Of the dozen musicians who passed through the ranks of the Grateful Dead during their three-decade run, only one full- time keyboardist survives. Yet Tom Constanten, or “T.C.” as he is known, remains something of a mystery figure even to many of the most hardcore Deadheads. He arrived on the scene in 1967, joined permanently in November of the following year and was gone by early ‘70, having helped the Dead transition from a tough, lysergically inclined mutant blues band to a more musically sophisticated and nuanced ensemble capable of complex improvisation and great emotional depth. Where did he come from, and where did he go?

T.C. was originally from New Jersey, grew up in Las Vegas and eventually found himself, albeit briefly, at the University of California, Berkeley, where in 1961, he met Phil Lesh, a fellow enthusiast for modern classical music and avant-garde composers. A detour into the Air Force beginning in 1965 might have taken Constanten far afield, but his hunger for challenging music and a bit of dabbling in LSD kept him in the game. After his discharge, he went from the military to the Grateful Dead overnight.

“Culture shock is my life,” Constanten says. “As soon as I was out of the clutches of the Air Force, I was on my way to Ohio to play with the band.” Before joining officially, though, T.C. added his distinctive, majestic keyboard parts to Anthem of the Sun, the band’s second album—a pastiche of mostly live tracks from different gigs layered and looped in an attempt to approximate the Dead concert experience on record. Constanten didn’t so much replace founding keyboardist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan as alternate with and augment him. The two of them, in fact, became quite close and roomed together while on the road.