Melvin Seals logged more time with Jerry Garcia than anyone outside of the original Grateful Dead members. The keyboardist played in Garcia’s solo band for nearly two decades and is now a “keeper of the flame” of Jerry’s legacy leading the JGB.

Seals loves his ex-band leader’s playing and proudly embraces the jam band label. But don’t expect him to put on “Live/Dead” or “Europe ’72” at home.

“I always loved orchestral music, classical and opera music,” Seals told the Boston Herald. “I don’t listen to what I play. I listen to what I would like to play. At home, I’ll play a classical piece that no one will ever hear but me, Bach or some other piece that I love.”

The power of symphonic strings can totally capture Seals. So he’s thrilled to be working with the Boston Pops for its sold-out Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration concerts June 4 and 5 at Symphony Hall.

“To sit in with a real orchestra, around all these strings, violin, cello, all of it, I’m in heaven” he said. “But I must say that this (kind of event) takes some massaging because orchestra music is written out and it’s a bit apart from jam band music. When we are jamming, it can go anywhere and we’ll follow it. You can’t do that with an orchestra.”

Seals finds it a challenge to deliver a symphonic experience and jam band experience at once. Thankfully, he has some aces around him to carry Jerry’s music forward. Along with Lockhart’s Pops, Seals will team with singer and Jerry Garcia Band member Jacklyn LaBranch, Dead & Company and Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge, guitarist and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead member Tom Hamilton, drummer John Morgan Kimock, and singer Lady Chi.

Garcia is arguably the most distinctive player in the history of rock so Hamilton has the biggest weight to carry. Seals knows he is up to the task.

“There are guys that try to clone Jerry’s guitar playing as much as possible, people who play every signature lick and the parts are very familiar,” Seals said. “Tom doesn’t do that. He brings the vibe, the sound, and maybe plays the most important licks at the beginning of a song or end of a song.”

“But he sticks Tom in there as much as possible, so it’s a beautiful blend of bringing Jerry’s music together with a little pizazz,” he added. “I do that too. I don’t play just what I played with Jerry. I’m always working on something new so no one can say, ‘Oh, I know what Melvin is going to play next.’”

Before he was the keeper of the flame, Seals burned brightly in Garcia’s solo band on a number of legendary gigs — go check out Merriweather Post Pavilion, Sept. 1, 1989. What made their relationships so special? What did Jerry hear in Seals’ playing?

“That’s a question for Jerry,” he said with a big laugh.

Maybe you can find your own answer when Seals goes for another legendary gig with the Pops next week.