Melvin Seals is one of the few musicians to play at Jerry Garcia’s wedding and his funeral. Seals played electric organ in the Jerry Garcia Band from 1980-1995 and later formed JGB a year after Jerry’s death.
Seals, who was born in Oakland, got his first introduction to music when he was forced to attend church as a child. His father was a pianist in the church as well as the choir director. Seals, like his father, took up the piano but switched to electric organ after hearing Billy Preston’s church-rock-gospel organ sound on American Bandstand.
Seals, who will turn 62 later this year, had the third-longest tenure in the Jerry Garcia Band next to Garcia and bassist John Kahn, who had been members for the band’s entire history.
Jambands.com spoke to Seals by phone from his Bay Area home to talk about Jerry and the difficulty of keeping the legacy of a band alive when its leader is gone.
Can you believe August 9, 2015 will mark the 20th anniversary of Jerry’s death?
I have a hard time believing it. I have to look back over incidents that have happened in my life to remind me that it has been 20 years. That means I’ve been going with JGB for 19 years because I put JGB together a year after Jerry died. To think about 19 years . . . that’s a long time.
How have you evolved as a person and as a musician over this 20 year span?
I think for me the first 5 years was fighting through the sympathy of how folks felt. There were folks that wanted to hear the music. There were people who cried a lot and missed Jerry. There were those that felt that you should not be on stage performing—-“It’s not the band. It’s not the Jerry Garcia Band. Why are you doing this?” I went through a lot.
But as a musician, I had to rise to the occasion. When I was playing with Jerry for 15 years, it was all about Jerry and the Jerry Garcia Band, and I never thought I meant much. It was so much about Jerry that I felt whatever musicians he had and whatever he decided to do, folks loved it, because they loved Jerry. I don’t think I gave my best. There were lots of things I just kind of did – it’s the Jerry Garcia Band – they’re going to love it anyway – it didn’t matter. Words, lyrics – half the time, I didn’t know what was being said, and I even got some chords wrong. I really didn’t take the time.
After Jerry died and trying to go back out, I had to be on my P’s and Q’s. I had to my dot my I’s and cross my T’s. I had to teach whomever was playing with me what was right and what was wrong. I didn’t know myself because it was all about Jerry. When he died, I had to know, so I had to learn what I never really learned. A lot more studying – the feeling, the vibe, the aura of the song. I had to go back and listen and learn what I didn’t really learn and that made me a much better musician and much more dialed into the music, because before I was just playing it because I could play it. Now, I had to really learn it, and understand the story behind “Tangled Up in Blue,” what was he really singing in “Reuben and Cherise,.” Before I was just playing behind Jerry, taking a solo now and then.
And today, it’s still about Jerry because we’re only able to do this because of the legacy he left behind. I’m only able to perform and people come out because they loved Jerry and he was there and I guess a few people noticed me too.
Can you elaborate on what you were playing wrong?
Let me fix that. There were a few songs where the chord can sound similar but it was wrong. Not that I didn’t know the song. It was smaller things, like, ‘Oh, that’s what they were playing and I thought it was this.’ I only got it right from going back to the library and really listening and studying it.
How did you meet Jerry and become a member of the band?
The short version of it because it’s a very long story is that I was playing with a Bay area singer Maria Muldaur and her boyfriend at the time was John Kahn. And from time to time, when she didn’t have a bass player, John would play gigs with us and he was paying attention to our keyboard player which was me. After talking to me, checking me out and listening to me, after one of the gigs, he approached me and asked me, if I was interested in sitting-in with another band. He didn’t even say what the band was and I was like, “Sure, I would love to.” One day, I get a call from John and he’s like, “We got a couple of gigs and we’re going to rehearse. Can you make the rehearsals?” I went up there and it was Jerry Garcia Band, and I didn’t even know who Jerry Garcia Band was.
We went over some songs and that was history. From that point on, I was told I was the keyboard player that Jerry was always looking for.
So you had no idea who Jerry was?
I didn’t even know who Jerry was. I was not a Deadhead. I was straight out of church. I had done a lot of gospel and a few Broadway plays. I had done a few things similar to Jerry. Funny story is that Jerry actually heard me. I did a gig with Elvin Bishop in San Diego and at the time Jerry Garcia Band was the headliner, but I never saw Jerry. He never left the dressing room. When I met Jerry, he said, “I heard you long time ago.” He had asked his band members about me. It was very ironic that he never came out of the dressing room. I never met him, never talked to him, didn’t know who he was, but he heard enough to ask, “Who was that on the organ?”
I was not a Deadhead, all I knew about the Grateful Dead was the name Grateful Dead and they would play a show around Christmas time at the Oakland Auditorium. People would complain about the traffic and people camping out. Sometimes I would hear on Channel 7 news: “Grateful Dead member Mickey Hart celebrates a birthday today.” All I knew was the names, I didn’t know their faces. I could stand right in front of Jerry and not know who he was, which I did. They loved that. They had a good laugh that I had no clue of nothing.
When you got to know Jerry what were your impressions?
First let me go back and say I was a little scared of him. I was a gospel producer. I had a gospel record label and the church was a big part of my life. When I went to the rehearsal I got there kind of early because you want to make a good impression. You don’t want to show up late. The security people that were watching the warehouse that we were rehearsing in, let me in and they all (the rest of the band) kind of came in all together. When I went in there I was looking at all the backdrops and everything had to do with a skeleton. I’m looking at skeletons with roses, skeletons with violins – everything had to do with skeletons. I’m not a Deadhead and I’m not familiar with any of this. I’m out of the church into the warehouse with skeletons all over the place. I was a little scared.
After a a few gigs, I realized what I was involved in. Jerry and the fans were the kindest people in the world – unbelievable love, unconditional love. I could see how Jerry was the man and the fans just loved him.
Did you have a friendship with Jerry over those 18 years?
I was lucky enough to ride in the limousines with Jerry, whenever we did planes or small jets, I was in the car with Jerry. I was fortunate to be with him. He took me on and just gave me that kind of love. And I didn’t buy into the situation either. I was too naive to buy into the situation. I never got his autograph and barely took pictures with him because it was something that didn’t matter to me. I was not that kind of guy.
Do you think Jerry appreciated that you did not ask him for favors?
I heard it over, over. They just loved me. I never asked him for a favor. I did gigs on the side and never asked him to sit-in. I just didn’t see the handwriting on the wall. I have things that he gave me that I wish he signed but I wasn’t that guy. He loved that fact.
Coming from gospel, did you have adjust your playing style for Jerry? Or did Jerry want you to bring that style to the band?
He wanted the slow Motown gospel which I was all about and I think that’s what I exactly brought to them; was that gospel flare, church thing. For me, it was difficult because I came from producing music, where you dot your I’s and cross your T’s. What I mean by that is when there’s an ascent coming up, or a feel or a notey run, where you’re supposed to play together, I thought our band was so tacky because they weren’t hitting it together. In the R&B field, it’s all about getting it together and playing that line as tight as you can. And then I get into this band, and maybe John Kahn didn’t play the line or maybe Jerry screwed it up and it didn’t seem to matter at all. And I’m like, “What?”
I had to learn the jamband way and that it didn’t have to be tight. It’s about changing every night and going with your feel. And instead of me, tightening them up, they loosened me up. I just couldn’t understand how they could do this and get away with it, but the audience loved it. It was something I had to learn and I did get it.
The Jerry Garcia Band catalog of songs was very deep. What were some of your favorite tunes to perform live.
I think some of the songs I was able to shine with were “Lucky Old Son,” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” because I was able to apply a lot of soul and gospel flavor to the slow type of songs. There were a few up-tempo songs that I liked like “How Sweet It Is,” “Get Out of My Life,” “Deal,” and others that I took quickly too. And there were other songs that I struggled with because I just didn’t know what to play and they would not let me hear any of the other keyboard players before me. They didn’t want me to hear them because I guess if I heard them I would have probably copied them.
Did the Jerry Garcia Band ever rehearse or did you just get a call from Jerry telling you when the gigs were and when to show up?
When I first got the call, that first rehearsal was to see if there was a vibe or a charisma with me coming to the table, so we went over four or five songs. Jerry liked it and then we had a few rehearsals to hit a great number of the songs for my sake. But once we got the repertoire down, we didn’t rehearse at all. Most of our rehearsals was learning new stuff on stage during soundcheck. Even then, when we rehearsed, I had chord charts as guidelines. I had to rely a whole lot on that in the early stages until I got it in my head. Jerry had other projects – he had Grateful Dead, acoustic band, but he really loved the Jerry Garcia Band. We didn’t rehearse a lot and again, I think that all goes back to that it didn’t have to be that tight. It kind of moved around. Some nights the songs moved too fast, some nights they were too slow and sometimes they were right in the pocket. But every show people seemed to love it.
Following Jerry’s death, you put together JGB, which has undergone many transformations and configurations over a 19-year period.
When I first started JGB my concept and focus was all wrong. I had musicians out there, that played extremely well – sessions guys -that knew how to play and handle a song. But what I was not looking at and I had to learn again was that a lot has to do with the vibe. Their vibe and heart wasn’t into it. They were just able to play because they were that good of musicians. They were playing the songs skillfully and tastefully, but it wasn’t felt by some of the Deadheads, who are very attuned with the heart and the vibe. So I was hitting and missing for almost 10 years. I was just trying to find guys who could play the songs and sing the lyrics but the fans wanted to be reminded of Jerry. And when I started getting guys that were Deadheads and knew all about the music and it started to come together. I think it was 10 years of really hitting and missing. And the last 10, it’s been dialing in, perfecting it, and dialing in.
Everybody I’ve brought to the table these last 10 years ago had to have been a Deadhead and know what was going on. No more of just hiring musicians because they were good musicians. If you’re trying to be the Jerry Garcia Band, you have to look like it, sound like it. There are guys out there that have studied Jerry because he was their legend and they play similar. None of them can play Jerry like Jerry, but they bring enough to the table where the fans can smile and enjoy the songs, remember, go back and love Jerry again. Everybody I have now loved the music and was there (in the Dead scene) when I wasn’t even there or listening to Jerry when I was with Jerry. So now, when you come hear us, you are going to relive the Jerry Garcia experience and even relive the gospel flavor that I brought to the band when I was with Jerry. All of that is in place now. The only thing is that there’s not a real Jerry on stage but we know that. The vibe, love, whatever you felt you can relive it now.
You usually play shows close to the Bay Area, but I see in March the band is headed East for 16 shows.
We go to the East Coast twice a year because it’s hard for a weekend. With JGB the funds are nowhere near what it was with Jerry. It’s a big struggle to buy airline tickets, get hotels, rent a car, and then pay all the band members. Most of are gigs are on the weekend – we’re not on the road round the clock like some bands are or bands that would like to be. We just have to take the better shows and leave the rest alone.
