Donna Jean Godchaux, who worked as a studio vocalist in Muscle Shoals and Memphis and sang with the Grateful Dead for most of the ’70s, will be inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame today, commemorating her work on hits like Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” and Elvis’ “Suspicious Minds,” along her work with the Dead.

Godchaux, who was already inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Grateful Dead in 1994, recently spoke with AL.com about various aspects of her career, including her early music work, her thoughts on Elvis and Jerry Garcia and what she brought back from her trip to Egypt with the Dead.

“I have just been fortunate enough to have been in the right place at the right time,” Godchaux says. “Number one in Muscle Shoals and number two in San Francisco where they [the Grateful Dead] just happened to be looking for a keyboard player.”

“I was singing from pretty much as soon as I could talk,” Godchaux says, speaking of her time as a young girl singing on her porch when a neighbor opera singer heard her voice and told her she could be a great opera singer one day. “Of course that never happened,” she says.

Godchaux also shares her thoughts on Elvis (“I’m telling you, he was the most gorgeous human being I’ve ever seen, male or female – he was just unreal looking. Much better looking than any picture or any movie.”) and Jerry Garcia (“He was perhaps the most intelligent person that I’ve ever been around. Not only about music but about life and it’s hard to even talk about, but he was one of the most generous musicians I’ve ever been around.”)

On her trip to Egypt with the Dead, which she calls “really exciting, fulfilling deep times,” Godchaux is asked if she brought back any mementos. “Oh, absolutely,” she says. “I’ve got several necklaces. I brought back a cartouche that said ‘Donna Jean’ on it in hieroglyphs. I brought back three dresses, two of which were in the Grateful Dead exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and one is in the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.”

Read the full interview here, and see a video of Godchaux singing the Grateful Dead’s “Sugaree” in the Relix office here.