Grateful Dead singer Donna Jean Godchaux dies aged 78

Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKaywho spent the 1970s singing with Grateful Deadsang backing vocals on several 1960s classics and fronted his own bands, died at age 78. The information is from Rolling Stone.

Godchaux passed away on Sunday, November 2, at a hospice center in Nashville after a “long fight with cancer,” according to a statement shared with Rolling Stone by her representative, Dennis McNally. “She was a sweet and warmly beautiful spirit, and all who knew her are united in mourning. The family requests privacy in this time of grief,” the text read. “In the words of the lyricist of Dead, Robert Hunter: ‘May the four winds carry you safely home.’”

Godchaux joined the Grateful Dead in 1971, together with her husband, Keithwho played the keyboard. His vocals were a key part of the band’s most notable phase in the 1970s, appearing on classic albums such as Europe ’72, Wake of the Flood and Terrapin Station — plus countless legendary live recordings (including the famous Cornellin 1977, and the September 1978 performances at the pyramids of Giza, Egypt).

Before joining the Dead, Godchaux worked as a sought-after studio singer in Muscle ShoalsAlabama. She participated in hits such as “When a Man Loves a Woman”, from Percy Sledgeand “Suspicious Minds”, from Elvis Presleyin addition to having sung on tracks Duane Allman, Cher, Neil Diamond and Boz Scaggs.

Donna and Keith they also released an album together in 1975 and planned to form a new band in the early 1980s, before his sudden death. Later, Donna led his own group, known as Donna Jean and the Tricksters and also how Donna Jean Godchaux Band. His latest studio album, in partnership with the musician Jeff Mattsonwas released in 2014.

Born Donna Jean Thatcher in Florence, Alabama, she began her career in Muscle Shoalsthen the epicenter of rock and soul effervescence in the 1960s. In addition to working with Sledge and Chershe sang in “Take a Letter Maria”, from RB Greavesand in “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show”, from Neil Diamond. He also collaborated with Joe Tex, Dionne Warwick and Ben E. King.

During this period, Godchaux also lived and worked in Memphis, where he recorded with Elvis Presley in 1969. In addition to “Suspicious Minds,” she sang in “In the Ghetto” and other tracks recorded by Presley node American Sound Studio. It was, as he told the Rolling Stone in 2014, a “very intense” experience — although she and the other vocalists remained “completely professional” during recording.

After the session, however, she said that everyone took a photo with the King and then “they went to the International House of Pancakes in Memphis and screamed like crazy for about an hour, holding that little Polaroid of ours with Elvis.”

In 1970, Donna He left the southern United States for the West Coast, settling in San Francisco. There, he met Keith and saw the Grateful Dead live for the first time. After a show at a local club, she approached Jerry Garcia and recommended her husband to the band: “I told the Jerry what Keith needed to be in the group and that I needed his phone number — and I got it!” she said. Shortly afterwards, the two joined the Dead.

To Godchauxplaying with the group was a new challenge. As he told Rolling Stoneshe had built a career as a studio singer and was “used to wearing headphones and working in a controlled environment.” Singing live was much more chaotic — and she acknowledged that there are many recordings of the Dead in which your voice “comes out of tune”.

“Everything was very loud on stage. And, not to mention, there was the drinking. I can’t defend myself too much, but I also can’t put all the blame on that”, he admitted, laughing.

Although the Dead Although one of the most creatively powerful and inventive bands of the 1970s, the decade also took its toll. The relationship of Donna and Keith it was troubled — she drank and used cocaine frequently; he was also a user, and members of the band’s team remember hearing constant arguments between the couple.

You Godchaux left the Grateful Dead in 1979. “It was sad, but it was what needed to happen,” she said. “It wasn’t good for anyone. We needed to go, and they needed us to go.”

The couple returned to Alabama with their son, Zionand seemed to find some peace. After the album’s release Keith & Donna in 1975, they formed the group Heart of Gold Band. They recorded some songs, but soon after the first show, in 1980, Keith died in a car accident. (Some of these recordings were released throughout the 1980s.)

In 1981, Donna remarried, with David MacKaybassist from the Bay Area. She moved away from music, occasionally singing in church and appearing on one of the band’s albums. Zeroin 1987. Together, she and MacKay created the independent label Heart of Gold Recordsand in 1998 Donna released his first solo album. In 2004, she reformed the Heart of Gold Bandwho released a new album, At the Table.

In the following decades, Godchaux continued performing and touring, releasing his latest album, Back Aroundin 2014. She described it as “my journey” — a mix of original Southern soul, covers of 1960s classics and even a reinterpretation of a song from Grateful Dead“Crazy Fingers”. The title, he explained to Rolling Stonereferred to “closing the cycle and making peace with the past”.

“I have a lot of regrets, of course, as anyone does about the decisions they make in life,” he said. “You can’t recover what no longer exists, but you can continue a journey that takes you somewhere. One of the verses of Back Around says: ‘Searching for what could have been can destroy you.’ If you keep looking back, there’s nothing. If you look at what’s in front of you, then life is good.”

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