James Gurley

James Martin Gurley (December 22, 1939 – December 20, 2009) was an American musician. He is best known as the principal lead guitarist of Big Brother and the Holding Company, a psychedelic/acid rock band from San Francisco which was fronted by singer Janis Joplin from 1966 to 1968.

Gurley was born in Detroit, Michigan. He taught himself to play the guitar when he was nineteen. He spent four years at Detroit's Catholic Brothers of the Holy Cross, studying to be a priest.

He and his wife Nancy moved to San Francisco in 1962. He played with JP Pickens and the Progressive Bluegrass Boys for a time. He joined Big Brother and the Holding Company in 1965. His fearlessly wild guitar playing made the band's reputation for "far-out" psychedelic experimentation. He said it developed from his admiration of John Coltrane's barrier-breaking saxophone solos.

With Joplin's departure, Big Brother and the Holding Company briefly disbanded in 1968, but a new lineup including Gurley and the other three original members (Sam Andrew, Peter Albin, and Dave Getz) reunited from 1969 to 1972.

In 1969, Nancy Gurley died of a heroin overdose. Gurley was charged with murder for injecting the drugs, and spent two years fighting the charges before being sentenced to probation. He remarried and had another child in 1972.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia.