I had a fun chat with Melvin Seals, bandleader and keyboard guy for JGB, as the Jerry Garcia Band became known after Jerry died. The story appeared in the San Francisco Examiner, as Seals is a lifelong Bay Area resident.
Seals said this about Garcia:
You hear the phrase, this guy would give you the shirt off his back. Jerry would give you the shirt off his back. He did things for singers and band members who were struggling that he just didn’t have to do. It wasn’t publicized, no one knew it, but he did it. He really was that guy.
Seals said he figured the Jerry Garcia Band scene would die down after Garcia died in 1995. It has not.
"It’s not going to die," said Seals. "It’s a scene, it’s a style. It just amazes me how it grows and grows."
