Brent Mydland, keyboard player, singer and songwriter since 1979 for the psychedelic rock band the Grateful Dead, was found dead in his home. He was 37.
Friends discovered Mydland's body Thursday in the bedroom of his home in Lafayette, a suburb 25 miles east of San Francisco, said Sgt. Richard Terry of the Contra Costa County Coroner's office.It was not clear when or how Mydland died, but there was no sign of foul play, Terry said. An autopsy was scheduled for today.
Mydland had returned Tuesday from a three-week national tour with the band, Terry said.
"We lost a brother, and we are very devastated," Grateful Dead spokesman Dennis McNally said.
Surviving band members met Thursday night "to talk, to grieve and to figure out what to do next," McNally said. Tickets already have been sold for Grateful Dead shows in August and September in California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York City and in October in Sweden, West Germany, France and England.
The Grateful Dead formed in 1965 and were at the forefront of the psychedelic counterculture movement in San Francisco. Among their better-known songs are "Truckin'," "Casey Jones" and "Touch of Grey."