{"id":409726,"date":"2026-01-15T23:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T23:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/409726\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T23:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T23:38:08","slug":"the-dumb-band-grace-slick-always-wanted-to-forget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/409726\/","title":{"rendered":"The “dumb” band Grace Slick always wanted to forget"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Grace<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Grunt \/ ICM Partners)<\/p>\n

Thu 15 January 2026 20:45, UK <\/p>\n

In 1974,\u00a0Jefferson Aeroplane<\/a>\u00a0were slowly but surely reborn.<\/p>\n

The legendary psychedelic rock band had been on a break for some time, after the early 1970s saw the band experiment with recording concept albums, solo albums and eventual new projects. <\/p>\n

There was a clear divide within the group, though. Drummer Spencer Dryden was dismissed from the band in 1970; Grace Slick<\/a> and Paul Kantner formed a relationship that same year, had their daughter, China, the following year, and began recording together with various musicians; and Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady began to increasingly prioritise their band Hot Tuna, leaving Marty Balin on his own in the fractured group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1970, Kantner recorded Blows Against the Empire, a science fiction concept album about a group of people who escape Earth in a hijacked starship. Featured on the album are Slick and Cassady alongside a cast of musicians, including David Crosby, Graham Nash, drummer Joey Covington and members of the Grateful Dead. The album is credited to Paul Kantner and \u201cJefferson Starship\u201d, the first use of the moniker that would come to define Jefferson Airplane\u2019s next phase.<\/a><\/p>\n

With three more projects forged by the Kantner\/Slick duo that followed, Kaukonen and Casady left Jefferson Airplane to focus on Hot Tuna full-time (though their departure was never officially announced). Kantner decided to continue in their absence, assembling a new touring band and formally renaming it as Jefferson Starship. <\/p>\n

Launching into another intergalactic realm of their own creation, the band met near-instant success, growing from their psychedelic origins into a melding of soft-rock and arena rock. 1975\u2019s Red Octopus would be the biggest-selling album of the band\u2019s career, but the band would soon face turmoil, with Slick\u2019s alcoholism hindering her ability to perform live. She left the group in 1978, only to return in 1981.<\/p>\n

The mid-1980s saw another shift when Kantner<\/a>, the last remaining founding member of Jefferson Airplane, departed Jefferson Starship over disputes with artistic direction. A legal battle ensued, with Kantner seeking money he claimed he was owed and attempting to prevent the remaining band members from using the \u201cJefferson Starship\u201d name. Kantner received a cash settlement, in turn, and the name \u201cJefferson Starship\u201d became the property of Grace Slick and their manager, Bill Thompson, in a near-50\/50 split. All parties agreed not to use the name going forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The band rebranded as Starship, with Slick continuing to tour and record until 1988. Looking back on her few years spent with Starship, Slick does not remember it particularly fondly. <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t care for Starship anyway,\u201d she admitted to Anti Music<\/a> in 2007. \u201cLike, the \u201980s version of Starship was just all\u2026songs were written by other people and ah, God, it was just dumb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starship debuted with \u2018We Built This City\u2019, \u201cWe had a lot of number ones, but I don\u2019t really care about number ones,\u201d she continued. \u201cI\u2019d rather do music that\u2019s interesting and different and is written by the band, not somebody else. So I\u2019m kind of a stickler on that kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Grunt \/ ICM Partners) Thu 15 January 2026 20:45, UK In 1974,\u00a0Jefferson Aeroplane\u00a0were slowly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,162411,161829,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-409726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-grace-slick","10":"tag-jefferson-airplane","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}