![]() Sexism wasn’t on her agenda – she had just as much fun as the guys. Where would the farmers be? The Airplane let me sing. ‘Course, if we were all singers we’d be in terrible shape. I just thought I was a singer – not Bach or Mozart or Handel. Female Supreme Court judges, that’s impressive. She was the poster girl for the Monterey and Woodstock era but never saw herself as an icon. In a male-dominated environment, Grace stood out. “Did I sleep with her? I wouldn’t even let her give me head.” He once pulled her from the smouldering wreckage of a sports car after she’d crashed it into the Golden Gate Bridge. ![]() Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen was more like a brother. I love bass players, and he’s the best.”Īfter Jack, she began a relationship with drummer Spencer Dryden. Grace had joined the band initially “because I wanted to have an affair with bassist Jack Casady. Paul Kantner would become Grace’s third Airplane sleeping partner, and father of her daughter China. We were in our helicopter, looking down, and Kantner says: ‘I think they’re beating a man to death down there.’” The only person who said anything to me was Jorma Kaukonen: ‘You’re a crazy motherfucker.’ And here’s a guy who travels with machineguns, knives, macho bullshit lead guitarist crap.”īack to Grace: “We started watching the Stones but decided to leave in a hurry. “Boom! I got knocked out and woke up with boot tattoos all over my body. According to Balin, he was rushed by several Angels with pool cues. Slick knew it was starting to get ugly when the Hells Angels invaded the stage during the Airplane’s set: “Marty Balin told ’em to fuck off and they backed down a bit.” The now infamous Altamont concert was a disaster. We had a formal chat and Altamont was arranged – we would support the Rolling Stones.” He gave us tea didn’t offer liquor, didn’t proffer drugs. He had oriental rugs, Louis XIV furniture. I like one man, one child, one house and one car. I’m not against orgies, but I’m not a good multi-tasker. I was scared because I thought we were going to walk into an orgy. I was invited with Kantner to meet Mick Jagger at his Chelsea home to discuss the Altamont concert. They wore Western riverboat gambler suits. “Most of the bands looked pretty sharp, apart from the Grateful Dead who walked around in jeans and T-shirts,” she says. Undoubtedly stylish, Slick provided a fashion template, especially when she started sporting a Girl Scout uniform. I got a lot from thrift shops in the Haight.” I wore the same clothes on the street as on the stage. “Clothes were fun and I had some good stuff. They marvelled at her attire – she was modelling at the time – a chic striped silk vest and a hip-hugging mod herringbone skirt. Rather than make an anonymous backstage entrance, Slick toughed it out and queued up with the San Franciscan faithful. The band’s manager and promoter, Bill Graham, led a standing ovation. ![]() Slick made her live debut with the Airplane at the Fillmore auditorium in San Francisco on October 16, the day after Signe’s farewell speech to her fans at the same venue: “I want you all to wear smiles and daisies and box balloons. His wife calls me once a year – when she’s drunk.” Jack Casady, Jorma Kaukonen, Paul Kantner – anyone who’s alive is fine. “He’s the only one I never speak to anymore. Maybe he was jealous of me ‘cos I was so fabulous,” she laughs. “Marty was never very communicative, which is odd when you’re singing duets. ![]() Despite Jefferson Airplane’s string of classic albums – Surrealistic Pillow, After Bathing At Baxter’s, Crown Of Creation, the live Bless Its Pointed Little Head and the ‘up against the wall, motherfuckers’ epic Volunteers – the pair prowled around each other, on stage and off. Marty Balin was ambivalent towards his new fellow singer – he was firmly in the ‘keep Anderson’ camp. Paul Kantner said: ‘Sing that Arabic jamming thing you do.’” It was going to be called Feed Your Head. “I wrote that after taking LSD and listening to Miles Davis’s Sketches Of Spain album for 24 hours. Grace’s own White Rabbit, a strident combination of bastardised Spanish bolero rhythm and psychedelic lyrics paraphrased from Lewis Carroll’s book Alice In Wonderland, confirmed her position as the Acid Queen of Haight Ashbury. Adopted by the Airplane, it became the West Coast anthem. Somebody To Love, written by her brother-in-law Darby (she was married to drummer Jerry Slick) and sung by Grace in her previous band the Great! Society, was already a Bay Area smash. The former model’s foghorn vocals, enormous charisma and drop-dead beauty aside, Slick gave the Airplane their biggest hit songs. Grace Slick had been earmarked to join Jefferson Airplane in 1966 as the replacement for the band’s original female singer, Signe Anderson, who had just given birth to daughter Lilith. Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane: The beginning
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