American musician (guitar), singer and songwriter, and popular leader of the top rock group “The Grateful Dead.” Though he disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader or “spokesman” of the group.
One of its founders, Garcia performed with the Grateful Dead for their entire thirty-year career (1965–1995). Garcia also founded and participated in a variety of side projects, including the Saunders–Garcia Band (with longtime friend Merl Saunders), the Jerry Garcia Band, Old and in the Way, the Garcia/Grisman acoustic duo, Legion of Mary, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage (which Garcia co-founded with John Dawson and David Nelson). He also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician.
Later in life, Garcia was sometimes ill because of his diabetes, and in 1986 went into a diabetic coma that nearly cost him his life. Although his overall health improved somewhat after that, he also struggled with heroin and cocaine addictions, and was staying in a Novato, California drug rehabilitation facility when he died of a heart attack on 9 August 1995 and was found by a counselor at 4:23 AM.
Not known as a writer, he nonetheless wrote a short book, amply illustrated, that was a personal memoirs of his childhood, “Harrington Street,” published after his death.
Link to Wikipedia biography