He was often in fights and in trouble. His father was a musician and his love for music began at an early age. He enjoyed listening to all types of music at a young age including jazz, blues, folk, and bluegrass. The instrument he liked the best in all the music he listened to was the guitar. Jerry heard rock and roll for the first time in the 1950's and instantly fell in love with the style. His two favorite styles of music became the blues and rock and roll which highly influenced his own style of play. His favorite artists were Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley and Eddie Cochran (Piccoli 11-13).
Bob Weir was a few years younger than Garcia when they first met. Garcia saw instant talent in his younger counterpart. Unlike Garcia, Weir was brought up in an affluent neighborhood. He attended several prep schools as a teenager and was expelled from seven of them for behavior problems. Bob was like the all American kid, he excelled at sports and school when he applied himself. He had boyish good looks and was known as quite the ladies man. Bob did have a medical condition called dyslexia that some feel allowed him to have a keen ear for music. To combat his condition, Bob used his sense of humor and heightened his listening skills. Bob started playing the guitar at 14 and he particularly enjoyed music with vocal harmony. He listened to the Everly Brothers, Joan Baez, and also enjoyed the raunchiness of Chuck Berry (Piccoli 22).
While trying to form the Warlocks, Jerry and Bob met Ron Mckernon otherwise known as "Pigpen". Pigpen's appearance matched his name. He was short, stocky and didn't care much about personal grooming. His outfits were always the same, jeans, sunglasses, cowboy hat and a denim or leather jacket. He would become the Grateful Dead's first keyboard player. He had no formal music training, but his father was a deejay for a blues radio station and blues is what Pigpen was all about.
