Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, who spent the Seventies singing with the Grateful Dead, sang back-up on several classic Sixties hits, and fronted her own bands, has died. She was 78.
Godchaux died Sunday, Nov. 2, at a hospice facility in Nashville after a “lengthy struggle with cancer,” according to a statement shared with Rolling Stone. “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,” the statement continued. “In the words of Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, ‘May the four winds blow her safely home.’”
Godchaux joined the Grateful Dead in 1971 alongside her husband, Keith, who played keyboards. Her vocals were a key feature of the Dead’s seminal run during the Seventies, appearing on such classic albums as Europe ’72, Wake of the Flood, and Terrapin Station, not to mention countless legendary live recordings (including the famed Cornell ’77 gig and the Dead’s September 1978 shows at the Giza pyramid in Egypt).
Prior to joining the Dead, Godcheaux was working as an in-demand session singer in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. She contributed to hits like Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” and Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds,” while also singing on songs by Duane Allman, Cher, Neil Diamond, and Boz Scaggs.
Donna and Keith also released several albums together, though Keith died in a car crash in 1980 not long after they formed the group, the Heart of Gold Band. Later, Godchaux would front her own group, alternately known as Donna Jean and the Tricksters and the Donna Jean Godchaux Band. Her last studio album, with musician Jeff Mattson, was released in 2014.
Born Donna Jean Thatcher in Florence, Alabama, Godchaux started her career in nearby Muscle Shoals, which was then at the center of a rock and soul renaissance during the 1960s. Along with her work with artists like Sledge and Cher, she sang on R.B. Greaves’ “Take a Letter Maria” and Diamond’s “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show.” She also worked with Joe Tex, Dionne Warwick, and Ben E. King.
During this time, Godchaux also lived and worked in Memphis, which is where she recorded with Presley in 1969. Along with “Suspicious Minds,” she sang on “In the Ghetto” and other songs Presley cut at the American Sound Studio. It was, as Godchaux told Rolling Stone in 2014, a “very intense” experience, though she and the other vocalists “were so professional” when they were singing.
After the session ended, though, she and the others took a photo with the King and then “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.”
In 1970, Godchaux left the South and traveled out west, settling in San Francisco. There, she met Keith and saw the Dead play for the first time. After one concert at a local club, Godchaux approached Jerry Garcia and pitched Keith to join: “I told Jerry that Keith needed to be in the band and I needed his home phone number, and I got his number!” she recalled. Both joined the band soon after.
For Godchaux, playing with the Dead presented a new challenge. As she told RS, she’d built her career as a studio singer, and was “used to having headphones and being in a controlled environment.” Singing live was far more chaotic, and she acknowledged that there are plenty of Dead recordings where her vocals are pitchy.
“Everything was so loud onstage. And not to mention being inebriated. I can’t defend myself very much, but I can’t blame it all on that,” she admitted with a laugh.
While the Dead were one of the most creatively formidable and inventive groups of the Seventies, the decade also took its toll. Godchaux’s relationship with Keith was tumultuous, and she was regularly drinking and using cocaine; Keith was also using drugs and members of the Dead’s crew recalled hearing frequent screaming matches between the couple.
This story is developing
