Vince Welnick
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Vince Welnick | |
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Background information | |
Born | Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. | February 21, 1951
Died | June 2, 2006 Sonoma County, California, U.S. | (aged 55)
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Keyboards, vocals |
Years active | 1973–2006 |
Formerly of |
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Website | www |
Vincent Leo Welnick (February 21, 1951 – June 2, 2006) was an American keyboardist and singer-songwriter, best known for playing with the band The Tubes during the 1970s and 1980s and with the Grateful Dead in the 1990s. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 as a member of the Grateful Dead.
Music career
Welnick was born in Phoenix, Arizona, the great-grandson of Prussian immigrants. He started playing keyboards as a teenager. He joined a band, the Beans, which eventually morphed into the Tubes, a San Francisco-based theater rock band popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s and noted for early live performances that combined lewd quasi-pornography with wild satires of media, consumerism and politics.
The Tubes in the 1980s were a major commercial rock act with substantial MTV success. Videos for "Talk to Ya Later" and "She's a Beauty" played in heavy rotation on MTV in the mid-1980s. While playing in the Tubes, Welnick also played and recorded with Todd Rundgren.
When
In 1994, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead.[2]
Welnick became depressed following a diagnosis of cancer and emphysema shortly before the final Grateful Dead tour. He decided to do the summer 1995 Grateful Dead tour and wait to have surgery after it ended. Shortly after the tour was over, Jerry Garcia died. Welnick joined Bob Weir's new group,
In 1998, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Mickey Hart regrouped under the name the Other Ones. According to musician and publisher Mike Lawson, Welnick was troubled when they reunited without him under the term the "surviving members of Grateful Dead". He voiced frustration to Rolling Stone, saying, "I am and always will be a member of the Grateful Dead. It's a lifetime thing that Jerry bestows upon a person."[4] Welnick toured with jam bands, recorded music in his home studio, and worked with friends on their albums. With the band Mood Food he finished a reggae version of "To Love Somebody" by the Bee Gees. He left behind hundreds of hours of unreleased materials, both personal and professional recordings. During his final years, he worked closely with Gent Treadly.[5]
Film
Welnick played a small part in the 1981 film Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. Fee Waybill of the Tubes played Lou Corpse, the washed-up front man of a band called The Metal Corpses. Welnick played Jerry Jervey, the guitar player (though the reporter calls him the bass player) with the Corpses, who dies of an overdose in a backstage bathroom.
Welnick also appeared in Xanadu, along with the rest of the Tubes.
Death
After struggling with depression for ten years, Welnick died by suicide by slit throat on June 2, 2006. He was 55 years old.[6]
Discography
With The Tubes
- The Tubes (1975)
- Young and Rich (1976)
- Now (1977)
- What Do You Want from Live (1978)
- Remote Control (1979)
- The Completion Backward Principle (1981)
- Outside Inside (1983)
- Love Bomb (1985)
- Infomercial: How to Become Tubular (2000)
- Mondo Birthmark (2009)
With Todd Rundgren
- Nearly Human (1989)
- 2nd Wind (1991)
With Grateful Dead
- Infrared Roses (1991)
- Fallout from the Phil Zone (1997)
- Dick's Picks Volume 9 (1997)
- So Many Roads (1965-1995)(1999)
- Dick's Picks Volume 17 (2000)
- View from the Vault, Volume Two (2001)
- Dick's Picks Volume 27 (2003)
- Grateful Dead Download Series Volume 11 (2006)
- Road Trips Volume 2 Number 1 (2008)
- Road Trips Volume 2 Number 4 (2009)
- 30 Trips Around the Sun (2015)
- 30 Trips Around the Sun: The Definitive Live Story 1965–1995 (2015)
- Giants Stadium 1987, 1989, 1991 (2019)
- Saint of Circumstance (2019)
- Ready or Not (2019)
With others
- Chance in a Million (1994) – Zero
- Calling Up Spirits (1996) – Dick Dale
- Second Sight (1996) – Second Sight
- Fiesta Amazonica (1998) – Merl Saunders
- Missing Man Formation (1998) – Missing Man Formation
- Might as Well... (2000) – The Persuasions
- Smallstone (2000) – Smallstone
- Uh-Oh! (2001) – Tipsy
- Texistentialism (2007) – Jerry Lightfoot's Band of Wonder
References
- ^ Kahn, Andy (June 2, 2016). "Remembering Vince Welnick: First Show With Grateful Dead In 1990". JamBase. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
- ^ "The Grateful Dead". Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
- ^ Locey, Bill (August 15, 1996). "Bands Will Help Fans Connect with the Dead". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
- ^ Josephson, Isaac (April 20, 1998). "The Last Trip: Unfinished Dead Music". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
- ^ Greenhaus, Mike https://jambands.com/features/2003/11/28/not-just-the-missing-man-vince-welnick-jams-with-gent-treadly/ Jambands.com
- ^ Selvin, Joel (June 30, 2006). "Vince Welnick Lived the Dream, Playing Music with the Grateful Dead, But Depression Dogged Him to His Final Days". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 23, 2007.
- Grateful Dead musician dies at 55 BBC News – Grateful Dead musician dies at 55
- Vince Welnick 1995 Interview with the Memphis Flyer
- "Welnick dies". Grateful Dead Website. June 2, 2006. Archived from the original on May 28, 2006. Retrieved June 3, 2006.
- San Francisco Chronicle "Grateful Dead's last keyboardist, Vince Welnick, dies at 55" June 3 2006
- Urban Tulsa "Healing begins as "Friends" pay tribute to their musical companion and mentor" June 16 2006
External links
- Official website
- Vince Welnick at AllMusic
- Vince Welnick collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
- The National Anthem by Garcia, Weir, and Welnick before a 1993 San Francisco Giants game at Candlestick Park, boingboing.com.
- Official Grateful Dead Website
- Vince Welnick discography at Discogs