Jerry Garcia died 25 years ago today. Sometime Grateful Dead pianist Bruce Hornsby looks back on Garcia's last days, and reflects on his close bond with the legendary guitarist
The last year-plus of his life, Jerry was really struggling with his addiction. The Dead camp called me up in March of ’95 and said, “Hey, if we get a piano for you, would you fly down here to the Charlotte Coliseum?” I said, “You caught me at a pretty good time, and I can do that.” They thought Jerry was fairly listless and uninvolved, and they thought that maybe I could give him a pickup. They always felt I did that when I was there, but I don’t know what effect it had.
He could still be energetic. During the soundcheck, I was getting used to the piano, and he comes out from his tent and leans on the piano and started talking to me: It was, “Why don’t you let me play on that song?” We were just bantering and having fun. But he was haggard and always sweaty, and you had a helpless feeling. I think all the guys felt that, that nobody could really help him. I was a tangential part of their scene at that point. I wasn’t around all the time.
Two weeks after that, the end of July, early August, I called out there just to get a progress report. Well,answers. He’d left the center early, but he was in good spirits. He felt like he had kicked it. Everyone was skeptical, I imagine. But he’s regaling me with stories about his couple weeks at Betty Ford, meeting some guy who knew Django Reinhardt and about the upcoming fall tour. I had just worked with Ornette Coleman and he’d worked with him too, so we were comparing notes about that.
They were clearly looking for comfort wherever they could find it. I guess they figured I was a sympathetic kindred spirit and was there for them. And I was, and they were there for me. I played songs and talked to the audience. It was very collegial and very interactive. I might have played my favorite Grateful Dead song, “Wharf Rat.” It seemed appropriate for that moment.
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