Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame backup singer for The Grateful Dead in the 1970s who also sang on No. 1 hits by Elvis Presley and Percy Sledge, did Muscle Shoals sessions and led her own bands, died Sunday of cancer at a Nashville hospice. She was 78.
Her rep Dennis McNally confirmed the news to our sister publication Rolling Stone.
“She was a sweet and warmly beautiful spirit, and all those who knew her are united in loss,” McNally told Rolling Stone. “The family requests privacy at this time of grieving. In the words of Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, ‘May the four winds blow her safely home.’”
Born Donna Jean Thatcher on August 22, 1947, in Florence, AL, Godchaux-MacKay had done session work as a backing singer for a number of acts in the 1960s, appearing on Sledge’s 1966 classic “When a Man Loves a Woman” and other Muscle Shoals productions. She later did memorable backing work on Presley’s 1969 smash “Suspicious Minds,” which was the King’s first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in seven years. She also appeared on tracks by the likes of Cher, Neil Diamond, Duane Allman and Boz Scaggs.
She moved to California as the 1960s ebbed and met keyboardist Keith Godchaux. They married in 1970, met members of The Grateful Dead at a concert the following year, and both would join the legendary San Francisco band. He replaced Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, who had been ailing and could no longer tour.
Godchaux-MacKay’s appearance on the group’s records was the seminal live album Europe ’72and she went on to record and tour with The Dead through 1979, singing on its LPs Wake of the Flood, From the Mars Hotel, Blues for Allah, Terrapin Station and Shakedown Street.
Along the way, she and her husband performed on Dead co-founder Jerry Garcia’s solo albums and recorded their own disc, Keith & Donnain 1975.
She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with The Grateful Dead in 1994 and appeared with the band in films including The Grateful Dead Movie (1977) and Sunshine Daydream (2013), which chronicled an August 1972 concert in Oregon. Godchaux-MacKay.
The Godchauxs left The Grateful Dead in 1979 and launched the Heart of Gold Band in 1980. But Keith Godchaux died from injuries in a car crash shortly after their first live show. He was 32.
She would later marry bass player David MacKay, who played in her Donna Jean Godchaux Band.
In later years, Godchaux-MacKay continued to record and perform as a solo act and in various bands. Most recently, she issued a single titled “Shelter” in 2021 as Donna Jean and the Tricksters.
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