Moby Grape co-founder and guitarist Jerry Miller has died at age 81.
Yesterday (July 21), a member of the Facebook fan group for Moby Grape shared the news in a public post.
“Sadly, I have to relate that Jerry Miller passed away last night,” wrote the member. They added that Miller’s partner Jo Johnson and his family are “asking for everyone to please give them some privacy and respect” and that she asked for people to “cease phone calls for the time being”. No other information has been given about Miller’s passing.
Members of the group then shared text messages from Jo, who told the group’s members to “flood the Ether with Jerry Miller’s music” and to “play it all day long for me and him”.
Miller formed the San Francisco-based Moby Grape in 1966 alongside guitarists Peter Lewis and Skip Spence, the latter of whom has since inspired a cult following with his only solo album, 1969’s ‘Oar’, the same year he left Moby Grape. Per Deadline, Eric Clapton once called Miller the “best guitar player in the world” during his first US tour in 1967 with Cream.
The psychedelic rock band’s 1967 self-titled debut was a modest success upon release – over time, its stature grew with covers of its songs recorded by Robert Plant, Cat Power, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, with Rolling Stone awarding it one of 500 greatest albums of all time at Number 121 in 2003.
The Miller-written Moby Grape songs ‘8:05’ and ‘Naked, If I Want To’ were covered by Plant in 1993 and released as B-sides. The latter was also covered by Power on her 2000 album ‘The Covers Record’.
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The band’s first tenure lasted briefly from 1966 to 1969. During this period, they released three more albums: 1968’s double album ‘Wow/Grape Jam’, and 1969’s ‘Moby Grape ‘69’ and ‘Truly Fine Citizen’, the latter two exhibiting a shift towards a country rock-oriented sound.
Over the next few decades, the band would disband and reunite on several occasions from the 1970s to the 1990s, with its members Spence and Bob Moseley battling mental illness and drug addiction. Their final reunion happened in 2007 with a one-off concert featuring Miller, Moseley, and Lewis, along with drummer Don Stevenson.
The band’s tumultuous career didn’t faze Miller. “The way I see it, I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” Miller told The Spectator in 2023. “I’ve still got my health and my music, and I still get to do what I most love for a living. Maybe the Grape were screwed, but so what? If you haven’t been ripped off, you haven’t been in the music business.”
Moby Grape’s last album was 1989’s ‘Legendary Grape’, which was originally issued on cassette tape in limited quantities before being remastered and re-released on compact disc in 2003.
Miller released four solo albums independently: 1993’s ‘Now I See’, 1995’s ‘Life Is Like That’, 1998’s ‘Live at Cole’s’ and 2000’s ‘Runnin’ the Train’, all of which are currently unavailable on streaming platforms.
In a 2021 interview with The Seattle Times, Miller revealed that he and the band’s surviving members were open to reuniting once more. “We sometimes talk about getting together again, but the whole COVID business hasn’t helped,” he said.
Musician Bill Cutler shared a tribute to Miller on Facebook. “Hearing Moby Grape’s amazing debut album in 1967 was the reason I decided to move to San Francisco as a young songwriter,” he wrote. “We spent some wonderful times together when he lived in Santa Cruz. I will miss him for the rest of my days. He was a giant and this is a huge loss for music.”