How Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia started playing music

Grateful Dead co-founder, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Jerry Garcia was a crucial part of the band. He was with them for 30 years, until his death in 1995. His passing marked the end of the original Grateful Dead, as they never used the original name again, instead performing under names like Dead & Company. The band was essentially a jam band, known for their extensive on-stage improvisation and for rarely playing songs exactly as they were recorded in the studio. To perform like that, a musician needs talent, technique, and, of course, a wide range of musical influences.

Besides Rock and Roll, Jerry Garcia also liked some other kinds of music when he was growing up. He recalled in an interview, recovered by Grateful Ramblings, how he started playing music.

How Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia started playing music

“My father was a professional musician, my mother was an amateur. I grew up in a musical household and took piano lessons as far back as I can remember. There was never a time in my life that music wasn’t a part of.”

“The first time I decided that music was something I wanted to do, apart from just being surrounded by it, was when I was about fifteen. I developed this deep craving to play the electric guitar. I fell in love with rock `n roll, I wanted to make that sound so badly. So I got a pawn shop electric guitar and a little amplifier and I started without the benefit of anybody else around me who played the guitar or any books.”

“My step-father put it in an open tuning of some kind and I taught myself how to play by ear. I did that for about a year until I ran into a kid at school who knew three chords on the guitar and also the correct way to tune it. That’s when I started to play around at it, then I picked things up. I never took lessons or anything.”

When asked about how had inspired him, the musician said:

“Actually no particular musician inspired me, apart from maybe Chuck Berry. But all of the music from the fifties inspired me. I didn’t really start to get serious about music until I was eighteen and I heard my first bluegrass music.”

“So I heard Earl Scruggs play five-string banjo and I thought, that’s something I have to be able to do. I fell in love with the sound and I started earnestly trying to do exactly what I was hearing. That became the basis for everything else – that was my model,” Jerry Garcia said.

Although the Grateful Dead are not as popular in the rest of the world as they are in the United States, they remain one of the most successful live bands of all time. They still appear on the list of the highest-grossing tours ever.