Ron McKernan

Ron McKernan's tombstone

Ronald Charles "Pigpen" McKernan (born September 8, 1945 in San Bruno , California , † probably March 8, 1973 in Corte Madera , California) was the American keyboardist , organist and harmonica player for the rock group Grateful Dead .

Life

McKernan was one of the founding members of the band. Musically he was influenced by his father, a rhythm & blues DJ, as well as by the many African-Americans in whose neighborhood he grew up in his place of birth.

After he was expelled from high school, McKernan began making a living as a piano player . This led to a meeting with Jerry García , in whose first band, Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, he became a keyboardist, harmonica player and singer. The Dead evolved from it in 1965.

Pigpen McKernan was a mediator between the worlds of rockers and hippies ; he coped with life on constant tour with alcohol and other drugs . After completing the European tour in 1972, he was no longer able to perform live. On March 8, 1973, McKernan, who died of a stomach bleeding, was found dead in his home in Corte Madera . He was 27 years old, just like Janis Joplin , with whom he was briefly in a relationship. She is counted in the narrower sense, he in the wider sense of the club 27 .

McKernan was buried in the Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto . His gravestone reads as a play on words

"Pigpen was and is now forever one of the Grateful Dead"

"Pigpen was and is now forever one of the Grateful Dead."

Web links

• Ron “Pigpen” McKernan on the official Grateful Dead homepage

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ron “Pigpen” McKernan , biographical data on allmusic.com (accessed August 2, 2012).