Moby Grape founding member and solo artist Jerry Miller 'dies suddenly' at his Washington State home at 81

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Jerry Miller, the guitarist and vocalist who was a founding member of the 1960s psychedelic rock band Moby Grape, has died at the age of 81.

A representative for the band confirmed that the rocker passed away suddenly on Saturday, July 20, to People, but didn't share an official cause of death.

One of his grandsons, Cody Miller, revealed that he died in his sleep, The New York Times is reporting, but that the cause was still pending.

His daughter, Jaaron Miller, has since taken to a Facebook tribute to share her love for her dad, writing, 'Grateful to have been serenaded from birth by a love that can't be conveyed with words. My father, Jerry Miller. We're really going to miss you.'

Along with her heartbreaking words, she would also share a few photos of herself with her father during an outing where he got to hang out with his grandson.

Founding member of the rock band Moby Grape, Jerry Miller, died suddenly at his home in Tacoma, Washington on Saturday, July 20, at the age of 81

Miller, who also performed as a solo artist and as a member of the Jerry Miller Band, grew up in Tacoma, Washington, and the began to perform in the live-music scene of the Pacific-Northwest in his teenage years, which is the time and scene Jimi Hendrix was honing his musical craft. 

'He was good, but somehow you didn't think of him as the man who'd reinvent the electric guitar,' Miller said of Hendrix to The Seattle Times in 2021. 'The main thing you heard in those days was that he played too damn loud. Like me, I suppose.'

Miller had been a member of the Seattle rock band, The Frantics, and played on an early demo of Bobby Fuller's 1966 classic I Fought The Law.

Eventually, he and Frantics members Bob Mosley and Don Stevenson left for San Francisco and ultimately joined up with Peter Lewis and former Airplane member Skip Spence to form Moby Grape.

The band, which became an integral part of San Francisco's psychedelic music scene of the late 1960s, actually had a rare mix of band members who all sang lead vocals and wrote songs.

They would reap high praise from critics and fans alike for their self-titled debut studio album (1967), which peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200, garnering them respect and attention from their fellow Flower Power bands like Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead, which is now considered a classic.

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it number 124 on its original list of rock’s 500 greatest albums, describing it as 'genuine hippie power pop.' 

Miller was credited with writing and co-writing six of the 13 songs on the album, such as Hey Grandma and 8:05, which were a couple of the band's more renowned tracks, as well as My Heart For The Judge.

While he played in various bands, Miller is best known for his work in Moby Grape, a San Francisco-area band who seemed to be destined for stardom during the Flower Power years

Moby Grape's self-titled studio is considered to be a classic psychedelic rock record

'We could have had it all, but we ended up with pretty well nothing,' Miller told The Seattle Times, in a reference to the band's problems behind-the-scenes, leading to Skip Spence and Bob Mosely leaving the band by 1969

Their sophomore follow-up album, Wow/Grape Jam (1968), was generally viewed as a critical and commercial disappointment, even though the album charted at number 20 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts. 

At one point, it seemed Moby Grape was destined to be a huge and successful rock band, but sadly their first incarnation ended in 1969, in part, due to members Bob Mosley and Skip Spence's mental health issues resulting in them leaving the band.

Plus, the band was bogged down with a decades-long legal dispute with their former manager, Matthew Katz, who insisted on owning the name of the group.

'We could have had it all, but we ended up with pretty well nothing,' Miller told The Seattle Times in 2021, in a reference to the band's problems behind-the-scenes, including Spence's overuse of LSD that led to him experiencing a mental breakdown. 

There was renewed hope that things could make a turn for the better when original five members Miller, Don Stevenson and Peter Lewis rejoined with Spence and Bob Mosley for the band's fifth album, 20 Granite Creek (1971).

The guitarist and singer's had a look of love while holding on to one of his five grandchildren

The musician's son Joseph changed his Facebook profile photo to show one of himself arm-in-arm with his father in more recent times

In all, they released seven studio albums, with the last two being in the 1980s, but there will alway be a sense of unfulfilled potential synonymous with their name.

While Spence would end up passing away in 1999 at the age of 52, new versions of the band kept them playing live shows throughout the more recent years.

In the wake of his death, son Joseph Miller changed his profile picture for Facebook to a recent image showing father and son arm-in-arm.

Along with Jaaron and Joseph, Jerry Miller also leaves behind his other two adult children: son Dennis and daughter Colleen, as well as five grandchildren.