Donna Jean Godchaux, a singer best known for her work with the Grateful Dead in the 1970s, has died. She was 78.
As a backing artist, Godchaux also appeared on a number of classic hits including Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” and Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves a Woman”.
She died at a hospice facility in Nashville following a “lengthy struggle with cancer,” Rolling Stone reports.
In a statement, her family said: “She was a sweet and warmly beautiful spirit, and all those who knew her are united in loss. The family requests privacy at this time of grieving. In the words of Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, ‘May the four winds blow her safely home.’”
Godchaux was born Donna Jean Thatcher in Florence, Alabama, on August 22, 1947. The city is located just across the Tennesse River from Muscle Shoals, where she began her career as a backing singer. During the 1960s she recorded with Presley and Sledge as well as singing on recordings by artists including Boz Scaggs and Duane Allman, Cher and Neil Diamond.
After moving to California she met pianist and Grateful Dead member Keith Godchaux, who she married in 1970. She joined the band soon after, first appearing on their triple live album Europe ’72.
The first Grateful Dead studio album she sang on was 1973’s Wake of the Flood, a record heavily influenced by her husband’s passion for bebop and modal jazz. She became a mother for the first time shortly before the release of 1974’s From the Mars Hotel, and is depicted on the back cover as a Madonna.
In total she appeared on six Grateful Dead studio albums, departing the group along with her husband a few months after the release of 1978’s Shakedown Street. During their time in the band the couple also released 1975’s Keith & Donna, their sole studio album as a duo. Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia appeared as a guitarist on the record.
In 1980, Keith and Donna Godchaux formed a new group, the Heart of Gold Band. On July 23, 1980, just a few days after the band’s first gig, Keith Godchaux was killed in a car accident at the age of 32.
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She later got remarried to bassist David MacKay, a member of the Muscle Shoals-based band Fiddleworms. They played together in her own Donna Jean Godchaux Band.
Godchaux was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead in 1994.
She is survived by her son, Zion “Rock” Godchaux, who was born in 1974 and later formed the electronic group BoomBox.