No more encores for Tacoma musician Jerry Miller, one of the best to ever play guitar

Tacoma-born guitar great Jerry Miller of the seminal psychedelic-rock band Moby Grape died Sunday at 81. His cause of death had not been revealed as of Tuesday afternoon.

Miller cemented a name for himself as a key player in the 1960s San Francisco music scene. He was one of Moby Grape’s three guitarists, and critics praised his tasteful playing . David Fricke of Rolling Stone lauded his solo style as “propulsive” and never veering into “self-indulgent.”

In 2010, Miller was named No. 68 on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 greatest guitarists .

Miller co-founded Moby Grape along with Skip Spence , formerly of Jefferson Airplane. The group carved out a reputation in the Bay Area as one to watch.

Moby Grape’s stardom was meant to be meteoric. Then the band imploded in a chaotic brew of “[p]olice arrests, record company hysteria, aborted tours, wretched luck and managerial conflicts,” Louder Sound wrote — that and Spence’s legendary love of LSD.

Deadline reported that Eric Clapton once dubbed Miller “the best guitar player in the world,” and Robert Plant has noted his sizable influence on Led Zeppelin.

In an interview eight years ago, Miller recalled how the group’s debut self-titled album was released around the same time as The Beatles’ monumental “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

“Everybody was at the record stores, and Columbia [Records] had gotten all these great big posters, and they had them plastered in every record store in the West Coast,” he told Saint Bryan of KING 5 at the time.

“So, we sold better in Marin County than Sgt. Pepper,” Miller added, laughing. “Ooh, boy.”

Jerry Miller’s Tacoma roots

Miller was embedded in the fabric of the Pacific Northwest music scene, one that spawned The Wailers and the Kingsmen around the turn of the ‘60s — not to mention Jimi Hendrix, whom Miller counted as a childhood friend.

Before he was a psych-rock pioneer, Miller studied at Wilson High School shortly after it opened, The Seattle Times wrote in November 2021. Today it’s known as Silas High, 1202 N. Orchard St.

By 1959, Miller had put away enough money to purchase a used Chevy, his “pride and joy,” according to the Times article. That is until he heard a recording of jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery at Tacoma’s since-closed Broadway Music.

Soon Miller had ditched the Chevy to acquire a custom Gibson L-5 guitar, per The Seattle Times. He even gave it a name: Beulah.

When Miller was in his late teens, he worked at a plywood mill in Tacoma while performing in local bars six nights a week.

“I got paid the princely sum of $2.07 an hour in the mill,” he told The Seattle Times in 2021, “which was a lot less than I was making with Beulah.”

Miller had realized his calling: music.

The guitarist remembered as Tacoma ‘icon’

Tributes poured out for Miller following news of his death. Tacoma residents, representatives and famous musicians alike felt the loss.

Drummer Miriam Linna , a founding member of The Cramps, shared on Facebook that she was “crushed” to find out Miller had died. Musician Adrian Belew — known for his work with King Crimson, Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Talking Heads and more — also posted about Miller’s death.

Pierce County Council member Marty Campbell wrote Monday that he was heartbroken to learn the news . Miller would tell tales of “being at the forefront” of American rock ‘n’ roll, and about how he’d partied and jammed with “just about every rock star” from the 1960s, 1970s and beyond.

“He was so down to earth, you would never know he was an icon just living his best life in Tacoma,” Campbell wrote on Facebook. “For many years he lived in East Tacoma and would walk his dog, Rusty, by our house daily. Sometimes he would stop and chat. He was always in a cheerful mood and happy to discuss the news of the day.”

Other social media users weighed in as well . One person on Reddit said that they recently saw Miller play at the Golden West bar, adding that he was “such a nice and genuine guy.”

“That was my neighbor,” another Reddit commenter wrote. “I knew he played guitar, but I didn’t know he sang, though I should have known because every time he called his dogs his booming voice would carry a hell of a long way. ‘

“Man, I can’t believe he’s gone.”