Jerry Garcia was born on the 1st August 1942, in San Francisco, California USA, of British and Spanish ancestry, and passed away on the 9th August 1995 in Forest Knolls, California. He was a musician – singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for being a co-founder of the rock band The Grateful Dead. His career in the entertainment industry was active from 1960 to 1995.
Have you ever wondered how rich Jerry Garcia was? Sources estimated that Garcia counted his net worth at the impressive amount of $40 million – obviously, most of his income was the result of his successful career as a musician. Over the course of his career, he collaborated with numerous musicians, including Tom Fogerty, Pete Sears, Bruce Hornsby, Art Garfunkel, and many others, and this also contributed to the overall size of his wealth.
Jerry Garcia Net Worth $40 Million
Jerry Garcia was brought up by Jose Ramon Garcia and Ruth Marie Clifford. His father was a professional musician, thus, Jerry grew up surrounded by music and from an early age he started taking piano lessons, but as a teenager he switch to the guitar. While he attended elementary school – Monroe – he showed interests in arts as well as his musical skills, so he entered the San Francisco Art Institute. He also went to Analy High School, but didn’t matriculate, because of his decision to join the U.S. Army, from which he was discharged. However, while he was in high school, Jerry became a member of the school band the Chords, with which he won a contest and recorded his first song, “Raunchy” by Bill Justis, and so his career began.
Before The Grateful Dead was formed, Garcia played in various bands such as Warlocks, which later became The Grateful Dead. Since music was his main focus, along the way he met with numerous musicians including fellow founding members of The Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Bob Weir.
The band’s line up changed often, but that didn’t stop them from playing for 30 years, until 1995. During that period, the band released 13 studio albums, some of which reached platinum and gold certification, such as “Aoxomoxoa” (1969), “Workingsman’s Dead” (1970), “American Beauty” (1970) – one of the band’s greatest albums, reaching double platinum – “In The Dark” (1987), and the last studio album “Without A Net” (1990). During the 30 years period, this was the main source of Garcia’s net worth.
However, Jerry was also involved in several other bands, which were his side projects, such as the Jerry Garcia Band, with which he created several albums, the band Old And In The Way with John Khan, Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Richard Greene, and John Hartford, who left the band before they became popular.
Furthermore, Garcia was a part of the Garcia/Grisman acoustic duo, Saunders-Garcia band, and also a part of the New Riders of the Purple Sage. Garcia as well released several solo albums such as “Garcia” (1972), “Compliments” (1974), and his last solo release “Run For The Roses” (1982), which only added further to his overall net worth.
Speaking about his personal life, Jerry Garcia was in marriage thrice. His first wife was Sara Ruppenthal(1963-67), with whom he had a daughter. Later, he married Carolyn Adams(1981-94), and they had two daughters. In 1994 he married Deborah Koons, who he left widowed. Throughout his entire life, Jerry was drug addicted, so was frequently in rehab. Unfortunately, at the age of 53 he was found dead in his room at one of the rehabilitation clinics – according to sources, he died from a heart attack. In honor of Jerry, his ex-wife and daughter established in 2015 the Jerry Garcia Foundation, which helps children to develop artistic skills.
