[strumminsix]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... JM4F61.DTL

[whitelacestrange]

wow.... poor guy

[HOWEYMAN]

Dammmmmmmmmmmb! thats heavy shit.

[phreaker]

i really hope bobby and billy read this.

i never really realized he was trying to get the band back together for all that time. writing songs...calling the members...going into a studio to do the songs?

i have a whole new appriciation for welnick, now.

thats pretty sketchy that he did it in front of his wife. its times like these where you wish you could help someone, but you know its totally imposseble.

[ebick]

i really hope bobby and billy read this.

To what end? I think that they made their positions on the matter pretty clear.

Some of the more intriguing parts of the story, IMO:

Welnick's keyboard skills did not win him the job with the Dead, though; it was his ability to hit the high harmonies on vocals.

"We had no stomach for the amount of work it would have taken to find the right guy," said Dead guitarist Bob Weir. "We took the guy who could sing high and had pretty decent chops. That was good enough."

pretty lazy attitude, if you ask me.

The famously egalitarian band offered Welnick almost full participation in the concert revenues, merchandise and other partnership holdings, rather than simply taking him on as a sideman.

That December, on the RatDog tour bus before a show in Santa Barbara, Welnick spilled out the contents of a Valium bottle and counted 57 pills. He took them all, climbed in his bunk and waited to die. The tour manager accompanied him to the hospital, while the rest of the band played the show.

There's been a lot made about this. Weir played the night Jerry died. The show must go on.

Many insiders privately found Welnick's dramatic grieving out of proportion for someone who had belonged to the band as briefly and late in the day

I remember hearing that Vince had taken Jerry's death harder than anyone else in the band. I had a hard time reconciling this for the exact reasons stated above.

He did play a summer 2000 tour with the Mickey Hart Band on the condition that his wife stay home.

What was this all about? Did I read something about her having a fear of flying?

Please don't read me wrong. I harbor no ill-will towards Vince and I feel really bad about the whoel situation. It sounds to me like he had a lot of demons to deal with pre-and-post Dead. Depression is no simple matter. But it sounds like, as far as the rest of the band was concerned, on a unanimous basis, he was out, and he didn't get the message.

I know I'll catch hell for this post, people are wanting to castrate Bob, Phil, Mickey, and Bill, and I just don't think it's warranted.

[sarraqum]

You make some good points there ebick.

The other side of the coin has now been revealed. I don't blame the rest of the band for what happened to Vince, at least not to the extent of castrating them all.
It clear that Vince had an obsession, a manic one and thats nobody's fault. But I do think that the rest of the band could have done more. Its not their fault but it could have been prevented if only they had more sense.

[CaptainTrips]

I agree with ebick . . . Welnick seemed like he had an unhealthy fascination with a band that he played with for only such a short span of its history. And who knows if it wasnt for eating 57 valiums on Bobbys bus things could have been different. Seems to me like the other guys kind of viewed him as a liablility

[caspersvapors]

I think its pretty unfair to say Vince had a lazy attitude, just because his chops werent as great as Hornsby's does not mean that Vince was lazy. Jerry even said he himself was a slow learner. From other stuff Ive read on Vince he practiced constantly, I wouldnt be surprised if this was a reflection of his obsessiveness with the hope that the band might get back together.

[ebick]

You mis-interpreted.

I was saying that the Dead had a lazy attitude, not doing what they appearantly knew they should do to properly replace Brent.

[caspersvapors]

ok gotcha, thats what I thought originally too

[st stephen]

what a sad story. It seems like there was not much anyone could do. He battled with a lot of demons. Maybe the boys could have realized that he was really sick and tried to help him but none of us really no the situation or truly no the relationship they all had with vince.

Yeah kinda of lazy and stupid that the band would pick someone for there vocal range. I always looked at the dead as concentrating on the music more than the vocals.

RIP vince.

[phreaker]

Yeah kinda of lazy and stupid that the band would pick someone for there vocal range. I always looked at the dead as concentrating on the music more than the vocals.

RIP vince.

Seems odd to me, too. Although, this is the impression that I got:

The closer that the 90's came, the less the Dead cared about touring or playing. Not to say that they disliked it, but Phil even said stuff like how much he just wanted to go home sometimes, and he was always relieved when they cancelled a show. It was 24 years (1975 doesnt count) of nonstop touring and recording on top of that.

So as far out as it seems just to pick a guy and say "so he can sing, play ok keys...yeah whatever, take him." but if you throw all the other factors in there, it's a little more understandable.

Because, man. If the Dead ever NEEDED a better vocalist, it was the 90's.

[Lew]

I just found out about this today. That's ok, though it is still a shock. I lost my dad two days before we lost Vince. Maybe he was a little bit obsessed with trying to regroup, it was probably the best time he had and it was cut short. I'm sure we all wish Jerry was still here. 5 years is not a short time to be in a band, How many bands have you played in that lasted even that long? Following Brent was no easy job, but he had his moments. And yes, I liked the Tubes too. Alot of musicians have great highs and severe lows - it is the artist temperment.
It is too bad he couldn't find his way back from that last one. (Sometimes, nobody can help.)

RIP Vince and I hope you can find a road to take you home now.