Vince Welnick, 51; Last Keyboard Player for the Grateful Dead

Vince Welnick, 51, the Grateful Dead’s last keyboard player and a veteran musician in several other bands, including the Tubes and the Missing Man Formation, died Friday, Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally said.

The cause of death was not announced for Welnick, who lived in the Sonoma County town of Forestville.

He was the last in a line of Grateful Dead keyboardists, several of whom died prematurely, leading some of the group’s many fans to conclude that the position came with a curse.

Welnick had replaced Brent Mydland, who died of a drug overdose in 1990. Mydland had replaced Keith Godchaux, who died in a car crash in 1980. And Godchaux had replaced the band’s original keyboard player, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, who died of a liver ailment at 27 in 1973.

Welnick, a native of Phoenix, was the last musician to join the group before lead guitarist and unofficial leader Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995.