be performed this week.

Welnick was the last in a long line of Grateful Dead keyboardists, several of whom died prematurely, leading some fans to believe in a curse.

Welnick replaced Brent Mydland, who died of a drug overdose in 1990. Mydland succeeded Keith Godchaux, who died in a car crash shortly after leaving the band. And Godchaux had replaced the band’s original keyboard player, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, who died at 27 in 1973.

Two other Grateful Dead keyboardists, Bruce Hornsby and Tom Constanten, are said to be scared shitless.