Live hard, die fast and leave a bloated mess of a corpse.

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan was born Sept.8,1945.His father had been a radio DJ and played deep blues,soul and R&B,which influenced his son.Ron had always had a wild streak,but was also known to be a really nice guy and he definately could blow harp and sing the Blues with the best of them.In a book about Garcia,Jerry was quoted saying that without "Pigpen",the band never would have made it.He was the frontman while Garcia and Weir were still a bit green about singing in public.He knew ho to really work a crowd into a frenzy,and he was the one who eschewed psychedelics and just drank,acting as an anchor to his flying off into space bandmates.