The real reason Grace Slick joined Jefferson Airplane: “I wanted to have an affair”
In the present day, budding young artists tend to pursue music with grandiose ideas of fame, fortune, and artistic expression. However, that is a relatively new trope within the world of rock music. Back in the golden age of the 1960s, very few artists could hope to achieve mainstream success, particularly within the subversive counterculture movement. Many of those now iconic groups from the hippie age initially came together for the simple reason that there was not much else to do, and Jefferson Airplane were certainly no exception.
During the mid-1960s, folk-rock began to infect the music scene of the United States in the wake of the British Invasion and was spurred along by the rise of figures like Bob Dylan. As a result, folk clubs began to spring up around the nation, which were often excuses for a town’s young people to hang around, play music, and take drugs. This was certainly the case for The Matrix, a folk club in San Francisco which led Marty Balin to cross paths with Paul Kanter, who soon formed Jefferson Airplane.
Quickly recording a debut album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, in 1966, the band did not fully come together until they poached vocalist Grace Slick from the fellow Bay Area band The Great Society. With Slick, Jefferson Airplane would enter their golden age, but the likelihood of widespread mainstream success still seemed slim.
After all, if you look at the most popular bands of the early 1960s, they tended to appeal to mass audiences and shy away from controversy. In contrast, the Airplane were synonymous with the political activism and cultural revolution of the hippie movement, so their appeal was largely limited to other hippies. Even Slick herself made no misconceptions about the commercial potential of the group. In fact, her sole reason for joining was “because I wanted to have an affair with bassist Jack Casady. I love bass players, and he’s the best,” per Classic Rock,
Previously, Slick had been with The Great Society, alongside her husband Jerry Slick, so joining Jefferson Airplane allowed her an opportunity to get away from the old ball and chain, it would appear. It was Casady who had asked Slick to join the ranks of Jefferson Airplane and, although there is a lack of hard evidence to suggest that the pair engaged in the affair Slick desired, it is certainly not outside the realm of possibility.
Slick and the band typified the anarchic, free love spirit of the 1960s, spending their time in-between shows partying, tripping, and loving. In actuality, Slick ended up having a long term affair, not with Casady, but with guitarist Paul Kanter.
Ironically, though, it was Slick’s involvement in the band that brought them their first shred of commercial success. When she joined the group, she brought with her two songs from The Great Society, ‘Somebody To Love’, and ‘White Rabbit’. Both of these songs appeared on Surrealistic Pillow, which became Jefferson Airplane’s magnum opus and one of the greatest records of the hippie age. In many ways, ‘White Rabbit’ became the band’s defining anthem, and it even broke into the Billboard top ten in 1967.
So, instead – or, perhaps, as well as – providing Slick with an opportunity for some extramarital activity, Jefferson Airplane also launched the vocalist into the musical mainstream. The relevancy of the Airplane may have dropped with the declining relevance of hippiedom, but Slick remained a musical tour-de-force for decades after the band’s break-up, penning now-regrettable tracks for Starship which likely still pay her bills to this day. Also, the singer ended up getting a divorce from Jerry Slick in 1971 after having a child with Jefferson Airplane guitarist Paul Kantner – all’s well that ends well, I suppose.
