Vince Welnick

Infobox musical artist
Name = Vince Welnick

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Img_capt = Vince Welnick performing live in 2005
Img_size =
Landscape = yes
Background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth_name =
Alias =
Born = birth date|1951|2|21|mf=y
Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Died = death date and age|2006|6|2|1951|2|21
Sonoma County, California, U.S.
Origin =
Instrument = Keyboards
Genre =
Occupation = Keyboardist
Years_active = 1973–2006
Label =
Associated_acts = The Tubes, Grateful Dead, Missing Man Formation, Mickey Hart Band
URL = [http://www.vincewelnick.com/ www.vincewelnick.com]
Notable_instruments =

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.

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 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.

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

Vince Welnick committed suicide on June 2, 2006. [Citation |last=Selvin |first=Joel |title=Vince Welnick lived the dream, playing music with the Grateful Dead, but depression dogged him to his final days |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/30/DDG12JM4F61.DTL |publisher="San Francisco Chronicle" |date=2006-06-30 |accessdate=2007-11-23]

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.

Discography

*"The Tubes" (1975) – The Tubes
*"Young and Rich" (1976) – The Tubes
*"Now" (1977) – The Tubes
*"What Do You Want from Live" (1978) – The Tubes
*"Remote Control" (1979) – The Tubes
*"The Completion Backward Principle" (1981) – The Tubes
*"Outside Inside" (1983) – The Tubes
*"Love Bomb" (1985) – The Tubes
*"Nearly Human" (1989) – Todd Rundgren
*"2nd Wind" (1991) – Todd Rundgren
*"Infrared Roses" (1991) – Grateful Dead
*"Chance in a Million" (1994) – Zero
*"Calling Up Spirits" (1996) – Dick Dale
*"If a Tree Falls" (1996) – various artists
*"Second Sight" (1996) – Second Sight
*"Fallout from the Phil Zone" (1997) – Grateful Dead
*"Dick's Picks Volume 9" (1997) – Grateful Dead
*"Fiesta Amazonica" (1998) – Merl Saunders
*"Missing Man Formation" (1998) – Missing Man Formation
*"Infomercial: How to Become Tubular" (2000) – The Tubes
*"Dick's Picks Volume 17" (2000) – Grateful Dead
*"Might as Well..." (2000) – The Persuasions
*"Smallstone" (2000) – Smallstone
*"Uh-Oh!" (2001) – Tipsy
*"View from the Vault, Volume Two" (2001) – Grateful Dead
*"Gifts from the Dead" (2001) – various artists
*"Texastenialism" (2007) – Jerry Lightfoot's Band of Wonder

Notes

References

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5044964.stm Grateful Dead musician dies at 55 BBC News - Grateful Dead musician dies at 55]
* [http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/welnick9503.html Vince Welnick 1995 Interview with the "Memphis Flyer"]
*cite news |first= |last= |url=http://www.dead.net/index2.php |title=Welnick dies |publisher=Grateful Dead Website |date=2006-06-02 |accessdate=2006-06-03
* [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/03/MNG45J861V4.DTL "San Francisco Chronicle" "Grateful Dead's last keyboardist, Vince Welnick, dies at 55" June 3 2006]
* [http://archives.urbantulsa.com/article.asp?id=3403 "Urban Tulsa" "Healing begins as "Friends" pay tribute to their musical companion and mentor" June 16 2006]

External links

* [http://www.vincewelnick.com/ Vince Welnick] official website
*amg | id = 11:9aqog4abtvjz | label = Vince Welnick
* [http://www.archive.org/details/VinceWelnick Vince Welnick collection] at the Internet Archive's live music archive