Today is the 20th anniversary of Jerry Garcia's death

On August 9, 1995, Jerry Garcia -- a singer/songwriter and frontman for The Grateful Dead -- died in his sleep at age 53 in a rehabilitation center in California.

Garcia's story is an interesting one. At age 17, he dropped out of school and served in the U.S. Army for 9 months before being kicked out for poor conduct.

Once he was done with his time in the army, he began playing folk and blues music on the guitar, and he worked as a salesman and a music teacher on the side.

In 1965, he formed a band called the Warlocks, but once he discovered that the name was already taken by another band, he changed the name to the Grateful Dead. The band had very close ties to the hippie movement in San Francisco, and with the popularity of drugs such as LSD, the band started off by playing what was called "psychedelic" rock. They later moved on to more variety with rock music in the 1970s.

The Grateful Dead toured for decades, with a loyal following of fans that was labeled as "Deadheads". During his time in the band, Jerry continued to have an intense drug addiction, which ultimately led to the heart failure that caused his unfortunate death.

Jerry Garcia left quite the legacy behind, though. He even has a Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor named after him -- Cherry Garcia.

See the gallery below for pictures of Jerry Garcia through the years:

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