Rev. Charles Gompertz, who invited Guaraldi to perform at Grace Cathedral in 1965, commented in 1981, "I think part of Vince's problem was that he never really took very good care of himself. He stayed out late, he smoked, and he did a whole lot of things. He tried everything. I mean, when skateboards first came out, he was the first kid on his block to get one, only as a kid he happened to be about 30. He pushed himself to the limit, whether musically or physically. He saw himself as a very youthful person, but he didn't do any of the physical things you have to do to prepare yourself to live like that." His mother Carmella Guaraldi added, "When it happened down at Butterfield's, when the end finally came, he went the way he would have wanted to go, with the piano."