Jerome John Garcia August 1, — August 9, [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] was an American musician who was the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead , which he co-founded and which came to prominence during the counterculture of the s. As one of its founders, Garcia performed with the Grateful Dead for the band's entire year career — He was well known for his distinctive guitar playing, and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone ' s " Greatest Guitarists of All Time" cover story in Garcia was renowned for his musical and technical ability, particularly his ability to play a variety of instruments and sustain long improvisations.
Garcia believed that improvisation took stress away from his playing and allowed him to make spur of the moment decisions that he would not have made intentionally. In a interview with Rolling Stone , Garcia noted that "my own preferences are for improvisation, for making it up as I go along. The idea of picking , of eliminating possibilities by deciding, that's difficult for me". Originating from the days of the " Acid Tests ", these improvisations were a form of exploration rather than playing a song already written.
Later in life, Garcia struggled with diabetes. In , he went into a diabetic coma and nearly died. Although his overall health improved somewhat after the incident, he continued to struggle with obesity, smoking, and long-standing heroin and cocaine addictions. Garcia's ancestors on his father's side were from Galicia in northwest Spain. His mother's ancestors were Irish and Swedish.
Garcia was raised as a Catholic. In , [ 29 ] [ 30 ] two-thirds of four-year-old Garcia's right middle finger was cut off by his brother in a wood splitting accident, while the family was vacationing in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Less than a year after this incident his father died in a fly fishing accident when the family was vacationing near Arcata in Northern California.
He slipped after entering the Trinity River , part of the Six Rivers National Forest , [ 34 ] and drowned before other fishermen could reach him. Following his father's death, Garcia's mother Ruth took over her husband's bar, buying out his partner for full ownership. She began working full-time there, sending Jerry and his brother to live nearby with her parents, Tillie and William Clifford.
