Originally Posted by
Cunamara
Jerry had severe diabetes and did not take very good care of his health. Heroin certainly didn't help. He developed peripheral neuropathy, arthritis, neck problems (his main guitar for a decade and a half, Tiger, weighed about 15 pounds) and, from the looks of the photographs in his last few years, significant heart failure and probably COPD from decades of smoking like a chimney. He had a rather publicized diabetic coma after which he struggled to put things back together to be able to play again. Merle Saunders came over to his house and played with him every day to coax him back; the first thing he wanted to play was not a Dead tune but "My Funny Valentine." He was what, 53 when he died? He looked like he was about 85 at the final concert.
Since I am a psychologist in real life, I also wonder if there weren't mental health issues as well. Addiction, of course, is an obvious one. But he also ended up living an isolated life in a small apartment, fairly unable to go out and do things because of his extreme fame and the rather proprietary attitude of Deadheads towards the band. Scuba diving in Hawaii was one of his releases. He apparently felt the Grateful Dead as a tremendous burden towards the end of his life and did not want to go out and tour anymore. The hassles of the last few tours were extraordinary, including one show where there had been death threats against him and so the house lights remained up throughout the concert with police stationed throughout the hall. That had to be weird. And yet he also felt an obligation to the extended Grateful Dead family whose livelihoods were dependent upon the band touring and generating $30-$50 million a year. It would not surprise me if he was clinically depressed. Bob Weir has said that Jerry told him heroin rolled up all of his problems into one neat little package: "where's my next hit?"
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