Vince Welnick [ tickets ], keyboardist for The Grateful Dead [ tickets ] and, prior to that gig, a member of The Tubes [ tickets ], took his own life on Friday (6/2). Various reports give his age as 51 or 55.

According to San Jose, CA, newspaper The Mercury News, Welnick was taken, injured, from his home in Forestville near Santa Rosa, to a local hospital where he later died. Authorities told the paper Saturday (6/3) that his death had been ruled a suicide, but didn't specify how he died.

At press time, a spokesperson for the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department could not be reached for further comment.

Welnick, who played keys for The Grateful Dead [ tickets ] from 1990 until the 1995 death of bandleader Jerry Garcia, replaced Brent Mydland, who died of a drug overdose in 1990. Mydland had taken over in 1980 for Keith Godchaux, who was killed in a car accident at the age of 32, and who had replaced original Dead keyboardist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. McKernan died of liver failure in 1973 at the age of 27. The multiple deaths led some fans to speculate that the position was cursed.

A native of Phoenix, AZ, Welnick relocated to San Francisco in the early '70s and was a member of The Beans. The group later changed its name to The Tubes [ tickets ], and scored several hits in the early '80s, including "She's a Beauty" and "Talk to Ya Later." The group broke up in 1986.

After Garcia's death, Welnick formed his own group, Missing Man Formation.

In 2003, surviving Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir regrouped under the name The Dead. Welnick apparently was not asked to participate, a fact that troubled him, according to musician Mike Lawson, who oversees Welnick's website.

"Vince never got over the cruel way that the Grateful Dead band members treated him after Jerry died," Lawson wrote in a message posted at the site Friday (6/2) evening. "He never got over the sorrow of losing Jerry, facing his own demons without his friend and could not understand how the remaining fellow band-members treated him like s--- the past several years.

"They didn't pull the trigger," Lawson continued, "but they sold him the gun. At this point, it is now on their shoulders to live with what they could have or should have done. It will stay with them for the rest of their lives."

Lawson claimed that, in recent years, Welnick had battled lung disease and cancer, and alluded to Welnick's struggles with drugs.

In a memorial posted at The Grateful Dead's website, the band's members said that Welnick's "service to and love for the Grateful Dead were heartfelt and essential. He had a loving soul and a joy in music that we were lucky to share."

Welnick is survived by his wife, Lori, and his sister, Nancy.