Donna Jean Godchaux, who sang with the Grateful Lifeless all through the Seventies, has died on the age of 78.
The information was confirmed in an announcement shared with Rolling Stone by her consultant Dennis McNally, who mentioned that she handed away on Sunday (November 2) at a hospice facility in Nashville after a “prolonged battle with most cancers”.
“She was a candy and warmly stunning spirit, and all those that knew her are united in loss,” McNally added. “The household requests privateness right now of grieving. Within the phrases of Lifeless lyricist Robert Hunter, ‘Might the 4 winds blow her safely residence.’”
Godchaux joined the Lifeless in 1971 concurrently her husband Keith, who performed keyboards within the band. She sang on a string of seminal information by the psychedelic giants, together with ‘Europe ‘72’, ‘Wake Of The Flood’ and ‘Terrapin Station’, in addition to lots of the band’s well-known bootleg reside recordings.
Earlier than that, she had a profitable profession as a session singer on the legendary Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama and elsewhere, singing backing vocals on big hits similar to ‘Suspicious Minds’ and ‘In The Ghetto’ by Elvis Presley and ‘When A Man Loves A Girl’ by Percy Sledge. She additionally labored with Cher, Neil Diamond, Duane Allman and Boz Scaggs throughout that late-’60s interval.
Along with their work with the Grateful Lifeless, Donna and Keith Godchaux launched the album ‘Keith & Donna’ in 1975, which featured contributions from Lifeless frontman Jerry Garcia.
They left the band in 1979 and fashioned the Coronary heart Of Gold Band, however that mission got here to an finish with the sudden loss of life of Keith the next 12 months.
Godchaux continued to create new music, forming the Donna Jean Godchaux Band and Donna Jean And The Tricksters within the ‘80s, earlier than beginning a solo profession in 1998 with a self-titled report. Her remaining album ‘Again Round’ was recorded with the Donna Jean Godchaux Band alongside Jeff Mattson and was launched in 2014.
Her loss of life follows the passing of founding Grateful Lifeless bassist Phil Lesh final October on the age of 84. In August, Lifeless And Firm – made up of band alumni Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, alongside others – performed three sold-out nights in San Francisco to mark the Lifeless’s sixtieth anniversary.
