David Crosby Remembers Jerry Garcia

I was never a Grateful Dead fan (Deadhead). They didn't have radio hits in the 60s and 70s that I remember. In their career, they only had one top 40 single: "Touch of Grey" in 1987. I'm unfamiliar with their music. And I should note that we moved to Nigeria in 1977, and that was the end of me following the Rock and Roll scene. I'm largely unfamiliar with anything later than 1977.

I was a big fan of Crosby, Stills and Nash, later Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Their Deja Vu album is a masterpiece, and I have enjoyed Neil Young throughout the years.

Here is an interesting quote from David Crosby (d. 2023) about Jerry Garcia, founder and leader of the Grateful Dead.

David Crosby Remembers Jerry Garcia: ‘He Did Not Play for Money - He Was Chasing the Notes’

“Of all of the people that I can think of that I’ve really loved as musicians - and then there are some stunners in there that I miss; I miss (Jimi) Hendrix, I miss Janis (Joplin), I miss my friend Cass (Elliott), I miss a lot of people that I lost - yeah, I probably miss him the most. If I had had to pick somebody to represent musicians to the world and to the universe, I would have picked him. He cared about the right things. I don’t know how to explain it really well, but we’ve got to try.

The most valuable thing in the world to him other than his family was the music, and he wanted it all the time. He would walk in the room and, yeah, he would talk to you about regular shit and he could be a regular guy and you could go have a meal or a beer. But what he really wanted to do was pick up the guitar. And the minute he and I started to play anything, it got good, right away, immediately - which is not possible, all the time. But every single time that I sat down with him to play anything, it got magical. And you can’t ignore a thing like that, if it happens right in front of you over and over again. .. I just was entranced by that.

I loved the guy. He was a sweet guy and he was funny as shit. And he was very, very bright and curious and interested in science and in the world and in people. But above all, man, he was a musician. Above all.

He had a very realistic view of himself. But we affected each other, man. You know, people started this whole thing about how the Grateful Dead learned how to sing harmony from Crosby, Stills and Nash. Bullshit. We didn’t teach them how to sing harmony. They knew already. What happened was, we listened to their music and it affected us. We realized that we could get a lot looser than we were. They listened to our music and they realized they could get a lot more organized than they were, vocally. They knew they could do the same stuff we did."