Sturgill Simpson Says His Favorite Guitar Player Jerry Garcia ‘Saved My Life’

Sturgill Simpson is back in a big way after a three-year hiatus with his new Johnny Blue Skies album, Passage du Desir, and current Why Not? Tour. “Jerry Garcia, I hate to say it, might have saved my life!” Simpson said about the key role the music of the Grateful Dead played in his return during a recent interview.

Simpson spoke with Uncut for a lengthy article featured in the September 2024 issue of the magazine. The Kentucky native explained his participation in the inaugural Dead Ahead Festival reignited a fire in him.

Sturgill Simpson withdrew from the spotlight after a major vocal cord injury forced him off the road in 2021. The singer-songwriter received an offer from Dead Ahead organizers to head to Mexico for the new destination event and accepted despite his unfamiliarity with the music of the Grateful Dead.

“I wasn’t doing anything and I was asked, did I want to go to Mexico for a couple of days and play guitar for the Grateful Dead?” Simpson reflected. “I wasn’t really familiar with them, because in my early twenties in Kentucky there was a jam band scene which I dismissed as unstructured noodling, and I lumped the Dead into that. Then when Bob [Weir] sent me 60 songs I had to learn, I thought, why is this so easy? It’s almost like I could anticipate where Jerry was going. And it was because Jerry played folk, country, bluegrass and blues, the same way I play guitar! He is now my favourite guitar player.”

Sturgill Simpson’s sets with Bobby Weir and Mickey Hart‘s Dead Ahead Band and guest spots with Wolf Bros and Orebolo this past January marked only his second public live appearance since 2021. Upon returning from the destination event, he knew the time had come to get on the road again.

“After I got home from those shows, all I could think about was playing guitar for 10 hours a day again. I called my booking agent and said, ‘I wanna go on tour,’” Sturgill recalled. After years of music-free depression and inactivity, a switch had been flipped. “Jerry Garcia, I hate to say it, might have saved my life!” following a dark period of depression and musical inactivity for Simpson.

Sturgill Simpson thought enough of the experience, he signed on for Dead Ahead 2025. Simpson will re-team with Weir, Rick Mitarotonda, Jeff Chimenti, Oteil Burbridge, Don Was and Jay Lane for three performances in Riviera Cancun, Mexico January 9 – 13, 2025. He’ll also perform a set of his own at the concert vacation.

The Why Not? Tour arrives in Simpson’s home state of Kentucky on Friday for a performance at Lexington’s Rupp Arena. Official live recordings from the outing can be streamed and downloaded via nugs.net. The North American leg continues through November 24.