Brian Godchaux (4:27)

Back in 2018, before the world took a few different courses, Rich and I visited Brian Godshow, younger brother of late Grateful Dead keyboardist Keith Godshow.

Narrator/Interviewer (4:37)

One of the first things we learned before the microphones were even set up was a handy mnemonic to remember the correct pronunciation of their last name.

Brian Godchaux (4:45)

We made Brian repeat it for us more recently.

Brian Godchaux (4:47)

God Show. It rhymes with God show, not dog chow.

Narrator/Interviewer (4:52)

50 years ago this September, Jerry Garcia was approached by a couple he'd never met before at a San Francisco bar while he was playing with Merle Saunders. They informed him that this was Keith Godshow and he was the Grateful Dead's new piano player. What Donna Jean and Keith Godshow didn't know was that Ron McKernan, otherwise known as Pigpen, the Grateful Dead's organist and sometimes frontman since 1965, had suddenly entered Nevada General Hospital with a perforated ulcer and hepatitis. He'd be unable to tour that fall. Every single bit of this story is totally unlikely, and yet it both seems like it's what really happened and becomes even more wondrous in the telling. But it becomes even more unlikely the more you know about Keith Godshow.

Brian Godchaux (5:35)

When the cameras show Keith Godshow and various Grateful Dead concert films from his tenure between 1971 and 1979, which isn't very often, it's still pretty easy to miss Keith. He's just like playing piano. The story of how it was that he came to be in the Grateful Dead is, of course, extraordinary and still hard to believe even a half century later. Even more extraordinary was his musicality, as if he was born to play with the Dead. And in fact, that's more or less how everybody involved treated the sudden, unexpected arrival of Keith Godshow. Here's Jerry Garcia describing the Dead scene to an interviewer on KQRS during soundcheck in Minneapolis on October 19, 1971, just hours before Keith's debut at the opening show of the band's fall tour.

Jerry Garcia (6:22)

The people who are seen, I mean, we sort of find them and they find us. You know what I mean? It's just whoever thinks that they can dig it. There are some people that it's really right for.

Brian Godchaux (6:32)

Garcia's telling of Keith Gadchau's origin story is as understated as Keith's personality.

Brian Godchaux (6:38)

Who's your new organist now?

Jerry Garcia (6:40)

He's Keith Godschow.

Brian Godchaux (6:41)

And how did he happen to come to you guys?

Jerry Garcia (6:44)

Well, he's the guy that thought that he was the right man for the job. And he came around and we tried playing with him, and it seemed to work out real well. And it was just. It's just the thing that happened. It's exactly like what I was talking about a little while ago. There are some people that were just. That's what they're supposed to be doing.

Brian Godchaux (7:03)

Keith might have been too shy to correct Jerry's pronunciation. In case you missed it, though, Keith Godchau told the Grateful Dead that he was their new piano player. And he was. Of course, there's a lot more to it than that, and leads to some questions, like, specifically, how is it that what one is supposed to be doing is being the Grateful Dead's new keyboard player? And even more specifically, but also generally, what the hell? Keith Kadjo's playing was responsive, understated and soulful. Not jazz, nor rock, nor any other idiom, just kinda Dead music. And after coming out of nowhere, he instantly became a part of the Dead's ongoing conversation. A full band member, no side player. He didn't often take solos, but he was also kind of always soloing. Listen to his playing here on this infamous version of Scarlet Begonias. That was from May 8, 1977, at Cornell University. Now, on the Get Shown the Light box set, Keith on grand piano, the only time he ever played that transition into the jam at all like that. Like his bandmates, he was constitutionally incapable of playing the same part twice. Keith spent a little more than eight years as part of the band's conversation from late 1971 to early 1979 with his wife, vocalist Donna Jean Gadchaux. They recorded Keith and Donna in 1975. Also members of the Jerry Garcia Band. The two played out with the Keith and Donna Band as well. And when they left the grateful dead in 1979, got immediately to work as the Ghosts who eventually turn into the Heart of Gold Band. Keith died tragically in a car accident a year after leaving the Dead. Check out what he's doing under Garcia's solo from Comes a time from May 9, 1977, recorded in Buffalo the night after the Scarlet Begonias we just heard. Also on Get Shown the Light. Keith was deeply shy. I can count the number of interviews I've seen or read with him on one hand. He didn't play in any other rock bands before the Dead or come out of any particular musical scene. How did he get to be Keith Godshow? The answer probably is Hal and Gene Godschow. Here they are, Hal on piano, Jean singing, performing the 17th century French classical piece Plaiser d'. Amour, Pleasure of Love in 1987.

Brian Godchaux (10:45)

You really have to credit my dad. My father, Harold Howe Henri. He kind of would change his name as the years went by. But he was very serious about music. I mean, it was like his life he had before the war was really working to be an opera singer. He loved the opera. Was studying for years and years. I have these journals. We'd be in Chicago studying with so and so. And then he would switch to another teacher. And then the other guy said, oh, yeah. Nabucan says, I am definitely a tenor. This was a theme like, I am definitely a tenor. Well, he was almost a tenor, right? And, you know, you could kind of work it so that you could kind of, as you mature, you could extend your range. And he would go from one teacher to the next. At the time, he would pay for that by giving piano lessons or accompanying the other students. Aside from opera, my dad had also spent some time with his uncle, Uncle Joe on the vaudeville circuit. And burlesque. I think he learned a lot doing that because his uncle had would put on these shows and variety shows and dancers, and they would have musical comedy, lots of dancing girls, right? So that was kind of like he did that. And it was kind of. The family was a little bit aghast. This is burlesque. This is, you know, kind of on the edge of that. But he spent some time doing that. And I think that's where he learned something about popular music.

Brian Godchaux (12:26)

But Harold Gotcho had to put aside Music, both opera and burlesque.

Brian Godchaux (12:30)

But anyway, did not happen. Then there was. The war came along. So that was this huge dream that he had had that he worked tremendously hard. The war came along, and my dad went into the Navy and was actually at Pearl Harbor. He was at Pearl harbor three weeks before Pearl Harbor. He fortunately got transferred off of the Arizona onto the Maryland. So it's funny, like, you have your plans and dreams and aspirations, but then the world just throws, right, a huge war. And you never know. It could happen at any time. Later on, a couple years later, still during the war, a very unusual occurrence happened, which was a collision at sea. My dad was serving on the Washington, and it was in a flotilla in the night. And another of the ships went out of formation to get fueled. And they didn't do it right. Anyway, the Washington and the Indiana collided 2-24-44. And a bunch of people were killed. It was terrible. My dad was the yeoman. So actually he ripped the page out of the copy of the log. So I have that somewhere where it describes exactly what happened. So that's another thing, like fate. So anyway, the ship collides, and my dad's ship ends up having to go back to the States to get its bow repaired. So it's on its way back and goes to Seattle, Bremerton, to the shipyard. Then there's another little piece of this story. Actually. This is a story which has a magical, or a what I call miracle. I need a miracle. A ticket. A ticket. I need a miracle. The ticket in this case was a ticket to the opera. The opera Barbara Seville in Seattle. The ticket comes in a little bit. First there's a chicken, a pet hen. This is crazy. I know, but this is a chain of events. So there was a. Mr. Laverne had a pet hen that had just laid his first egg. And his girlfriend, Mrs. House. Gladys House. He had planned. He was supposed to go to the opera with Gladys, his girlfriend. He didn't want to leave the house, leave the pet hand with whatever. So my mom was a voice student of Gladys House, and she was going anyway. So Gladys House and my mom arrived at the Seattle Opera to see Barbara Seville. And I guess they had tickets. They had an extra ticket because Ms. Laverne didn't want to leave his pet hen who just laid its first egg. Had that not happened, they would have not had this extra ticket. So my dad, who is on leave, I mean, he's in the shipyard, but he has a night off. So he comes up. I'm going to go see the opera. And so he's there in his navy dress, blues or something, looking quite sharp. And so they, you know, so they're looking to give away the ticket. And my mom said, what about him over there? Does he look all right? I can't. She didn't have her glasses on, so she couldn't see. I said, yeah, he'll do. So anyway, he came over. Would you like this ticket? So they sat together and they were married two weeks later.

Brian Godchaux (16:26)

A bit of foreshadowing there. Like father, like son.

Brian Godchaux (16:29)

Keith is born in 1948, you know, in Seattle. Bremerton, I think they were. Obviously, they both had. They love music. My mom was a wonderful singer. She was a wonderful singer. They were singing at the time in madrigal groups. You know, always a piano in the house. So Keith learned music. Just. I think this is what my dad would say was osmosis. They played. They played music all the time around the house, listened to it. And apparently Keith was very attentive when he was quite small, just a baby, would be very intent listening to especially classical music. He didn't like jazz. It was jazz. He would kind of fuss how God show was prepared.

Brian Godchaux (17:16)

Besides a classical musical education, there was one hugely and important singular thing he would impart to his son during the.

Brian Godchaux (17:23)

Depression in 1938, when he was about 26, he wrote a little pamphlet called something like Play Now, Learn to Play by Ear the Hollywood Way. By then the family had moved to Hollywood. And his dad, he was his dad and mom and his dad was. Had a thing called Hollywood Slacks. Mail order. You know, he was getting the mail order. Hollywood Slacks. And so the. I guess they tried to do a mail order piano course. I have a fragment of it, basically, how to play by ear. How to play popular music.

Brian Godchaux (18:02)

Keith Godsho, the Grateful Dead's brilliant piano player who dropped into their music and could pick it up perfectly by ear, was raised by a serious musician who in fact had written his own course in piano ear training for his career as a mail order music teacher. Harold God show became Hal Gotham. And you can still find ads scattered in old newspapers. Play boogie woogie and swing. Reads 1. Learn piano from scratch. In Hal Gotham's magic course, it was only a dollar.

Brian Godchaux (18:30)

It was kind of a combination by just how to lay out the keyboard. My dad was very good. He just had a system where how to lay out the keyboard, the chords and such. The thing that I think he's just absorbed and then by absorbing just hearing music all the time. So you have all the music and Then you have this keyboard that you could naturally just relate to music by.

Brian Godchaux (18:55)

In the early 60s, when Keith was between 12 and 17, his name turns up in East Bay newspapers in conjunction with numerous musical events and including string ensembles, weddings, jazz combos and the Junior Bach Festival. References to Brian's violin playing pop up too.

Brian Godchaux (19:12)

He was always quite involved, as my mom, in this little musical theater in Concord. And this group still exists, Contra Costa Musical Theater. And he was one of the earlier. And they put on pretty darn good amateur productions of Gentlemen, Perfor, Blondes, South Pacific, Showboat, right on and on. And so we would kind of grew up like, again, going to all of those rehearsals and all of those shows. And, you know, I think once in a while I sang in the chorus, played in the orchestra. Keith, I don't think he ever played the piano, but he was in the. In the chorus and on the shows.

Brian Godchaux (19:50)

Keith had also started playing cocktail jazz piano, which would become his vocation in the next years.

Brian Godchaux (19:55)

My dad would do these, put on these little music. He was contra Costa musical theater, which is a semi professional thing. And they had a certain number of union players in the orchestra. So he always had these union trumpet players and drummers and stuff, and knew the president of the local union out there. And so he joined that early and basically started playing gigs early. Through my dad's contacts in his pit orchestra for the musical theater. He got into union and got a gig once playing up in Yosemite.

Brian Godchaux (20:31)

That was an era where the whole generation gap suddenly took hold. And it was. My dad and brother would just like, would just fight, just fight, fight, fight. Usually stuff like haircuts and drinking. And my dad was English teacher at Concord, called Mount Diablo High School. And so of course we lived there. So my brother and I went to that school. Well, Keith started getting in trouble and he was probably like at a place where the gut busted for pot, right? And, oh, my dad was freaked out. Here I am, like choir director, school teacher of this little town. He's kind of terrified of losing his shit, right? I mean, they worked hard to put that shit together. So he had to transfer to another school.

Brian Godchaux (21:24)

The year Keith turned 17 was also the same year that the Warlocks went electric.

Brian Godchaux (21:29)

Rock and roll came into the house probably in 1965 or six. And Keith started. He rented a bass and an amplifier. We just kind of experiment with like, avant garde, I would say that avant garde, which is like, let's just play, you know, so we just go for it in the garage and that kind of stuff.

Brian Godchaux (21:56)

What Would you be playing violin?

Brian Godchaux (21:58)

I was, yeah. Keith actually bought me a deorman pickup, which was the old violin style pickup. He wanted me to, you know, I was like, well, I'll try it.

Brian Godchaux (22:07)

Keith was ready to branch out, and there was soon a band rehearsing in the Godchaux family garage. The Bay Area music scene was small, and Keith Godchau's unnamed garage band proved it. The lead guitarist might be familiar to some dead fans. He'd actually spent the summer of 1964 driving cross country with none other than Jerry Garcia, recording and playing bluegrass music. Sandy Rothman even joined Bill Monroe's legendary bluegrass boys that summer for a tour. But when he got back to California, like Jerry Garcia, Sandy Rothman tried plugging in, too, with some friends he met via his running job at Campbell Coe's campus music shop in Berkeley.

Sandy Rothman (22:45)

I met Keith through a mutual friend named Ray Scott, who's now a jazz guitar player in San Francisco. He and Keith and Brian grew up in Concord and went to the same schools and all that. And they knew each other, but Ray used to come to Berkeley a lot, and he used to hang out at the campus music shop where I was working after high school and even during high school. And Ray and I got to be friends, and he introduced me to his friends. And one of his friends was Keith, who I knew was a pianist, but at the time they were trying to play rhythm and blues, and there had been the Rolling Stones first album or two had come out, and they wanted to make that kind of a sound. And they were getting together in Keith's garage, and I went along and got an electric guitar somewhere and played electric lead, and my friend Ray played rhythm, and Keith actually played bass in that setting. And who was a real good singer who came along as a drummer. And I remember all these guys, and we used to get together and just practice in the garage band, playing literally in the Gotcho family garage, basically trying to play stone stuff kind of, and some standard blues, whatever we could play. We never did gig out or do anything.

Brian Godchaux (23:50)

If anybody would like to cannonball down the rabbit hole of the East Bay garage scene circa 1966. Sandy says that the lineup for the unnamed RB band was along with Ray Scott on rhythm guitar, Sandy on lead, and Keith on bass, There was singer Steve Carvalho and drummer Peter Ostwald.

Brian Godchaux (24:08)

He would organize jam sessions and they would happen out in the garage. He had wanted to do something other than bus play cocktail music. But drummer Mike Clark, famous jazz Mike Clark actually was. I remember he was around and he. I read somewhere he talked about that just in kind of these casual experimental jam sessions. Jam sessions.

Brian Godchaux (24:31)

But look up Keith God show's name in old newspapers in the years before he joined the dead and you'll pull a few references to his time on the cocktail jazz circuit, including a reference to a small combo, the Keith Gadshow Trio. And that's where he spent most of his musical time as a teenager. Keith Gadshow's teenage years were also marked by some pretty serious darkness.

Brian Godchaux (24:51)

Another thing that really formative I'd like to talk about was he had health issues. Keith. Yeah, serious health issues. When he was 3, he had a burst appendix and peritonitis or. Oh, this is a terrible. Nearly died years later when he was, I think 16 or 17. 16, he started having these problems of intestinal adhesions and they kind of got. He would get sick and get better, get sick, kind of got. Kept getting worse then all. Then he would get sick enough to have to go in the hospital, have an operation and he would get better and then have to go have another operation. Right. And progressively worse each time. Just putting himself back together after really near death. When he graduated from high school, which. How did that happen through his. How did he graduate and through all that sickness and my dad and him fighting and you know, you have to finish school, right? Anyway, he gets his first out of town job playing in Yosemite at the Awanahie Hotel. And it's an old, very fine hotel in the middle of the park. And he was like just 18, just turned 18 and was, you know, pretending to be 21 and playing in the cocktail thing and so glad like finally to be out of. Right. To think a lot of. He just really wanted to get out of living in our house, get away from my dad, right. Be on his own. But then it was all right. Then my folks got a call in the middle of the night, come get your son, he's very sick. You know, they go up, you know, drive up the station wagon, bring him back and into the hospital again. Bad, bad. Recovers within 18, then happens again and again two other times really, I think, I think altogether maybe had five or six operations. And so the last one, it was like he was 85, you know, it was like 85 pounds. Literally 85 pounds. And apparently the appendicitis thing had done something and all these adhesions were just like. Was a mess. Anyway, they did what I would you describe as a Hail Mary operation. They just took all of insides out, as I understood and just straightened out the whole. And he was very close to death, but he survived. That never happened again. Never happened again. But he lifetime of like just stomach, right? Just that. And also this is. In retrospect, I was thinking about this. People deal has been made about addiction and stuff like that and Keith's problems with that. Every time he would be in that situation with the operator, he would get massive pain medication. And I remember him being there begging, like begging trying. Trying to get the nurse to give him more pain medication. He couldn't like, he would not be able to drink water or anything. So he was totally. Couldn't drink. He would like beg to have. So he could have like water chips, right? Just. But he had to spit them out because he couldn't absorb anything. He was like suffering terribly. And there was a key to ending that was the nurses with the painkillers just like, man, this. And then he would get home. And I remember often we'd get home aside being sick, getting home, very, very dark. And I'm realizing now it was like, yeah, it was coming. It was like getting over the addiction aside from everything else, breaking the addiction once again to painkillers, right. That whole thing. And this happened for, you know, two or three years. So I think that he was kind of naturally. That was a natural thing to be drawn to at that point. As if anyone else does has to have that reason. But that was that another thing about that. That whole health issue is like. If you look at like his chronology, you'd think that he. Given his. Had he been healthier, I'm sure he'd have like probably broken out of flaying the cocktail stuff earlier. Part of that was that he needed to make the money again. He just wanted to move out. And through all the sickness, he wasn't going to spend that much time going to the heat Hashbury and hanging out.

Brian Godchaux (29:23)

You'll notice that so far. Even though Keith Godshow grew up in the Bay area in the 60s, his life didn't intersect much with what most people think about when they think of the Bay area in the 60s. Keith Godchaux turned 18 in the summer of 1966 when the Haight Ashbury really took off, but was in no shape to be anywhere near that scene. But by the late summer of 1970, he was operational and ready to jam. Not that long after his 22nd birthday, Keith Godshow made his most important connection. That it happened to be musical was secondary, at least at first.

Brian Godchaux (29:58)

Keith was playing with the bass player Pete Naum was his name, who was Carol Burns boyfriend. And Carol Burns worked with Don in the office. Donna was working at Union 76, which is in the city. Used to be by the bridge. There's a big Union 76 office tower. Carol invited Don out to Walnut Creek, which was. They were living and they had barbecues, and that was that.

Brian Godchaux (30:21)

By the summer of 1970, Donna Jean Thatcher had already had an illustrious career in professional music, one we'll explore in a future episode. Music wasn't what the two were thinking.

Narrator/Interviewer (30:32)

About, at least their own music. I interviewed Donna Jean Godscho McKay for my book Heads, in large part because that was how Keith and Donna met, through a group of friends. A group of friends who happen to be stone cold, grateful bed freaks. We'll hear her own story on the Dead cast later this season, but to tell her part of this incident, here's Donna Jean. We heard some of this story during our American Beauty season, but it bears repeating. And who better to repeat it?

Donna Jean Godchaux (30:57)

They convinced me to go to a Dead concert. Grateful Dead. We're playing at Winterland with the New Riders, Quicksilver, the Airplane, and then the Grateful Dead. And of course, you know, we were like the lowest on the totem pole when it came to getting tickets and everything. So we were on the back row of the balcony of Winterland, and Keith was there, too. And Keith and I had never really talked at all, but he was one of the friends of this girl that I was working with at Union Oil, and that's how Keith and I kind of met. He had seen the Dead before. Not too many times before we saw them together, but he had seen the Dead before and he was into it. I didn't even know Keith played the piano. He hadn't even talked. We barely said hello, and that was about it. But the new writers came on and I thought, well, you know, that's kind of cool. And then quick filter. And I thought, well, that's really cool, too. And then the airplane and, well, that's really cool. And then the Grateful Dead came on. And here I am on the back row. And on top of that, I wouldn't take any drugs or smoke any pot or anything. I said, I'm going to prove to you guys that you were out of your friggin mind. Yeah, I'm not going to take anything. And I didn't. I was just stone cold sober on every level. And the debt started playing and I just. I couldn't believe it. I kept saying to myself, how do they do that? How do they do that? And I was just blown Away, absolutely blown away by what the Grateful Dead did. Because I had never heard any music that sounded like that before. And they were so on. It was like one of their really, really super, magical nights. And every note was just. And every drum beat, and everything was absolutely perfect within what the Grateful did do, you know, which is not like anybody else had ever done, really. I was amazed and blown away. And I can't remember who it was that was sitting next to me, but one of my friends, probably some Union Oil, and I said, you know, I was so blown away, I said, when I sing again, it's going to be with that band. So I went home that night and I couldn't go to sleep. I just couldn't go to sleep. And so I kept everybody in my apartment awake. And I said, how did they do that? You know, I was just incredulous that a rock and roll band could make that kind of music. I couldn't get enough. Once I'd seen them the first time, I just could not get enough of the Grateful Dead. And that's all I wanted to listen to. Probably, you know, depending on the situation, you know. You know, eight to 10 people going to see the Dead.

Brian Godchaux (34:08)

She knew that he played because of Pete Nahm. He knew Pete because he was playing together, but she hadn't heard him play. And she said that they were already in love before. You know, it was like that. Before they had even found out about. Yeah, right, for the relationship. Right. But then, you know, it was just kind of kaboom. I remember just this very striking woman, and also just like, very thick Alabama accent, very strong accent, and they fell madly in love.

Donna Jean Godchaux (34:47)

Somebody had said, you know, he plays the piano, but, like, everybody plays the piano. And so our falling in love and consequently getting married didn't have anything to do with, you know, I saw Keith playing in the Grateful Dead, and I was a groupie, and I went up and cocked with him. He said, no. And so when I finally did hear him play, I was just, like, blown away. And it was just a little jazz club that he was playing. He was in a three piece little jazz band. And I was just like, oh, my gosh, he is fantastic. And then when they would take a break, people would play the jukebox. And every single song that came on that jukebox, I had sang on. So that's the way we got introduced musically. And this was after we had already decided to get married.

Brian Godchaux (35:43)

And they fell in love with the soundtrack by the Grateful Dead, having their minds blown at winterland on October 4, 1970. Like Keith's own parents. After meeting at the opera, Keith and Donna were married less than two months later.

Brian Godchaux (35:56)

The first time I really was aware of the Grateful Dead was shortly after Keith and Donna got together. They had gone to a concert. I don't know which one Dead show. And when they came back the next day, they had, you know, the Crosby Souls and Nash record that has a little picture of Garcia on the back because he plays Pedestillo.

Brian Godchaux (36:22)

That's Deja vu with Garcia on Teach youh Children. Check out our Black Peter episode for our interview with Graham Nash about that.

Brian Godchaux (36:41)

They had this record and they showed and they pointed to Garcia. I had never. I'd never heard of Garcia. And they. There was a little square. That's him. This is. We're going to play with him. We are going to play with him. Was that. Not that they were going to play with the Grateful Dead? It was kind of. They'd had some kind of experience where they just saw that and it was funny. It didn't really come up that much after that. It wasn't like, oh, Keith better start studying all the Grateful. Right? Wasn't that at all. It was none of that. And I think I watched them, the Grateful Dead, that New Year's on television, it was probably Winterland.

Brian Godchaux (37:23)

A New Year's, 1970. Going into 1971. KQED broadcast the Dead in quad live from Winterland over television and radio.

Brian Godchaux (37:32)

Well, now, for the.

Greg Anton (37:33)

For the sake of you TV viewers.

Brian Godchaux (37:35)

Out there who aren't here, or maybe new to this kind of thing, this is how a spaceship looks like in construction.

Brian Godchaux (37:42)

No video survives.

Brian Godchaux (37:44)

So I watched it for a bit and was like. I was quite struck. But it was like, this was a time when you used to see bands on the television. They kind of have cute costumes on still. So that was the expected. And like, here was these. You know, I remember Garcia Ver. Just like, looking like Garcia, the whole thing, you know, who knows what. I didn't really listen that long because I said, what? Okay, this is that.

Donna Jean Godchaux (38:15)

We had this little spinet piano in our apartment, Keith and I did after we got married. And I didn't know it. Keith was supposed to have been going to college, so I was working at Union Oil, so I would go away every day. But what he would do, because he didn't know how to play rock and roll, he had grown up playing, like, Bach and Beethoven and Mozart, you know, when he was seven years old, that. So he had a real classical background from an early age. And then by the time he was 13, he was playing jazz, but he had never played rock and roll. And so little did I know that when I was going to work, he was skipping class and trying to learn how to play rock and roll.

Brian Godchaux (39:00)

It wasn't too long before Keith and Donna were making music together.

Brian Godchaux (39:04)

Keith and Donna got a summer sublet around the corner up on College Avenue so that they could be near the piano to do some writing. They'd come over and they'd try to write. This was just the months before the Grateful Dead.

Brian Godchaux (39:17)

Brian was part of the early songwriting of which nothing survives, sadly, rock and roll.

Brian Godchaux (39:22)

I had written some lyrics and Donna written some lyrics. They had been playing, getting together with this guy Lonnie Turner. Lonnie Turner had been. Was Steve Miller's bass player. So I think they were trying to put together some music with him. And Lonnie started playing with Dave Mason.

Brian Godchaux (39:38)

You're feeling all right? I'm not feeling too good myself. Well, you're feeling all right. I'm not feeling too good myself.

Brian Godchaux (39:57)

Keith went over to sit in, rehearsing with Dave Mason, you know, again, like that should have been the, you know. You know, he should have been able to do that and you could do it. But I remember, like, Donna and I went along with Keith to the rehearsal, and I think looking back, behaving really strangely. Donna in particular was just thinking, no, this is just not right. This is just not right for Keith. This is just not right. So we were smoking pot and joking around and sort of inappropriately somehow. You know, I think Donna, if you would ask her, she remembers saying some stuff like, why did I say that, right? You know, he's too good for you. But the thing is, to back up just a little bit from that point in my. My feeling about Keith was we were doing these recordings and writing our own stuff. But there was something. And I can't really pinpoint exactly, but in my mind, I watched Keith attain mastery. This was 71. Wow. Like that. That close. It was very. I mean, it was like. And this was part of the thing with. And I think Donna saw this too. And so all of a sudden, Keith's there playing with Dave Mason, right? Which should be a great gig, right? They were at the end of the row, but Keith went in with his totally not non verbal sunglasses, right? Not relating. Then he brings us along. So we're just like. So anyway, that did not work out. He got a call. I'm sorry, this is not going to work. So I remember Don and I like my initial I'm feeling guilty. Like, why, you know, here was this opportunity.

Brian Godchaux (41:39)

If you're wondering why some of the early press releases about Keith God show mentioned Dave Mason, that's the connection. The keyboardist who got the gig was Mark T. Jordan, going on to join Mason along with lonnie Turner for 1972's headkeeper and still an active session player, most recently recording with Lucinda Williams and her own Rich Mahan.

Brian Godchaux (41:58)

That didn't work out and they were kind of sort of at loose ends. Keith could have gone back to work in the cocktail lounge circuit, but he didn't want to do that. They had decided they weren't going to do that. Keith, of course, was not. Wouldn't discuss it at all. He didn't talk much. I mean, I watched Donna say, this is the time for that to happen, that we talked about, that we saw. So first things he does, we go for a walk and get a newspaper, see where Garcia's playing. She's going to go talk to Garcia. She wants to talk to Garcia. So. And she also goes like on the phone, is on the phone to everyone she knows, you know, back in Alabama, anyone in the music business she knows. Could she get Garcia's phone number? It was just like, this is the time for this is going to happen. This is the time that this happens. Sure enough, you know, they actually went down to talk to Garcia and then it happened. Pigpen apparently had just fallen like weeks before somehow. Right. Well, it was nothing. It was like. It wasn't like, gee, Pigpen, there was just, this is time for whatever that is to happen. Keith was totally not there at all. He just was unconcerned with that somehow or not thinking about it. And then of course, it became time, Donna, we're going to. And say, well, okay. And apparently he was put his head down on the table.

Narrator/Interviewer (43:27)

After Donna Jean told Garcia they wanted to speak with him, he apparently came to their table, at which point Keith put his head down. Honey, Donna Jean told her husband, I think Garcia is hinting he wants to.

Brian Godchaux (43:38)

Talk to you, which I could see him doing. This is just way too much. I'm just going to be here. And actually Jerry gave Don his telephone number. Didn't like giving out his phone number because, you know, obviously they went over and took this tape that we had made in my folks house. And the piano was there and just a little demo tape. They played that for Garcia and Keith and Garcia played. That was it.

Brian Godchaux (44:09)

The next day, Garcia and Gacho jammed with Bill Kreutzman. Kreutzman remembered Nobody else from the band was around. But almost immediately after I arrived, I knew that Jerry was right. This guy could really play piano. He was one of the best, if not the best keyboardists I've ever had the honor of playing with.

Donna Jean Godchaux (44:26)

I've read things that people have said, you know, that Keith just studied the Grateful Dead, you know, for years and years, and that's just not true. The first time that he played with them, it was the first time I'd ever heard him play a Grateful Dead song. But he had such technique and such chops that they tried to trick him up. And Bobby Weir will tell you to this day, they tried to trick him up. And he just passed with flying colors through every song.

Brian Godchaux (45:00)

Within a week, Keith was on the payroll.

Greg Anton (45:04)

Well, we'd like to introduce at this.

Brian Godchaux (45:06)

Time, while Bobby's tuning up, our new piano player and organ player, Ken Keith Gadjo, who does one hell of a.

Greg Anton (45:12)

Job, I hope you all agree.

Brian Godchaux (45:17)

We've been waiting for this guy a long time.

Brian Godchaux (45:20)

That was Phil Lesh at Keith's second performance, October 21, 1971, at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. That was the night Keith Godshow met Darkstar. Now on Dave's Picks three and all about a month after Donna Jean Gotchau approached Jerry Garcia at a Bay Area bar, she joined the Dead 2 on New Year's at Winterland. As 1971 turned to 1972, which is probably what Brian is describing here.

Brian Godchaux (46:14)

I think the first time I saw them was probably at Winterland. And backstage was this kind of very carnival, like, you know, all this stuff happening. And it was kind of looser back in those earlier days. Toward the end of the backstage, we just got very controlled. But early on, it was very carnival life. People wandering around from not knowing anything about the Grateful Day, really, or just seeing them on the TV a year before, backstage with all of that going around and then with taking my acid for the first time, probably an Owsley acid. It was quite an amazing experience, really. I remember at some point, you know, they used to have the explosions backstage. And I was standing right next to the guy that was, you know, didn't think about it. Anyway, he sets off the explosion right next and like, all of a sudden, like, I'm just thrown back and the universe is just totally white. Just, like pristine as far as. Like. As far as, like, like, on that, right? That. Then I think I started over again from that point, you know, when Keith joined the Great, he was absolutely still. He was absolutely without ambition. None on. There was no. It Was like, what is faith? What is. What will be, Will be. Is this right? But it was, like, devoid, you know. You know, kind of very egoless. My brother never told me very many things about music. But I will tell you one story. This kind of odd. When I was a child and I had first learned how to play the vibrato, when you're. When you're a string player, you know, kind of like you want to be able to play vibrato. I remember being 11 years old, and actually I remember the day. It was 1961, and it was the day my great grandmother died. It was very heavy day. Like, my great grandmother died. But if my teacher's there and I learned to play the vibrato and like, wow, I do that. Then my great grandmother dies. But shortly after that, I was kind of like, into, you know, I could do this. And my dad was a cello player. He tried to play cello. Not well, but he loved the cello. And he just was not really somehow a string player. But his vibrato was never very good. So I got. I realized, like, well, you know, I can't play the cello, but I think I could play the. I think I can make this tone on the cello, right, with this nice singing tone and vibrato. And so my dad was playing, I said, let me do this. And I did that, right? Just that. And then gave it back to my dad and didn't say anything, but I said I could do that. A little while later, my brother said, never do that again. Never do that again. That's all he said. And I thought, what did I do? They said, you know, what you did? And like, I was 11, but what I had done was show off in music, to show off, hurt some, you know, make myself look better, make someone else look smaller, right? Using music, just playing one, right. Never. And I never forgot that. I remember, like, trying to say, well, how do you. You know, trying to get some direction on how to improvise and all about chords. He was just like, he couldn't really help me. He said he couldn't verbalize it. Yeah, it was. Couldn't verbalize it. That was his whole thing with music. It was a very unique musical mind. You know, it was like, how do you do this? Where is this coming from?

Brian Godchaux (50:11)

Let's rewind to a fairly subtle aside Brian offered before.

Brian Godchaux (50:14)

He didn't talk much often, but sometimes he did. He could get quite talkative, usually about strange. Like, how should we call it? Philosophical things like, what is going on in the. In this? What is really going on here in a spiritual sense or mystical. Aside from this plane or aside from this, what else is going on? I remember long conversations about that, which I really. You know, it would be hard to recall them, but that was. He was very animated and interested in that.

Brian Godchaux (50:53)

Keith's personality extended to his music.

Brian Godchaux (50:56)

When he was a kid, he rented a bass, and then he rented this or actually bought an amp, a little bass amp, this little. And that's the only amp he's. He ever owned.

Brian Godchaux (51:06)

In the Dead, he was content to play piano. As with everybody else in the Dead, though, he needed some special gear. On his first outings with the Dead, Keith played an upright piano, but soon graduated to Steinways with a special pickup designed by Carl Countryman, the noted microphone designer for Menlo Park. As I said, there really weren't that many interviews with Keith and even fewer that circulate as audio, in part so we can hear Keith's voice. We've got the tiniest sliver of him here from a 1973 interview on WAER in Syracuse, a group conversation with Donna Jean, Bob Weir and manager John McIntyre. The interviewer, clearly a Deadhead, notes that on Keith's first tour, he had a Hammond B3 organ alongside his piano.

Greg Anton (51:50)

Yeah, but I didn't know how to play it.

Brian Godchaux (51:53)

But by spring 1973, he'd added a Fender Rhodes electric keyboard to his setup.

Greg Anton (51:58)

Yeah, I'm starting to get turned on to different textures.

Brian Godchaux (52:33)

That was the Eyes of the World Outro Jam at NASA Coliseum, September 8, 1973, from the recently released Dave's Picks, 38 Great Textures. That night, the band also debuted the only song ever sung by Keith with the Dead, Let Me Sing youg Blues Away.

Brian Godchaux (52:58)

And play Come On, Honey, Let me Sing Them Away Come On, Honey Let me sing them away.

Greg Anton (53:11)

Hunter and I wrote that and put it on the album. Never had a chance to write. We never practiced it, so nobody could sing it or play it at the same time.

Brian Godchaux (53:21)

Released on Wake of the Flood that fall, it marked the serious beginning of Keith's songwriting, which Bryan contributed to as well as a lyricist. But that took a minute.

Brian Godchaux (53:30)

At some point, I quit school and we're gonna do some work. I think it was in 1972 or three. I was working in a bookstore and going to school, and I would prefer to be concentrating on music. So I quit school and kind of started hanging out with Keith and Donna. And I was living out with them out in Forest Knoll. They had a place that had been Kreutzman's house by the creek. Very kind of rustic. I started, you know, kind of seriously, you know, getting and trying to write. They were gone a lot on the road, so it was like they would be gone and they'd come back and like that and never really happened. The Keith didn't really have that much energy for doing that. I could see that now I'm in the middle of everything. You're gonna. Right. So it didn't happen by time. Floating through that world was not all an easy float. Just because of. I would say, didn't really feel that comfortable oftentimes, you know, it was not really my world. Trying to keep up with that whole crowd. Here's all these incredible people, just like one after the other. Like remarkable, brilliant minds, all of them. I was more or less the. The Keith was kind of shy, and I was kind of. Keith's even shy, quieter. But I. I did see amazing stuff, you know, being, you know, have just seeing them sit around, like out in Forest Knoll. Garcia come over and just play with his guitar. And they would sit around and play, right? Or work on a thing. Like, it's very cool to see, you know, hanging out with Garcia was very cool.

Rich Mahan (55:24)

Would Garcia bring an acoustic.

Brian Godchaux (55:26)

He would bring just acoustic guitar, certainly. You know, I probably hung out more with Garcia than the other people in the band. Just because I don't know Keith, he was there. Keith and Donna were quite close to Garcia.

Narrator/Interviewer (55:43)

And Garcia encouraged Brian in his transformation from a violinist into a fiddler.

Brian Godchaux (55:48)

We talked about it.

Brian Godchaux (55:49)

Jerry.

Brian Godchaux (55:51)

At some point, he knew that I was trying to learn how to play fiddle. And so we talked about that. And he offered to give me or, like, get together and show me all these tapes of all the stuff which he had collected.

Narrator/Interviewer (56:04)

He didn't take him up on it.

Brian Godchaux (56:05)

The tapes I actually did get years later when I ran into Sandy. And Sandy had essentially given all those tapes to Garcia. So I got them from Sandy.

Narrator/Interviewer (56:15)

But it was an era when Garcia was regularly playing with Olden and the way. And Brian could pick up tips just by watching the great Vassar Clemens.

Brian Godchaux (56:22)

Before I saw Vassar, I was playing very, very hard, you know, like, so I was getting fiddler's elbow, right? But he played part right then I.

Brian Godchaux (56:30)

Saw Vassar playing, and it was like.

Brian Godchaux (56:33)

You looked at him, he's hardly moving his right arm. I said, what is going. What's going on there? So that was a real eye opener with Vassar. He, like, seemed like he just had this really relaxed thing where I think he would string a lot of notes together on a bow.

Brian Godchaux (56:50)

Rather than.

Brian Godchaux (56:51)

He would string it very controlled bow and could string and phrase notes together very quickly with like minimum energy on his right arm. And then it just all flowed so beautifully.

Narrator/Interviewer (57:30)

That was Vassar Clemens with Olden and the way Kissimmee Kidd.

Brian Godchaux (57:34)

Eventually Keith and Brian did get some writing done together.

Brian Godchaux (57:37)

And then I started actually playing in bands. I realized, well, you know, I don't know if I can really. I don't think I'm a lyricist. I would have liked to have been like somebody like Hunter. My gosh, what an example. So. But just prolific writer, just a writer in general, you know, writing all the time. So I got started playing in different bands and getting into playing more. And then at some point I went over there and they were there, Keith and Donna were home. And I just. We started hanging out and I wrote a couple sets of lyrics like within an hour to Showboat and Farewell Jack. Just like in an hour, kind of. That how that. How does that work where you can do that?

Brian Godchaux (58:20)

Look out, baby two people in a box There ain't no key and there ain't no locks Poor brother John sitting down on the sand say the weather ain't good but the boat going down.

Brian Godchaux (58:49)

That was Farewell Jack from Keith and Donna's 1975 album, Keith and Donna, recorded during the Dead's year off from touring and released on Round Records. Check out this part, tracked mainly at Keith and Donna's house in Stinson Beach. Garcia played on nearly the whole album, which also included drumming by Denny Sewell of Wings and on one song, the legendary Bernard Purdy. Brian shared writing credits on three tunes, including the closing Every Song I Sing, on which he played violin as well. Here are the God show brothers jamming together. One of the songs, Showboat, even made it as far as a Grateful Dead sound check later that year. This is from the technical rehearsal at the Great American Music hall in San Francisco on August 12, 1975, the day before the performance that became one from the vault released on the Beyond Description box set.

Brian Godchaux (60:48)

Ashore.

Brian Godchaux (60:49)

Lay down the plow Leave the milk.

Brian Godchaux (60:51)

In the cow Come down to the field to the sandy shore Took a look at what's going down the river.

Donna Jean Godchaux (60:56)

Now.

Brian Godchaux (61:07)

They put together the Keith and Donna Band, featuring Bill Kreutzman on drums, Ray Scott of the unnamed R B Godshaw garage band on guitar, and with occasional full show sit ins by Garcia. There's some great live tapes out there. Here's a little bit of art. Pepper's Straight Life with Keith Garcia and Ray Scott trading phrases recorded exactly a week after one from the vault at the same venue, August 20, 1975, at the Great American Music Hall. In the spring of 1977, Heath began playing a Polymoog synthesizer occasionally, most notably on estimated profit, and that fall traded a Steinway grand for a Yamaha electric keyboard, which was a subtle but also drastic change in the Dead sound. Though often kept playing piano in the Jerry Garcia Band, which Keith and Donna played in from 1975 through late 1978. Here's Garcia and Keith conversing on Bob Dylan's simple twist of fate late in the God Show. Years From Pure Jerry, Volume 9.

Brian Godchaux (62:38)

Sam.

Brian Godchaux (63:03)

Keith and Brian's lives branched in different directions in the late 70s, each working through the struggles of adulthood in the worlds around them. Keith's last years with the Dead were plagued by addiction and other problems. Keith and Donna Jean left the Grateful Dead by mutual agreement in early 1979.

Brian Godchaux (63:20)

It was quite a surprise, quite a shock, you know, it was quite. Wow, you could imagine, I would say everyone who could say they are a Deadhead. It comes from a different place, a little too identical, right? It kind of gets very personal for everyone, really can get quite deep. And it certainly did with me. And so the breakup was quite difficult, you know, unfortunately, I couldn't. What does that mean? And at the same time, I had not been close to Keith for a while, I think just, you know, my life was going through different things and his were both difficult. And so we never really talked about it after that, you know. And I saw him when he would play the Keystone with like the Ghosts with great Antonio, right? It was this group, the Ghost. Those were difficult times. But he was at that time playing again. And then he started playing like at that kind of. When Steve Kimmock entered the picture, things quietly, like all of a sudden things seemed like perhaps musically could be. Something could happen.

Narrator/Interviewer (64:41)

Following their departure from the Dead, both Keith and Donna Jean returned to a more level horizon. And though Keith would only outlive his tenure with the Dead by a year and a half, it was a productive year and a half. First joining up with a band that had been calling themselves the Ghosts on drums was Greg Anton, who would go on to co found the group zero.

Greg Anton (65:00)

Keith was a genius musician. He was just one of the best musicians I've ever had the honor of playing with. Just a magnificent piano player. He just always seemed to play just what was right and he had so much excitement in his playing, but didn't overplay, didn't underplay. He just was a master. It's just so much fun playing music with him. And he's a great guy, really smart guy. Very unusual. Just a real enigmatic human being. But generally he was quiet. He rarely looked up from the keyboard when he was playing. He just was deep, deep into music.

Narrator/Interviewer (65:45)

Though Keith and Donna had left the Dead, they remained close with their former bandmates.

Greg Anton (65:48)

Keith was really tight with Garcia. Those two guys, you know, really had a good musical connection and also friendship.

Narrator/Interviewer (65:57)

In early 1980, Heath went on the road with the Healy Treece Band, co fronted by Dead sound engineer Dan Healy and featuring Bill Kreutzman on drums. Later that spring, when Keith and Donna and the Ghosts went on tour, they did so with Robert Hunter, with Hunter sometimes fronting the band.

Greg Anton (66:13)

At one point, we kind of morphed from the Ghosts into the Heart of Gold Band. I think Donna coined the name, taking it from the song, of course. And we were looking for a guitar player. Keith wanted to try somebody else on guitar and bass. And so Dino Valenti from Quicksilver, he had a studio in Novato in Marin County, California. So we were rehearsing there and trying to work up some material. One day it was. Keith got John Kahn, the bass player. And so it was me and John and Keith and Donna. And we were playing the studio, and in walks Steve Kimmock. And how he showed up there or who got him over there, I'm not sure about that. It wasn't me. But somebody brought him over because they heard we were looking for a guitar player and brought Steve over. So Steve just walked in with his boogie amp in one hand and his Stratocaster in the other hand, and the magic happened. The musical connection between Keith and Steve was just amazing to observe. They had a great musical connection. I never thought about it like this, but the connection. The musical connection that Keith had with Garcia then, I think he recognized that same connection with him with Kimok, that they really clicked. And so he was so excited about it, you know, playing with Steve. And the little bit that we ended up doing together, it was just great, those two guys playing. And so we just started playing, and it was really working. It was really working. And they had a bunch of material. Keith and Donna had a whole repertoire of material. They had a bunch of Jerry Garcia band kind of material and some Grateful Dead stuff. And Donna had a lot of gospel songs that we added our own kind of rock and roll interpretation of. It was really exciting.

Narrator/Interviewer (69:01)

That was Keith Godchau and Steve Kimmock in the Heart of Gold Band playing Scarlet Begonias at the back Door in San Francisco on July 10, 1980, part of the Heart of Gold Band CD.

Brian Godchaux (69:11)

What would sadly be Keith's last performance.

Greg Anton (69:14)

So at one point, right before then, or right when we were, we were playing a lot just in a studio and working up a repertoire. At one day, Keith just picked up the phone and called Garcia and told him about the band and said, we want to go record at Front street, which was Grateful Dead studio. Before those sessions started at Front Street, Me and Keith and Courtney Pollock, who did all the tie dyes for all the amplifier, the Grateful Dead amplifier covers and all that stuff, he's kind of invented tie dye, I think. So it was me and Keith and Courtney at Front street late one night, going over some songs, listen to some different songs that we were going to do. And we were there forever. And it was getting really late. I think it was getting light outside. And Courtney and Keith and I said, you know, I got to go home, I'm so tired. And Courtney and Keith said, come on, Greg, let's just hang out for a little more. Let's listen to that one other song we wanted to check out. And I said, no, I'm just beat and I gotta get home. And I left and went home. And then shortly after that, Courtney and Keith left and got in a car accident.

Brian Godchaux (70:43)

Keith Gaucho died on July 23, 1980, of injuries sustained in the car accident. A year and five months after playing his last show with the Grateful Dead, here's Keith singing Ride out, featuring John Cipollina on guitar. Recorded in December 1979, released posthumously on the Heart of Gold Band CD in 1998.

Brian Godchaux (71:02)

See the Clouds fly by Hear the noise and the clouds Feel the wind of my eyes and I know all it takes for a few mistakes is.

Brian Godchaux (71:18)

Time.

Greg Anton (71:33)

Shortly after that, Keith died. But then I hard to go band. We continued on. We decided to carry on, me and Steve and Donna, without Keith. And we caught a couple of different guys at the. I think Pete Sears played some piano and a couple different guys. And we carried on playing as the Heart of Gold Band. And we got David McKay on bass, who himself is a wonderful musician. And Donna married him. Donna married our bass player, and they're still together.

Brian Godchaux (72:12)

The Dead, of course, continued after Keith and Donna left, and their own legacy continued to evolve. For Brian, a Dead fan, close to the inside and then very far on the outside, less than long and strange. It's been real and surreal.

Brian Godchaux (72:25)

Bands are very strange things. I don't know if you. I've played in many bands and been and they're kind of. Each of each entity is different and each has. And if you could. If you're involved in a band for a long time and. And it's just like, wow, you'd have to be there to know what that was.

Brian Godchaux (72:45)

In recent years, one of Brian's musical projects has been with Sandy Rothman, an anchor of the Bay Area bluegrass scene since the early 60s, when he shared stages and road trips with Jerry Garcia, as well as garage with Keith Godshow, and later a member of the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band. As a duo, Brian and Sandy released the great album the Red Fiddle and the silver banjo in 2015. That was from over the Waves. We've posted a link to the album@dead.net Deadcast in recent years, Brian's joined Donna Jean, Greg Anton, Steve Kimmock and others in a new version of the Heart of Gold Band. One member is Keith and Donna's son Zion, seen on the COVID of Keith and Donna, and also more recently, the co founder of the band Boombox.

Brian Godchaux (73:58)

My nephew Zion is doing quite marvelous Boombox. Yeah, he plays all over. They play at Red Rock. He plays guitar and sings and does the writing. And he works with a blend of electronic and real instruments.

Brian Godchaux (74:11)

The God show family tradition continues. This is Woody Guthrie dub, recorded live in Denver, New Year's 2019, available on the Boombox Bandcamp page. We'll ride off into the sunset today with a little more of that scarlet Begonias from Barton Hall 77. Jerry Garcia gets a lot of attention and, you know, fair but zone in on Keith God show and it's like getting a whole new Dead.

Brian Godchaux (74:55)

Sam.

Rich Mahan (75:22)

Keith and his piano fit seamlessly into the Grateful Dead and their music right from the start. And his musical voice was the perfect keyboard companion to the dead's music through the 70s. The way he and Donna joined the band certainly was like a bolt of cosmic lightning striking the group. And we'll hear more from Donna's perspective later this season. Take care out there and we'll see you next episode. Executive producers for the good old Grateful Dead cast Mark Pincus and Doran Tyson. Produced for Rhino Entertainment by Rich Mahan Productions and Jesse Jarno. Special thanks to David Lemieux. All rights reserved.