Custody battle brewing over Jerry's guitars

Garcia left the guitars to Irwin in his will. However, Grateful Dead Productions, Inc., claims it, not Garcia, owns the instruments, Irwin's attorneys say.

Grateful Dead Productions is the corporate entity that is all that remains of the legendary rock group led by Garcia from the 1960s to the mid-1990s.

"This is the first I've heard about it," Dennis McNally, spokesman for the company, said Thursday. McNally said he could only confirm that Irwin made the guitars, later adding that the "Grateful Dead has no comment."

The company apparently turned one guitar, the "Wolf," over to the probate administrator of Garcia's estate recently, but withheld the rest, claiming that Garcia used some company checks to make payments on the guitars.

The company says the guitars are band property and that Garcia had no right to will them away, Irwin's attorneys say.

"The Grateful Dead Company's claim to the guitars is bogus through and through," Irwin said. "I made those guitars specially for Jerry. He commissioned them personally and he took money out of his own pockets to pay me.

"These were Jerry's guitars. Nobody -- Grateful Dead band members or otherwise -- would ever have told Jerry Garcia during his lifetime that these weren't his guitars."

A hearing has been scheduled for April 23. Garcia's estate is not opposing the petition and has indicated it will turn the "Wolf" over to Irwin following a court decision to that effect.

Irwin said one of the guitars in question, the "Tiger," is his "life's masterpiece," and took more than six years to make. The guitar is so associated with Garcia's legacy, he said, that it would look out of place if another band member -- or possibly "a Jerry Garcia substitute" -- ever tried to play it.

"Doug is afraid they (Grateful Dead Productions) will try to get someone to stand in for Jerry Garcia and play his instruments," William Romaine, Irwin's attorney, said Thursday.

"As a Grateful Dead fan and as a member of the Grateful Dead family, he would be outraged, as would many fans."

Romaine said Irwin has receipts going back several years -- proof of his claim that Garcia personally paid for the guitars -- while the production company has "found only a couple of checks" showing they made some payments on the guitars.

"These are not, never have been, and, if Jerry Garcia's will is to be honored, never will be the Grateful Dead's instruments," Irwin said. "Only a very UnGrateful Dead would try to usurp his memory by trying to do an end run on his clearly expressed last will and testament."<