Moby Grape guitarist Jerry Miller dies at the age of 81

Guitarist Jerry Miller, founding member of the influential psychedelic rock group Moby Grape, died on Sunday at the age of 81. Miller’s grandson Cody confirmed the musician’s death to Rolling StoneThe cause of death was not initially determined.

Born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1943, Miller grew up in the same Pacific Northwest bar band scene as Jimi Hendrix, whom he had been friends with since his teenage years. “He was good, but somehow you didn’t think he was the man who would reinvent the electric guitar,” Miller said. The Seattle Times in 2021. “The main thing you heard back then was that he was playing way too loud. Like me, I guess.”

In 1966, Miller was living in San Francisco, where one of the country’s most creative scenes was blossoming, with bands like the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Brother and the Holding Company launching their careers. Miller, along with former Airplane member Skip Spence and other local musicians, formed Moby Grape, which quickly earned a reputation as one of the Bay Area’s most promising bands.

Miller was one of three guitarists in the original line-up of Moby Grape and his lead parts were an important part of the group’s widely admired sound. “His playing was never complacent and his solos were driving, always aware of where the song was going,” Rolling StoneIn a 2010 article, David Fricke ranked Miller 68th on his list of the 100 greatest guitarists.

Moby Grape’s eponymous debut album from 1967 is considered a classic of its era. Reviews praised songs such as “8:05” and “Hey Grandma,” co-written by Miller and drummer Don Stevenson, and the group headlined the historic Monterey International Pop Festival that summer. English rock bands such as Eric Clapton and the newly formed Led Zeppelin were among the band’s biggest fans, and especially of Miller’s playing. Zeppelin reportedly played Moby Grape songs during early rehearsals, and their 1970 song “Since I’ve Been Loving You” was frequently compared to Moby Grape’s 1968 song “Never.”

For a year or two, Moby Grape seemed destined to become one of the biggest bands of the ’60s, but the group was derailed by Spence’s excessive LSD use and subsequent breakdown. (Spence died in 1999 at age 52.) By 1971, the original lineup of Moby Grape had disbanded. “We could have had everything, but we ended up with next to nothing,” Miller said. The Seattle NewspaperThe guitarist pursued a solo career before moving back to Tacoma, Washington in the 1990s.

In his later years, Miller continued to play in Tacoma and tell his story, and in 2010 he reunited with the surviving original members of Moby Grape and Spence’s son Omar to record an album that was never released.