Jerry Miller, Moby Grape Guitarist, Dead at 81

Rocker Jerry Miller, famed guitarist and founding member of progressive rock group Moby Grape, has died. He was 81.

Miller died suddenly on Saturday, a rep for the musician confirmed to People. A cause of death has not been disclosed.

Miller was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, and began his music career as a teenager in the late 1950s. He formed the band The Frantics with drummer Don Stevenson and Bob Mosley, which earned them early fame.

They soon moved out to San Francisco and joined up with former Jefferson Airplane members Skip Spence and Peter Lewis. Together, they went on to form Moby Grape.

The band released their first studio album, Moby Grape, in 1967, and Miller co-wrote two of the band’s biggest hits off that album, including “8.05” and “Hey Grandma.” The album went on to become No. 124 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”

The band continued to release a slew of records over the next few years, including Wow/Grape Jam (1968), Moby Grape ’69 (1969), Truly Fine Citizen (1969).

However, the band’s success was seemingly derailed by a mix of drug use and mental illness — particularly with regards to Spence, who suffered a mental breakdown and left the group in 1970.

The band reunited, however, after a brief hiatus in 1971, to release 20 Granite Creek, and they continued to play intermittently over the next five decades. However, in the 1990s, Miller moved away from regrouping to focus on his solo efforts and his performances with The Jerry Miller Band.

Miller is survived by his longtime partner, Jo Johnson.

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