Former Grateful Dead Keyboardist Takes His Own Life

Vince Welnick, The Grateful Dead's final keyboard player, committed suicide on Friday.

Welnick was rushed to a local hospital in Sonoma County, Calif., but succumbed to his injuries, according to local police. On Monday, they determined that the 55-year-old musician took his own life.

Welnick performed with the Dead during the band's latter years between 1990 and 1995. He cut his teeth playing and touring in other bands, including The Tubes. Since the Dead's dissolution, he was part of Missing Man Formation and, most recently, the Dead-influenced Gent Treadly.

Welnick was the latest in a long line of Dead keyboard players who died prematurely, leading some Deadheads to believe that the position is cursed. Welnick followed: Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, who died in 1973 due to alcohol abuse; Keith Godchaux, who died in a car accident shortly after leaving the band; and Brent Mydland, who died of a drug overdose in July 1990.

This wasn't the first time that Welnick attempted to commit suicide. For several years he had been battling an oppressive drug addiction and coping with the foreboding affects of severe depression.

In a 2003 interview with Relix Magazine, Welnick admitted, "I tried to off myself... in 1995" following the death of bandmate and mentor Jerry Garcia while playing with Ratdog, a band fronted by Dead alumni Bob Weir.

According to Welnick's close friend and webmaster, Mike Lawson, Welnick's depression worsened after he wasn't asked to join the Dead in their several reincarnations that have occurred since 1995. Especially troubling for Welnick was his exclusion from the Grateful Dead's Family Reunion, a two-day festival featuring the surviving members of the band that occurred during the summer of 2002.

"His service and love for the Grateful Dead were heartfelt and essential," said a statement posted on the Dead's website. "He had a loving soul and a joy in music that we were lucky to share."

Welnick is survived by his wife, Lori.