Vince Welnick

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Vince Welnick
Vince Welnick performing live in 2005
Background information
Born	February 21, 1951(1951-02-21) Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Died	June 2, 2006 (aged 55) Sonoma County, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Keyboardist
Instrument(s)	Keyboards
Years active	1973–2006
Associated acts	The Tubes, Grateful Dead, Missing Man Formation, Mickey Hart Band
Website	www.vincewelnick.com

Vince Welnick (February 21, 1951 – June 2, 2006) was an American keyboardist, best known for playing with the band The Tubes during the 1970s and 1980s and with the Grateful Dead in the 1990s.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Music career

Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Welnick 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 rock classics "Talk To Ya Later" and "She's A Beauty" played in heavy rotation on the MTV network for years in the mid-1980s. While playing in the Tubes, he also played with Todd Rundgren.

When the Grateful Dead's keyboardist, Brent Mydland, died of a drug overdose on 26 July 1990, the band began auditioning players to replace him, including Ian McLagan, Pete Sears and T Lavitz. Welnick was selected, not least for his high vocal range for backup harmonies. His AP obituary mentioned he was so nervous at his first gig with the band in 1990 in Cleveland that he could barely play, until the fans put him at ease. Bruce Hornsby also supplemented Welnick on grand piano for over 100 shows in Welnick's first years in the Dead. Welnick remained as the band's keyboard player until Jerry Garcia's death in August 1995, when the group disbanded.

During a stint with Ratdog, Vince became very depressed with the loss of Jerry Garcia and he attempted suicide about six months after Garcia's death, effectively ending any future creative interaction between him and what was left of the Grateful Dead. In 2002 Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Phil Lesh regrouped under the name The Dead. Welnick was not asked to participate, a fact that troubled him, according to musician Mike Lawson, who oversees Welnick's website.

Subsequently, he became involved in solo efforts, formed and played in the band Missing Man Formation, was a key member of the second ever Phil Lesh and Friends show in March of 1998, and had a brief stint with the Mickey Hart Band later that year.

Welnick is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[edit] Film

Welnick played a small part in the 1982 Canadian 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 keyboard player with the Corpses, who dies of an overdose in a bathtub.

Welnick also appeared in Xanadu, along with the rest of The Tubes.

[edit] Death

Vince Welnick committed suicide on June 2, 2006.^[1]

[edit] Tributes

On June 9, 2006 Ratdog played "Way To Go Home" for the first time as a tribute to Welnick at the Sonoma County fairgrounds.

Former Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten took up the keys for the "Vince Welnick and Friends Tour" that was scheduled before his death. They played many Vince Welnick staples including "Samba in the Rain". A very touching "He Was a Friend of Mine" was also played in honor of Welnick. On the second night of the tour they stopped in St. Louis and the opener The Schwag, who Welnick had played with before, did "Turn on Your Love Light" and dedicated it to Welnick with some improvised lyrics about Welnick and his life.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Vince Welnick official website
• Vince Welnick at Allmusic
• Vince Welnick collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive