Grateful Dead keyboardist Welnick dies
Forestville resident daring onstage, 'fragile' in real life


By JOHN BECK
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Song played by Vince China Doll

Vince Welnick, the last in a long line of Grateful Dead keyboardists whose
career spanned the musical spectrum from The Tubes to today's jam band
scene, died Friday in Forestville. He was 55.

A daring ensemble musician who joined the Dead well into his career, Welnick
was known for intense solos and onstage chemistry. But offstage, he battled
bouts of depression throughout his life, particularly after Jerry Garcia
died and the Dead disbanded in 1995, friends said.

Sonoma County sheriff's deputies were called to his house Friday, and
friends said they believed his death was a suicide. The Sonoma County
coroner's office would not confirm the cause of death and has planned an
autopsy for Monday or Tuesday.

"Here's a guy who's musically fearless as far as going out into the zone,
but then once the music stops, he becomes this really fragile guy," said
Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. "He had a lot of demons he had to deal
with, but they seemed to only come out when he wasn't playing music."

As a teenager, Welnick joined the Beans, a rock band that moved from Phoenix
to San Francisco in 1971 and became The Tubes – a raucous Bay Area band
known for edgy satire and wild stage antics. "White Punks on Dope" was an
early hit, and Welnick's most notable turn in the pop spotlight came in 1983
when The Tubes scored a Top 10 radio hit with the catchy "She's a Beauty."

After The Tubes broke up, Welnick collaborated on two Todd Rundgren albums
before joining the Dead in 1990, replacing Brent Mydland, who died of a drug
overdose. Before that, keyboardist Keith Godchaux died in a car crash after
leaving the band. The band's original keyboard player, Ron "Pigpen"
McKernan, died at the age of 27 in 1973.

"He was the right guy at the right time for us," Hart said. "He filled the
role perfectly. When I think of Vinnie, I think of a real positive thing, I
don't think of his mood swings. He was able to hide that from the world."

In the five years Welnick played with the Dead, from 1990 to 1995, the full
band never recorded a studio album. But his performances live on in
countless bootlegs and official "Dick's Picks" Dead concert recordings.

Living on a hilltop in Forestville for more than a decade - on a 10-acre
spread he bought shortly after joining the Dead - Welnick treasured time in
his music studio playing his prized Bosendorfer piano, surrounded by
panoramic views.

"He really loved it up there," remembers longtime collaborator and former
Grateful Dead sound designer Bob Bralove. "He had between 17 and 25 cats he
was feeding at any given time. I used to call him Catman Welnick."

Bralove noticed Welnick was having problems when they played a corporate gig
a month ago in Las Vegas.

"He was having a rough time then," he said. "He was down. We would discuss
specifics and he would say this is OK or that is OK, I know, but it doesn't
take the pain away. But when we played together, everything was fine."

A family friend contacted Saturday at Welnick's home said the family,
including his wife, Laurie, was too emotional to talk but would release a
statement today.

After the Dead broke up in 1995, Welnick was never invited to play in any of
the band's reincarnations.

"He's always been a pretty fragile guy and he might have been the one hit
the hardest after Jerry died," Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally said.

Welnick later teamed up with Steve Kimock to form Missing Man Formation. He
occasionally played with Bob Weir's Ratdog, the Mickey Hart Band, minor jam
bands Jack Straw and Gent Treadly and the Psychedelic Keyboard Duo with
Bralove.

Welnick's death comes at a tough time for the Dead family and their legions
of fans. In the past two weeks, prolific band roadie Lawrence "Ramrod"
Shurtliff died of lung cancer, Nubian multi-instrumentalist and Dead
collaborator Hamza El Din died of a gall bladder infection and '68-'69 road
manager Jonathan Riester died of liver complications.

After hearing the news, Hart and basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton, a
well-known Dead fan, spent most of Saturday driving through the desert
outside San Diego, mourning the loss and reliving the old songs.

"We were listening to this satellite radio show of Dead songs from 1991
while talking about Vinnie," Hart said. "I was listening to his parts, and
they were so delicate and beautiful and tinkly, and then all of a sudden he
came in with this high-pitched voice. It was quite charming."