50+ AI Generated Images of Jerry Garcia

I’ve recently discovered the joys of creating AI generated artwork with Midjourney, after using it to make the artwork for Extra Chill Fest. I had so much fun with that, I decided to further explore the capabilities of the software by generating images of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia.

To do this I’ve mainly paired Jerry’s name with popular Grateful Dead songs and themes from those songs. There were also some random ideas at play. Some of the results are funny, some are awesome, and others are downright weird.

Overall, the quality of this AI tech is incredible. The fact that it will produce any graphic in any format has the power to completely change the digital art and marketing sphere. And this is just one of the many AI-based tools that are hitting the market today, all with their unique purposes.

Perhaps I’ll dig into that in a later post, but for now I’m just sharing some AI Jerry Garcias and the prompts that generated them via Midjourney. The tool creates a grid of 4 images, and I certainly went overboard with it, so I couldn’t include them all. The Jerrys I’ve chosen to include represent my favorites out of hundreds of Jerrys generated. Enjoy!

AI Generated Jerry Garcia Artwork

Graphics are listed in the format of first the Prompt and then the Image. I’ve also added some headings to group similar prompts. Some of the songs were a rabbit hole in themselves, and I may come back and add more over time.

Also, while the AI did manage to capture Jerry’s facial expressions, hair, and overall aura, it gave him random guitars and did not always take into account his missing finger, among other things.

Shakedown Street

A fan favorite song, “Shakedown Street” seemed like as good a place to start as any.

Prompt: jerry garcia shakedown street

Prompt: jerry garcia dont tell me this town aint got no heart, just gotta poke around

Stella Blue

Also see our post about The Meaning of “Stella Blue”.

Prompt: jerry garcia stella blue cartoon

Prompt: jerry garcia stella blue watercolor

Prompt: jerry garcia brush off those rusty strings just one more time, gonna make em shine

China Cat Sunflower

Prompt: jerry garcia look for awhile at the china cat sunflower

Prompt: jerry garcia look for awhile at the china cat sunflower

Prompt: jerry garcia china cat sunflower cartoon

Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad

This song association gave some of my favorite outputs, as we got an unexpected Jerry with attitude. Also, with the correct missing digit. Another win.

Prompt: jerry garcia going down the road feeling bad watercolor

Brokedown Palace

One of the most well-written Grateful Dead songs is “Brokedown Palace” – a personal favorite of mine. I could spend all day creating images based on this song alone.

Prompt: jerry garcia brokedown palace cartoon

Prompt: jerry garcia listen to the river sing sweet songs to rock my soul cartoon

Prompt: jerry garcia lovers come and go the river roll roll roll cartoon

Prompt: jerry garcia make myself a bed by the waterside

Scarlet Begonias

Prompt: jerry garcia the sky was yellow and the sun was blue pastels

Prompt: jerry garcia scarlet begonias oil painting

Fire on the Mountain

Prompt: jerry garcia fire, fire on the mountain, watercolor

Prompt: jerry garcia fire on the mountain

Dark Star

Prompt: jerry garcia dark star watercolor

Cold Rain & Snow

Prompt: jerry garcia cold rain and snow

Morning Dew

Prompt: jerry garcia morning dew cartoon

Sugaree

Prompt: jerry garcia sugaree graffiti

It Must Have Been the Roses

Prompt: jerry garcia must have been the roses cartoon

Prompt: jerry garcia must have been the roses stealie

Wharf Rat

The AI had some trouble with this one, but also produced some interesting work for one of the Dead’s finest tunes, “Wharf Rat”.

Prompt: jerry garcia wharf rat

Prompt: jerry garcia wharf rat

Prompt: jerry garcia ill get back to living someday

Friend of the Devil

Midjourney enjoyed taking “Friend of the Devil” graphics to a dark place.

Prompt: jerry garcia friend of the devil cartoon

Prompt: jerry garcia a friend of the devil is a friend of mine if i get home before daylight i just might get some sleep tonight, horror, cartoon

Bird Song

Also see our full analysis, The Meaning of the Grateful Dead’s “Bird Song”.

Prompt: jerry garcia bird song watercolor

Touch of Grey

The Dead’s only number one hit, “Touch of Grey”, produced a nice , clean black & white cartoon portrait of Garcia.

Prompt: jerry garcia touch of grey cartoon

Mission in the Rain

Prompt: jerry garcia in san francisco in the rain, mission in the rain, the bells are not for me, cartoon, 1967

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

The Bob Dylan classic, “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” was often performed live by both the Grateful Dead and the Jerry Garcia Band.

Prompt: jerry garcia knock knock knockin on heaven’s door, cartoon, colorful

And It Stoned Me

Jerry often performed this Van Morrison classic with the Jerry Garcia band. Midjourney brought to mind grimy mid-80s Jerry with this prompt.

Prompt: jerry garcia and it stoned me cartoon

Scuba Diving

Prompt: jerry garcia scuba diving, hawaii

Jerry Garcia Briefcase

The infamous briefcase.

Prompt: jerry garcia briefcase cartoon

Purple Rain

I know this is a Prince song that the Dead never played themselves. However this prompt generated one of the most badass Jerry Garcia artworks of them all. It’s also one of the few that got Jerry’s missing finger correct.

Prompt: jerry garcia purple rain

Smoking Jerry

It was pretty easy to generate images of Jerry Garcia smoking. Probably because there are so many actual photos of him smoking out there, that the machine has many reference points.

However, I wasn’t able to generate one of Jerry taking a bong rip. Often when I tried it looked more like he was chasing the dragon, so I’ve opted not to include those images here.

Prompt: Cartoon jerry garcia smoking a bong, colorful, psychedelic, isolated on a black background

Prompt: jerry garcia smoking, vector art, bright

Prompt: jerry garcia smoking, crayon

Driving that Train

This one looks more like driving a bus than a train, but we’ll take it either way.

Prompt: jerry garcia driving a train cartoon

Riding a Turtle

Prompt: jerry garcia riding a turtle cartoon

Buddha Jerry

Prompt: cartoon buddha jerry garcia on a mountain, meditating, colorful, psychedelic, isolated on a black background

Cartoon Sailing Jerry

Prompt: Cartoon young jerry garcia on a sailboat, colorful, psychedelic, isolated on a black background

Jerry on a Trampoline

Cool psychedelic art, but on a trampoline? Not exactly.

Prompt: cartoon jerry garcia on a trampoline, colorful, psychedelic, isolated on a black background

Jerry Cards

Prompt: jerry garcia playing card, vector art

Prompt: jerry garcia poker card, vector art, realistic

UFO Jerry

Prompt: jerry garcia in a ufo flying to outer space with a full moon, cartoon, colorful, psychedelic, isolated on a black background

Drunk Jerry

Prompt: jerry garcia drunk

AI Jerry Garcia Photos

Midjourney is able to generate photos of Jerry Garcia that look pretty close to how Jerry actually looked. Most of them don’t, but some, like the ones I’ve shared below, truly do. I didn’t make too many of these, as I was more entertained by the artwork style graphics.

Prompt: grainy 90s photo of jerry garcia

Prompt: jerry garcia sailing, charleston, sc, shot with canon eos r5