A 95-year-old Michigan woman whose identity became the foundation for a Grammy-winning rock band’s name has passed away.
Gretna Van Fleet died Monday at a senior living facility in Frankenmuth, Michigan, the same town where the rock group Greta Van Fleet formed in 2012 during her eighties, her obituary states.
While she never performed alongside the musicians who borrowed her name, Van Fleet found humor in the unexpected connection to fame.
“I think they checked out my background to make sure I wasn’t on the Ten Most Wanted list or something, and they went ahead with it,” Van Fleet jokingly told MLive.com in 2019, ahead of the band’s appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”
“But later, when I met the boys, I said, ‘That’s OK.’ But, no, they did not approach me to begin with,” Van Fleet said.
The band’s name origin traces back to drummer Kyle Hauck, who played with the group in its early formation. Hauck has shared in interviews that when the band needed a name for an upcoming local show, he remembered hearing his grandfather mention assisting a friend named Gretna Van Fleet. The name resonated with him, and after removing the ‘n’ from Gretna, the band’s identity was established.
The musical group achieved significant recognition, earning a Grammy in 2019 for best rock album with “From The Fires” and receiving additional nominations that same year. Their album “Starcatcher” received a nomination for best album in 2024.
According to her obituary, Gretna Van Fleet possessed considerable musical abilities herself, demonstrating skill with multiple instruments including saxophone, violin, tuba and piano.
During her 2019 interview, she revealed that “Flower Power” was her preferred song from the band’s catalog.
“There’s a couple others that I like, but that’s not really my style,” Van Fleet said of the music. “It’s not my era that they’re making popular come back.”
