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Reflections: Jerry Garcia’s Life and Legacy (John Bell, Del McCoury, Ethan Miller, Neal Casal…)

DEL MCCOURY

When I met Jerry…I was playing a bluegrass festival in Warrenton, Virginia, I think it was, a bluegrass festival there. The stage was sittin’ on a lake and the audience was on dry ground. That’s the part I remember most about this festival. Anyways, I was booked on a Friday night and I had to go to another festival the next day, and just before I left I met with David Grisman, and he said “I want you to meet my new banjo player,” and it was Jerry Garcia. He had real thick black hair and a beard, you know? And so, David wanted Jerry to hear this banjo player that was supposedly at that festival—his name was Porter Church, a great traditional banjo picker. He said, “have you seen him?” and I said “yeah, he’s got a motorhome up here, he’s sitting on the steps of the motorhome playin’, but I’ve got to leave.” So I took ‘em up there and he was there, Porter was. I guess he introduced Jerry Garcia to Porter then. And so I left and I didn’t see Jerry for a long time.

I saw him in Columbia, Maryland, cause I used to live in PA, you know. So I went down to Columbia to see one of his Dead shows. And when he found out I was there he had me come backstage in the greenroom and said “you know, I wanted to play with Bill Monroe. I used to come see you guys at Ash Grove,” [the club] in Hollywood when I was working for Monroe in 1963. We played that like a week one time and two weeks another time. And he said, “man, I was in the audience every night, watching that. I wanted to be a bluegrass boy!” And I said, “man, why didn’t you tell us!” (Laughs)

But I never really got to know Jerry that well. He was a great guy, though…I wish I had gotten to know him better. He had a lot of respect for bluegrass musicians. [That time in Columbia] he told me, “man, you know, we’re just lucky.” And I said, “Well now, I tell you what goes along with luck—professionalism!” (Laughs) “Maybe a little of that,” he said. He wasn’t real braggy about nothin’.

NEAL CASAL (CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD, BEACHWOOD SPARKS)

There is no one who has ever created music with the combination of intelligence, intuition, depth, creativity, and humor that Jerry Garcia has. His work and life will continue to be a limitless source of inspiration for all of us.

SCOTT METZGER (WOLF!, BUSTLE IN YOUR HEDGEROW)

I read an interview with Jerry once and in it he said, “I want each note I play to have a little piece of my soul in it” or something to that effect. That really stuck with me and has had an enormous impact on how I play. I think about that quote all the time, actually. When he was on, you could hear that he really was singing each note that he played—using the guitar as his voice.

My favorite performance of his is with his band doing “Dear Prudence” from Kean College in 1980. I wasn’t there or anything, but it’s on a disc I have called After Midnight. His singing is great and the guitar playing—oh, man. So much intensity. It has that urgency that was such a great part of his playing that sounds like he might not make the next note. Like there’s no way he’s gonna make the next note. But he makes it. And he doesn’t go on forever: he says what he’s gonna say, sticks the landing and gets out. It’s perfect.