43 years ago today (3/8/73), Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, keyboardist of the Grateful Dead, died at age 27 from liver failure. Pigpen was a founding member of the the Dead and played in the group from 1965 to 1972 and served as the band’s front-man prior to Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir playing harmonica and electric organ and added a bluesy biker feel to many songs in the band’s early live and recorded catalog. Unlike the other members of the Grateful Dead, Pipgen avoided psychedelic drugs, preferring to drink alcohol (namely whiskeyand wine) and had a drinking partner in Janis Joplin back in the day. Watch Pigpen sing lead on “Hard to Handle” live in 1970.
