The Poetic Soul Ronald McKernan's Introspection Through Music

1945, 9/08, Ron McKernan is born in San Bruno, CA. 1962, Pigpen meets Jerry on the San Mateo Peninsula coffeehouse circuit. Pigpen died at his California home of a gastrointestinal haemorrhage likely related to liver failure on March 8th, 1973. “Pigpen was and is now forever one of the Grateful Dead” reads the epitaph on Ron “Pigpen” McKernan's gravestone at Alta Mesa Memorial Park ... 50 years ago today (3/8/73), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, keyboardist of the Grateful Dead, died at age 27 from liver failure. Starting a rock band was actually Ron McKernan's idea, and he was its first front man, delivering stinging harmonica, keyboards, and beautiful ... Ron got the nickname because the man could take 2 suitcases into a hotel room and within an hour or two would have it lookig like he had lived there for months! It does seem that Garcia was the original source for the name by which Pigpen is now universally known and loved. As well as his habit of ... Today, I visit the gravesite of musician and co-founder of the band The Grateful Dead. Ronald "Pigpen" McKernan is buried at Alta Mesa ... McKernan struggled to keep up, causing the group to hire keyboardist Tom Constanten, with McKernan's contributions limited to vocals, harmonica ... In a 2013 webcast under Bob Weir's Weir Here imprimatur, longtime Grateful Dead roadie Steve Parish asserted that McKernan succumbed to ...