Suicide confirmed in death of Grateful Dead keyboardist

mercurynews.com ^ | 6/4/06 | By Deborah Lohse

[paltz]

The death of Grateful Dead keyboardist Vince Welnick, 55, was a suicide, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department confirmed Saturday. An autopsy is expected to be performed Monday or Tuesday, said Lt. Bruce Rochester, who declined to say how the former musician took his life.

[Tax-chick]

How sad, only 55.

[ThreePuttinDude]

Sorry to hear this. From what I've read, that position
has been rather unlucky as far as longevity goes.

[BenLurkin]

[Gay State Conservative]

Why is that the life expectancy of entertainment types in the West seems to be lower than that of Zimbabwe?

[BenLurkin]

An interview (with photo) from 1995:

http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/welnick9503.html

[cmsgop]

This very sad death is causing a Huge Split in the GD Community,crusing around the net Bob Weir is not a very liked man right now.

[NCLaw441]

I guess he is grateful to be dead.

[BullDog108]

Pig Pen died of liver cancer. Then Kieth Godcheaux OD'ed on heroin. Brent Mydland OD'ed on a speedball. Now this. The CURSE OF THE DEAD KEYBOARD.

[BenLurkin]

[cardinal4]

Keith was killed in a car accident after he left the band..

[Tax-chick]

Chortle.

[Central Scrutiniser]

Its a shame, Vince was treated very shabbily by the remaining members of the Dead after Jerry died and evidently he never recovered.

He was part of one of the most fun groups out there, The Tubes, and he did a great job playing with the Dead. He had a long history of bad health and depression.

RIP Vince

[Huck]

What's Weir got to do with Welnick committing suicide?

[SteveMcKing]

If there's one thing I hate, it's an incomplete story from someone who thinks it's their job to censor gossipy details.

A partial story- is not a story. I would rather not know anything... don't even tell us he's dead.

[Popman]

He had been taken, injured, from his home in Forestville near Santa Rosa, to a local hospital. He later died there, sheriff's officials said.

I seriously doubt he tripped over his bong.

[BullDog108]

You are correct. Somehow my memory of him was he was always wasted, and he was fired from the band for that.

[BullDog108]

Here's a video of Vince singing the National Anthem with Bob and Jerry at Candlestick Park on 4/12/93

[StAnDeliver]

Tubes reunion pic...Fee Waybill with his arm around Welnick (back row, 2nd from right)

[corkoman]

Where's the chick?

[cardinal4]

Thats right. Plus, he refused to play anything other than his Grand. The band was changing and Keith wasnt having any. They both had to go. I have a lot of hours of late 70's Dead that are almost unlistenable due to Donna's caterwauling...(Keiths wife)

[BullDog108]

I dunno, I miss Donna. Had a teenage crush on her back then

I've got some rare Dead videos on my website, including one of the last shows in Vegas. The Vegas video is So Many Roads, and Jerry already looks like he has one foot in the grave. Check them out here.

[cmsgop]

Start Herehttp://www.vincewelnick.com/index.php?module=pnForum&func=viewforum&forum=1

[Chi-townChief]

I wonder if he's still grateful.

[cardinal4]

What is going on with Bob? Last I heard, it was Phil everyone was upset with over the Archive.org fiasco.

[cardinal4]

Never mind, I just saw your link..

[dfwgator]

The Tubes were a great band.

[Dick Vomer]

high on cocaine,

driving that train

Casey Jones you better watch your speed...

[Mr. Mojo]

Just took a look at the link you provided but couldn't find anything about the "huge split in the GD community" or about Weir catching any hell from Deadheads. So, give me the short of it.

[DoctorMichael]

I was going to bring up the same point:

The Dead's Keyboardist has been the 'Hot Seat' of the group since the beginning.

Also: This kind of puts to rest the 'Spinal Tap' parody of the Drummer continually dying and being replaced.

[steveo]

I'm amazed anyone remembered the Tubes.... WPOD