15 Facts About Keith Godchaux

Keith Richard Godchaux was an American pianist best known for his tenure in the rock group the Grateful Dead from 1971 to 1979.

Keith Godchaux was born in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in Concord, California, a regional suburban center within the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Keith Godchaux began piano lessons at age five at the instigation of his father and subsequently played Dixieland and cocktail jazz in professional ensembles as a teenager.

Keith Godchaux met and married former FAME Studios session vocalist Donna Jean Thatcher in November 1970; their son Zion, of the band BoomBox, was born in 1974.

At the time, Keith Godchaux was largely supported by his wife and irregularly employed as a lounge pianist in Walnut Creek, California.

Keith Godchaux said there was a guy down there with him that I simply had to hear.

Keith Godchaux first performed publicly with the Dead on October 19,1971, at the University of Minnesota's Northrup Auditorium.

Keith Godchaux added a Fender Rhodes electric piano in mid-1973 and briefly experimented with the Hammond organ again on the band's fall 1973 tour; the Rhodes piano would remain in his setup through 1976.

Increasingly frayed from the vicissitudes of the rock and roll lifestyle, Keith Godchaux gradually became dependent upon various drugs, most notably alcohol and heroin.

Keith Godchaux contributed to two group compositions on Blues for Allah.

Keith Godchaux maintained a presence in the band's extended orbit, returning intermittently to California to perform alongside Kreutzmann in the Healy-Treece Band and on at least one occasion with Hunter.

Keith Godchaux formed The Ghosts with his wife; this Bay Area-based aggregation eventually came to include a young Steve Kimock on guitar.

Keith Godchaux sustained massive head injuries in an auto accident while being driven home on his birthday by noted tie-dye artist Courtenay Pollock in July 1980.

Keith Godchaux was really competent too, in that he could pick up whatever Jerry and I started playing that day, and just run with it.

Keith Godchaux could learn songs before he was even done hearing them for the first time.