The frontman who epitomised rock ‘n’ roll, according to Grace Slick
As the frontwoman of Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick was at the forefront of the countercultural boom. With her definitive track, ‘White Rabbit’, she encapsulated the LSD-infused weirdness of the era, providing the hippies with one of their most cherished anthems. She was not only a musical force but a powerful individual, standing firm as a flag bearer for the female cause in a male-dominated industry and society.
An unrelenting character, Slick has committed many moments to pop culture lore that cement her as one of music’s most compelling figures. Outside of her creative career, her personal life has produced an array of classic vignettes that outline her deeply complex nature and general refusal to be boxed in by expectations. Whether it be her many drug-addled capers or the armed stand-off she had with the police, her life is begging to be made into a biopic.
Given her unique perspective, Slick has her own thoughts on the momentous epoch in which she emerged. Having rubbed shoulders with many of its brightest lights, her opinions provide a well-informed counterpoint to the regurgitated norms, debunking hero worship and presenting storied figures in a sobering light. This includes the regrettable sexual encounter she had with The Doors frontman Jim Morrison, whom she dismisses any mythic description of by calling him “so screwy” most of the time.
She also knows The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger especially well. Jefferson Airplane, alongside the British rockers, wanted to organise a music festival as the West Coast’s answer to Woodstock, which had occurred earlier in 1969. To get the ball rolling, Slick and bandmate Paul Kantner travelled to England to discuss the idea with Jagger, leading to the creation of the notorious Altamont Free Concert—a music event remembered for all the wrong reasons.
Held on December 6th of that year and featuring performances from Jefferson Airplane, Santana, CSNY and closing act The Rolling Stones, despite this star-studded lineup, Altamont is known for its widespread violence and use of Hell Angels as security, which ultimately led to the death of Meredith Hunter. There were also three accidental deaths, including a hit-and-run. Elsewhere, many were injured, and extensive property damage occurred.
In one of the most surprising disclosures of her career, Slick has revealed that she was “scared” to meet Jagger before their first convergence to plan Altamont. She believed his house would be rapt in some mad heroin-influenced orgy when they got there and that the hard-living frontman would think she was a “big prude” because she hated that stuff.
However, what she found when they got there was not what was expected. It was well-kept and filled with Edwardian furniture and rugs from East Asia, which she likened to visiting her parents’ house. Adding an extra dose of twee Britishness, Jagger was wearing a three-piece suit and served them tea, an antithetical image to the cape-wearing maniac he would be at Altamont.
Regardless of his quiet home life, Slick is in no doubt that Mick Jagger, the frontman, is the epitome of rock ‘n’ roll, agreeing with the popular narrative. While she would witness this at Altamont and other high-profile concerts, it was the first time she saw them early on in their career, which made her realise this. This no doubt fed into the fraught perception she had of him before visiting him at his flat.
She told Relix in 2010: “I saw The Stones and thought, ‘OK, that’s the stuff right there.’ When you get onstage, you better own it. Some people are not comfortable with that, so they should be doing something else – dinner theater, maybe. I didn’t imitate Mick Jagger’s style, but I knew from the way he was onstage that that was rock and roll.”
Owning it on stage is something that Slick clearly took to heart when developing her approach. She colourfully brought her band’s music to life in full view of the public, spurred on by their gaze, giving even her close friend Janis Joplin a run for her money and positioning herself as a female answer to Jagger.
