Jerry Miller, co-founder and guitarist of Moby Grape, has died at the age of 81. His passing was announced on the Moby Grape Facebook fan group, with members sharing text messages from Miller’s partner Jo Johnson, who asked fans to “flood the Ether with Jerry Miller’s music” and “play it all day long for me and him”. No further information has been disclosed about Miller’s death, and Johnson has requested privacy.
The San Francisco-based Moby Grape was formed in 1966 by Miller, guitarists Peter Lewis and Skip Spence. Eric Clapton once described Miller as “the best guitar player in the world” during his first US tour with Cream in 1967. The band’s self-titled debut album from 1967 was a modest success, but its stature has grown over time. The album was even named one of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003 by Rolling Stone.
The band disbanded and reunited several times from the 70s to the 90s, with Spence and Bob Mosley both battling mental illness and addiction. The band’s final reunion took place in 2007 with a one-off concert featuring Miller, Moseley, and Lewis, along with drummer Don Stevenson. Moby Grape’s last album was released in 1989, which was re-released on compact disc in 2003.
Miller released four solo albums independently and revealed in a 2021 interview that he and the band’s surviving members were open to reuniting again. Tributes have been pouring in for Miller following news of his passing, including from fellow musician Bill Cutler who said he would “miss him for the rest of my days. He was a giant, and this is a huge loss for music.
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