In response to Grateful Dead vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay‘s death on Sunday, surviving members of the band including Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann shared heartfelt tributes to their former bandmate.
“Well OK, Donna’s moved on,” Weir began in a message posted to social media along with a photo of the two on stage. “She blazed a path in music many aspire to follow. In her quiet, unassuming way she’ll be goin’ for it, even though there may not even be words for what 𝘪𝘵 is – how she always was…”
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“It is with heavy hearts that we mourn the loss of Donna Jean Godchaux,” Hart shared, quoting the statement posted to the Grateful Dead’s official channels. “Her unmistakable voice and radiant spirit touched the lives of countless fans and immeasurably enriched the Grateful Dead family. Her contributions will forever remain part of the tapestry that continues to be woven. We send our deepest condolences to her loved ones and ask for privacy for her family during this time.”
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Bill Kreutzmann offered a longer eulogy, reflecting on his friendship with Donna Jean and her extensive musical resume:
Anyone that we let into our lives must one day leave it, so we should focus on the time we have with each other in between those finite bookmarks and fill them with as many pages as possible.
And even though we so often lose touch along the way, that doesn’t mean the end still doesn’t sting. It has to. At least, if the person meant anything to you. And Donna Jean Godchaux sure did mean something to me. She was my bandmate and she was my friend. So I loved her.
I first met Donna in 1971 and it didn’t take long before we invited her to join the band. She was very much woven into the Dead’s tie-dyed tapestry during the ‘70s — and some of those years remain my all-time favorite of the Grateful Dead. Which means that some of my favorite music that I ever made with the Grateful Dead was made with Donna.
In the world of Deadheads, Donna’s history often got lost, but it’s important to note that her career didn’t begin with the Grateful Dead. Nor was she on stage with us just because her husband was our keyboardist.
Donna came to us with a pretty incredible resume and we all knew her voice already from the radio. That’s her on “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge. And that’s her with Elvis on “Suspicious Minds.”
After cutting her teeth as a session singer in Memphis, she became a member of the legendary Muscle Shoals collective over at FAME Studios in Alabama and she sang on so many of those iconic recordings. So the legacy that she leaves behind goes far beyond her service in the Grateful Dead.
But none of that is what I’m thinking about today. Instead, I’m replaying so many scenes of friendship, of growing pains, of the ups and downs of a decade’s worth of adventures, of inside jokes that may have gotten lost to time but whose warm feeling remains inside my mind and my heart forever.
Which is where a part of her will live now, too. I’m sending love to her family, to my extended family, and to all of you.
Donna, may your body rest in peace and your spirit soar, as the four winds do their thing. Love will accompany you every step of that infinite journey — and not fade away.
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Kreutzmann’s manager and Deal co-author Benjy Eisen shared a video clip of Donna Jean rehearsing with Weir and the late Neal Casal at Weir’s TRI Studios in 2012.
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Trixie Garcia, on behalf of the Jerry Garcia family, wrote, “Donna Jean was a kind and a loving soul. We are blessed that she shared her unique sound with the band and there isn’t another person that would’ve fit in the way that she did. Her voice brought light and will continue to be heard.”
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