Grateful Dead Singer Donna Jean Godchaux Dead At 78

RollingStone ^ | Nov 3, 2025 | Jon Blistein

[dayglored]

> I can’t remember which album it is, but one has an original song of hers that’s surprisingly good. I never skipped it.

Terrapin Station had "Sunrise"; Shakedown Street had "From the Heart of Me". Maybe one those?

[Dr. Franklin]

Bands hit a phase when wives and girlfriends push their way in to caterwaul on stage. John Lennon, The Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac, even Skynyrd...
It’s sad, but there is very few ways to avoid it.
At least Led Zeppelin never caved.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had a rule: No chicks in the band.
After Stevie Nicks topped the charts with them after Stop Draggin' My Heart Around, she wanted to join the group. Tom explained the rule to her and she did her solo stuff and then returned to Fleetwood Mac. (BTW, I always that Petty and Nicks' version of Insider was their best duet, but it never got the airtime as the former duet.)

[dayglored]

> Jerry knew who she was. And she was the one who got her husband into the band.

Interesting bit of Dead lore; I always heard it was the other way around. Thanks for the update.

[af_vet_1981]

With respect to Donna passing from this world, “Blessed is the Righteous Judge. “

If you perform you are a member....................

If you attend you can be a member …

It was said of the Grateful Dead that “the audience is part of the band.”

[shelterguy]

“””Well you’re wrong about The Beatles.”””

My neighbor was part of the promotional group that brought them here. I have told him they suck. Well, maybe they didn’t suck the first 30,000 times their songs were on the radio. But ultimately they sucked.

[eboyer]

opinions are like assholes

the stinkier you are, the more compelled you seem to be to share it

[Disambiguator]

Did you wave your hands in front of your face at the Dead concerts?

You know, to keep the music from getting in your eyes.

😆

[dfwgator]

Dead keyboardists were like Lieutenants in Vietnam, don’t even learn their name.

---

Or the drummers in Spinal Tap.

[dfwgator]

What did one Deadhead say to the other when the drugs wore off?

“Man, this band sucks!”

[1Old Pro]

What did one Deadhead say to the other when the drugs wore off? “Man, this band sucks!”

"The Old joke I've shared before..I don't hate the Grateful Dead, it's the fans I can't stand.

[gibsonguy]

Charming to the last..

[gibsonguy]

It is amusing, I have had more reaction to that post than any post I have ever made. Most are in agreement with me. Predictably, the few who disagreed have done so in a childish manner bordering on tantrum.

[crusty old prospector]

I always thought of them as hippies who played crappy music to smoke dope by.

[JPG]

IMO as a rock-n-roll performer starting 1965, women can play a useful part in a band in a few, but not all, configurations.

Nightwish has done quite well, especially with Tarja and Floor.

[dfwgator]

She wasn’t a singer, but Ruth Underwood of Zappa’s band, is the only example of the lone female musician in an otherwise all-male band, that comes to my mind.

[wardaddy]

Yes the pig pen era is THE ERA

I Saw him with them at the end
It was sad
He was in bad shape to be so young

I stayed thru mars hotel where Donna actually does decent

Last time I visited uncle Sid was Dead at Tuscaloosa 77

It was good too

The drive back to Jax Miss was looong and paranoia filled lol

2 am and half the cars are cops knowing there was a dead show east central Bama

And I had to drive the “spaceship “

It wasn’t like bad but only boomers a few times after that

People today take much lower doses which is smart

I don’t condone psychedelics

I did witness life altering casualties

During the show they really hit the good stuff

I listen to it on archives occasionally and tell my kids I can heart myself yelling for Sugar Magnolia

Finally the encore lol

[dfwgator]

Pig Pen’s demise was pretty much all alcohol, IIRC.

[newfreep]

The GD was the most overrated band in history.

Agree...1,000%

That said, GD did give us Owsley Stanley, their sound engineer and infamous LSD king who became the subject of Steely Dan's "Don't Take Me Alive" track on their Royal Scam album.

[wardaddy]

The Dead aren’t really rated

It’s not for everyone anymore than Mahavishnu would be or early Floyd

But they have a following no doubt

The Americana country traditional songs genre kind of gives a tour of the south and the Rockies even though none of them were from there

I think Robert Hunter had traveled a bit

He was the lyricist

I understand why some don’t like it

It grew on me but I like the 66-77 stuff but mostly 68-71

Kind of like the stones timeline for best out out

They probably sound “cleanest “ on American beauty which has Truckin

And yes Live they were erratic

They also represented a culture which some dove into and some absorbed from afar in more conventional lives (that would be me pretty much)

They personified the San Francisco Haight thing probably more than anyone and carried it longer

They also bridged that with prior beat culture

Like Kesey said once “I’m too old to be a hippie and too young to be a beat”

I like harder rock too

B1957 I grew up on stones and Beatles 45s onwards

Stones
Zep
Beatles
Floyd

Prolly my top four which I still listen too

Dead is like an adjunct

An important adjunct

It any of that makes sense

[wardaddy]

Kid Charlemagne