Donna Jean Godchaux, the powerhouse vocalist who helped outline the Grateful Dead’s sound all through the Nineteen Seventies, has handed away on the age of 78. The Alabama-born singer handed away on Sunday, November 2, at a hospice facility in Nashville after what her household described as a “lengthy struggle with cancer,” based on Rolling Stone.
An announcement shared with the publication stated: “She was a sweet and warmly beautiful spirit, and all those who knew her are united in loss. The family requests privacy at this time of grieving. In the words of Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, ‘May the four winds blow her safely home.’” Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, as she later turned identified, joined the Grateful Dead in 1971 alongside her husband, keyboardist Keith Godchaux. Her wealthy harmonies turned a key a part of the band’s most celebrated period, that includes on basic albums together with Europe ’72, Wake of the Flood, and Terrapin Station.
Cornell ’77 present to their unforgettable 1978 live shows on the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.
Before her years with the Dead, Donna carved out a stellar profession as one of many South’s most in-demand session singers. Working within the legendary Muscle Shoals studios, she lent her voice to a string of soul and rock classics — amongst them Percy Sledge’s When a Man Loves a Woman and Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds.
She additionally appeared on recordings by Cher, Neil Diamond, Boz Scaggs, Duane Allman, and Ben E. King.
Reflecting on her periods with Presley in 1969, Donna advised Rolling Stone in 2014 that recording with the King was a “very intense” expertise: “We were so professional when we were singing,” she stated.
“But after the session ended, we went into the International House of Pancakes in Memphis and screamed bloody murder for about an hour, holding up that little Polaroid picture of us and Elvis together.”
After transferring to San Francisco in 1970, Donna met the Grateful Dead via her future husband. “I told Jerry [Garcia] that Keith needed to be in the band and I needed his home phone number — and I got his number!” she recalled. Both she and Keith joined the band quickly after.
Donna later admitted that transitioning from the studio to the stage was difficult: she had constructed her profession as a managed studio vocalist, and performing stay with the Dead’s freeform improvisation examined her limits.
“I was used to having headphones and being in a controlled environment,” she stated, acknowledging there have been moments the place her stay vocals have been “pitchy.”
After leaving the Dead in 1979, Donna continued to carry out and report music, releasing a self-titled album with Keith in 1975 and later fronting her personal teams — together with Donna Jean and the Tricksters and the Donna Jean Godchaux Band.
Her last album, recorded with Jeff Mattson, was launched in 2014.
https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/2129289/Donna-Jean-Godchaux-dead-cancer-battle