Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, a former singer for the Grateful Dead, has died at 78, Fox News Digital confirmed.
Godchaux-MacKay passed away on Nov. 2, surrounded by her family at Alive Hospice in Nashville after a lengthy battle with cancer.
“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,’” her representative said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Godchaux-MacKay was born in Florence, Alabama. Throughout her career, she was a background vocalist on two No. 1 songs – Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” and Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds.”
Speaking to AL.com in 2016, she said working with Presley was “one of the most amazing times of my life.” The musician recalled Presley being “so kind to us and encouraging and complimentary… And he looked great. I’m telling you, he was the most gorgeous human being I’ve ever seen.”
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Godchaux-MacKay left Alabama and moved to California in 1970 and introduced herself to Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia. She and her husband, keyboardist Keith Godchaux, joined the Grateful Dead in 1971. Godchaux-MacKay was a member of the band from 1971 to 1979, touring in Egypt, the U.S. and Europe.
“It was great fun. I loved singing with those guys and we had an absolute blast,” she told AL.com of working with the Grateful Dead.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2014, Godchaux-MacKay explained that by 1979, it was time for her and Keith to depart the band and raise their son, Zion, who was born in 1974.
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“Keith and I, we were wasted. We were exhausted. And the band was exhausted with us. The band knew we had to be out of the band, and Keith and I had been talking about ‘How in the world do you quit the Grateful Dead?’
“It was sad, but it was what needed to happen. It was turning into being not profitable for anybody. We needed to go, and they needed for us to go,” she said at the time.
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After leaving the band, Donna and Keith formed their own band, Heart of Gold, in 1980. In July 1980, Keith was involved in a car accident. He died a few days later at 32.
In 1981, Godchaux-MacKay married musician David MacKay, and the pair moved back to Muscle Shoals, Alabama – the same city where Donna got her start in music.
She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the Grateful Dead in 1994 and went on to start her own band, Jean Godchaux Band, in 2006.
She is survived by her husband, David MacKay; her son Kinsman MacKay, and his wife, Molly; her son Zion Godchaux and his son, Delta; her sister, Gogi Clark; and her brother, Ivan Thatcher.
