Elder Dataloungers please tell me all about american singer Grace Slick- the dish , the gossip good bad and ugly!

Just kill yourself, OP

r1 Awful unnecessary comment.

Just read her book, OP, it's great.

[quote]she was considered quite wild even for those rebellious decades.

Let them say we’re crazy. What do they know?

Wrote this elsewhere but went to a gallery opening for her art and she wouldn't sign anything or even talk to anyone unless they bought her art. But they put her in the middle of the room and built a moat around her so everyone just stared at her all night from afar. So damn awkward. She was a grey haired midget too.

R2 Do you know where you are?

You are quite the prolific poster.

That rarely ends well.

r4 Thanks. SO that is a direct quote from her? Was she into flower power or stronger than that?

r3 Is she pretty candid and open in it? How recent is her book? Thanks for the tip by the way.

r5 Thanks. When was this please? Grey haired so I assume in the 21st century not the 20th? Did she seem more awkward socially shy even or more diva like?

Regardless of what she sang, she didn’t “build this city.” At that point she was completely phoning it in and just performing for the money.

I'm 30, so I'm not sure if I qualify as an eldergay (depends who you ask on here), but I know Jefferson Airplane/Starship's music. Grace was a fantastic singer--she had a magnificent contralto voice. I don't know if she can sing anymore-- I'm guessing not given her age and that she's been a lifelong heavy smoker--but at one time, the bitch could belt it out. I love her voice.

I know she came up in the psychedelic scene and has done hallucinogens galore. I've watched some interviews with her from the last ten years, and she's very intelligent and seems down-to-earth. I watched a long-form interview with her where she was quite insightful and philosophically-minded. She reminds me of my lesbian aunt, but I've never seen/read any evidence that she was gay. I think she has a child(?) In any case, she definitely pings.

Her mother was very tasteful.

Today, she lives in Malibu and occupies her days with Diet Coke, cigarettes and AA meetings.

She’s no grace jones

Grace Slick was very mean to me when I met her.

"I've always been the "try this" one. It used to be acid. Now it's, "You should try our Thursday night group."

R13 please tell

Grace got a lot of shit for the Starship stuff in the 80s but I can't blame her at all. She was in her forties and already past her shelf life for pop music, but she could still get played on the radio. So she was middle-aged and knew that her time on the charts was going to end soon, she saw an opportunity and she took it. She did the 80s pop stuff, made a pile of money, and was then able to retire at the end of the decade. She's been living in a very comfortable retirement in Malibu ever since. Not a bad life at all. It beats a lot of other artists, such as her bandmates Paul Kantner and Marty Balin who had do drag themselves onto the oldies circuit literally until the very end.

She narrated a Stephen King short story about a ghost town inhabited by all of our greatest dead rock stars.

Her voice is gravelly and weather-worn, as you'd expect a rocker's to be.

She's now 81, almost 82.

r10 Thanks for your detailed reply. It doesn't sound like going on what you say that she let showbiz go to her head and turn her into an egotistical diva. Interesting that there are lesbian rumours that aspect hadn't occurred to me.

r17 Gravelly to the extent she sounds ill or compromised health wise or gravelly as in distinctive and noticeable ?

r16 She was the singer with Starship as in nothings gonna stop us now?? A song I know but wasn't aware she was the singer!

r12 Meow!!!😁

What's to say about her? She was a druggie slut. Big deal. It was the 60s and 70s, what do you expect?

I never liked her. She always seemed like a stuck up cunt.

I remember some article in Creem magazine a long time ago about a show Jefferson Starship did in Europe; I think it was Germany, but I'm not sure. Anyway, the crowd had been standing a long time in the rain waiting to see them, but Grace Slick was sick (seemingly due to protracted drug and alcohol abuse) and couldn't perform. So Paul Kantner decided the they couldn't do the show: "it would be like the Rolling Stones without Mick Jagger", he said. Of course they could have played and probably put on a good show, but it was Kantner's decision not to. Well, the crowd was understandably enraged. They rioted. They rushed the stage and destroyed much of the musical equipment that was there, including irreplaceable instruments. All because of Kantner's stupidity and Slick's excesses. I always thought Kantner and Slick were fuckheads.

She got around when she joined the group. Slept with every member of the Jefferson Airplane except for Marty Balin. I think she married or lived with Paul Kantner and had his child.

I am an early gen x and Grace Slick was an antique by the time I got to be a teenager. Some older folks talked about Starship, etc., but my friends and I were into B52s, REM, the Cure, the Damned, the Clash, etc. She seemed to have been a rock star back in the Jimmy Hendrix era. There was nothing interesting about her or Starship to me-it may have been that generational thing.

I always kind of liked her, mostly the early stuff with Jefferson Airplane. R10 and R19, I have read (years ago and not sure where), that she was sympathetic to our tribe, and had her own lesbonic experiences. When pressed for details, she sounded like a pillow princess for the most part. I do remember the detail that she shared about muff diving: it made her barf (literally).

One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small . . .

R16 I disagree. Her whole “old people shouldn’t be in rock” nonsense did nothing but contribute to ageism. Who the fuck cares how old you are if your a rocker? The fans of The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, and countless others obviously have no issue with age since they still sell out stadiums to this day.

I think she said that crap because she didn’t want to stay with the band and yet she knew she would never have success as a solo artist so that was the excuse she came up with to save face.

She's been sober for a long time

r28 she said that she felt ridiculous singing songs about sex and drugs as a middle-aged person. She thought it wasn't right for her to be singing young people's music when she was so much older and it just didn't sit right with her, she was too old, she wanted to move on and do other things.

She had habits...

[quote]she said that she felt ridiculous singing songs about sex and drugs as a middle-aged person. She thought it wasn't right for her to be singing young people's music when she was so much older

Because middle-aged people don’t have sex or do drugs.🙄

r32 that was just the way Grace felt at the time. She was almost 50 years old and still singing anthems from the 60s in the late 1980s, when that time had long since passed, she was so much older and didn't feel the same way anymore, and the world had moved on. I can't blame her. When I was in my 20s I would stay out drinking until the bars closed and have lots of hookups, I am now in my forties and would feel absolutely ridiculous doing that same thing now, trying to relive my youth. It's all about perspective.

The only one she didn't sleep with was Lassie!!

How old is Mick Jagger, doesn’t he sing his whole song book?

LOL r26 Pillow Princess and muff diving!! Two new phrases for me to add to my vocabulary !!

r33 But can't a person do all of those things in middle age without having the motive of reliving their youth? Those things can be legitimate in middle age even if less commonplace.

Grace did a podcast interview a couple years ago that was very good.

r37 maybe for you but if I were still the drunken slut I was in my 20s now that I'm in my 40s I would feel pathetic. And everybody in the bar would be 20 years younger than me and just feel sorry for me. People get older, people change.

Many thanks r38 I am not on Apple but hopefully there is a version of it on Spotify.

I'm an ElderGay and she was even before my time. She strikes me as the self-appointed, arrogant, acid queen of the 60s. She is loaded with wonderful old stories of a time long past few of which are true, but since none of her peers are alive to contradict them are accepted as true

I remember in an interview she was asked what she thought of Stevie Nicks, she acted like she never heard of her then said, "Isn't she that little witchy-like woman?" Completely dismissing her like some nobody. She spends her days painting white rabbits and reminiscing about a time no one remembers, including her

r40 you can listen to the podcast at the link, just press the purple "play" button on the left side.

r41 you are completely misinformed. Grace is highly intelligent and has a very sharp wit. There are tons of interviews with her on Youtube and elsewhere that she's done in recent years.

[quote] none of her peers are alive to contradict them are accepted as true

Quite a few of her peers are still alive.

A rich, privileged looney from birth. Forceps?

r39 A couple of points.I wasnt a drunken slut in my twenties and for most of it I was a carer for an ill close relative so that kind of freedom was not always possible. I dont shame people who were sluts in their twenties unless they went after any of my boyfriends!! So I dont think if somebody either continues to be a slut into middle age OR comes to the slut experience new post their twenties that they should be shamed or assumed to be sad.

Also I think it depends on the type of bars or pubs you come to.Here where I am in the north of the UK there is a good mix of ages in many of the gay bars and some of the nightclubs still have people in their forties or fifties attending.I am not saying there is no division or age slant on the Liverpool or UK gay scene but I dont find it to be as strongly segregrated by age as your answer suggests .

I do think a number of artists have made the changeover to middle aged singer either singing about love and fun and not sounding sad or evolving to singing about newer more nuanced themes,I would have loved Grace to have done the same!

r42 Thanks.I assumed i had to be an apple subscriber.I am a partial luddite with technology!

r46 the point is trying to capture lost youth. Grace felt ridiculous doing it when she was pushing 50 and the Sixties having been long over, singing about drugs and sex and revolution and she wanted to retire and do something else. She didn't want to be a female Mick Jagger, getting made fun of by people. I respect that. Stevie Nicks is still croaking out her old hits from decades ago even though she can barely sing anymore.

Look at Madonna, she's old enough to be a grandmother and still acting like she's 25, the recent dancing on the bar with her tits showing being a good example. Some people just don't know when to hang it up and move on.

A three-part interview with Grace

@r43, if that were true she would be well aware of who Stevie Nicks is and have a little more respect for a woman who's career eclipses hers many times over. As Cher said about Madonna, "With all her success you'd think she'd be a little more magnanimous"

@r49, all she needs is a cane and sensible shoes to be queen of the lesbians

r48 I am not criticising Graces decision or right to decide that I am merely saying other people who pursue different paths in middle age are not to be assumed to be sad or lacking or worthy of denigration .

There were not enough drugs in the world to satisfy her. She wasn't a very nice person.

She chewed up the men around her and spat them out when she got tired of them.

OP why don’t you ask your friends at kiwifarms to take a break from gaybashing and fill you in on Grace Slick?

@r45, "A rich, privileged looney from birth"

She's from wealthy Marin County old money like Robbin Williams. Nothing phases their out-of-touch privledge

r53 Did any of her exs criticise her behaviour or treatment of them in subsequent years?

She just did what everybody else did back then. They were all fucking each other.

"Quite a few of her peers are still alive. "

Yep, I was having lunch with her and Janis Joplin the other day when Jimmy Hendrix and Jim Morrison walked up looking for some brown acid for a gig they were doing in Woodstock

r57 Who was the most famous person she fucked or is thought to have fucked?

^ All of Woodstock for starters...

Her all-time best song is "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now".

r58 you're just an idiot.

r61 Its certainly very catchy and memorable.

r60 so every rolling stone rolled into her?!

^ You guys were a high school garage band when I was chasing rabbits

DL's preferred Grace is Grace Adler.

Grace and her daughter China talk about sobriety

^ That picture is so old they didn't even have color film yet. How old is China now? 60?

“Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” are her two signature songs, not anything that Starship did in the 80s, for fuck’s sake. Those 2 from the 60s are among the very best of the Haight/Ashbury acid/hard rock songs. You’re familiar with those, right OP?

“White Rabbit” is astonishing in that it’s a very pro-LSD song that encourages the listener to do acid, and it was a bona fide radio hit. WTF! It’s kind of wild, considering that at the same time, “Light My Fire” was controversial because of the line ‘girl, we couldn’t get much higher.’

How old are you, OP? I learned about these songs (and Grace Slick, Jefferson Airplane, and the majority of the other Woodstock acts) my junior year of high school in a summer social studies class (though I was already familiar with a lot of it before then). Are you not a music person?

^... next on our curriculum the big bands of the 40s, Yeah!

" For one brief, shining moment there was a magical place called... WOODSTOCK!"

[quote] “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” are her two signature songs, not anything that Starship did in the 80s, for fuck’s sake.

You might prefer Airplane to Starship, but I’m sorry, that’s no reason to ignore Starship. Her biggest songs, and probably better known today than the Airplane songs, are “We Built This City” and “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.” “Play on Love” was a huge song for her too, and it’s a great song.

Of course Miracles, a starship song, was far and away their biggest song but Grace just sang backup.

Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now is a great song.

I have much more respect for people like Slick and Kate Bush - people who were able to walk away from music, than the Jaggers and the Nicks of the worlds who seem so emotionally fragile and needy that applause is just as necessary to their survival as oxygen.

And of course it’s the theme song to Mannequin, r72, featuring certified DL goddess Kim Cattrall.

I can understand Grace disliking We Built This City, but she should be proud of Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now. She did a great job on that song, and it still holds up.

[quote] I remember in an interview she was asked what she thought of Stevie Nicks, she acted like she never heard of her then said, "Isn't she that little witchy-like woman?" Completely dismissing her like some nobody. She spends her days painting white rabbits and reminiscing about a time no one remembers, including her.

I always find it so strange how people mis-remember things, twist them around in their head, form strong opinions based on their faulty recollections, and then spew all that made-up negativity out to the world as if it's the Gospel Truth.

The actual quote by Grace Slick about Stevie Nicks was as follows:

“Stevie Nicks has written some of the best rock songs. I don’t know her that well, but I like that strange little person that she’s decided to be.

A…somebody from some fairy story, the witch woman or whatever it was, and I thought that was great. She also writes some good songs. Very good songs."

I saw Slick on a talk show in the ‘80s, I think it was People are Talking, where she told the story of how she was invited to the White House, & wanted to dose Tricia Nixon with acid or LSD. ( spoiler alert: she didn’t follow through with it)

Grace showed a more mature and introspective side when she released her solo album "Dreams" in 1980. The album combined sweeping orchestral arrangements with hard rock elements, while lyrically suggesting that she and others of the 60s era paid a high price for their excesses. It would have been interesting, albeit far less lucrative, had she continued on this musical path rather than selling out with Starship.

For some reason this is the first thing I think of when I think of her, not even her Jefferson Airplane days. Yes I’m an MTV kid.

She went to Finch college on the Upper East Side. Read this.

"Dreams" has long been a favorite of drag queens who want to serve ¡DRAMA!

She seems arrogant (as someone above stated) and not much seems to make her happy.

@r76, "strange little person that she’s decided to be. "

"somebody from some fairy story, the witch woman or whatever it was"

Sounds pretty dismissive to me, but wait, isn't Grace Slick that wild-eyed druggy from the 60's? Yeah, I like her music, what did she sing again? Is she still alive? Amazing

It's called humor r83

^ What is? Oh, honey, that was shade

r85 you must not be familiar with Grace, she's very deadpan and can be very funny.

^ your right, I'm not 85, so what do I know?

Grace was a wild and crazy girl.

As soon as she hit 60, she let herself go.

Nice tit.

Did Slick ever fuck Lindsey Buckingham? Might explain matters.

White Rabbit still gives me chills 55 years later. Here are her isolated vocals. No other female could sing the way Grace did.

r92 Soulful

She was a guest on a live radio show inside a library and took questions from the live audience. I asked her about Starship playing at Altamont Speedway festival, and if she had any insight to the stabbing shown in "Gimme Shelter" — if the attack was racially motivated or not. Grace answered the entire question but got confused. Because the name "Gilmer Shelter" sounded like "Helter Skelter"...................

Thanks r94 👍

I was 12 in LA when the San Fran sound hit. We would have our transistor radios on in anticipation of White Rabbit being played. The two AM stations I remember rotated Beach Boys, The Doors, The Monkees, Beatles, Rolling Stones, a lot of ballads, and some Motown. But occasionally White Rabbit would play! It was such a surreal juggernaut of a song.

The only time I remember a similar female low-voiced perfect rocK song came was in the 70’s with Ann Wilson’s vocals on Magic Man 1975, Crazy on You 1976, and Barracuda 1977.

Good times. These good times were before stations became corporate clones.

Is Grace comparable to Joni Mitchell musical wise?

No.

Don't know if this has been posted. At Woodstock

So would it be fair to say that she hasn't gone the Cher route in later life and had a fair bit of cosmetic surgery?

R97: OMG NOT! Although Joni Mitchell shows up as mezzo-soprano to contralto on Wiki, omg she was unlistenable to me.

Just give me those low-voiced female rockers. The only gals who did it were Grace Slick, Ann Wilson, Stevie Nicks, and Amy Winehouse. I’ll throw Karen Carpenter in there because she had a low buttery voice but never did real rock and roll.

I could not hit my radio button fast enough when a Joni Mitchell song came on!

We love Joni.

Stevie Nicks Fraus = the most hair trigger sensitive people on earth.

Most of her longtime friends are gay men. She's standoffish, but she's had issues with stalkers. One of the men she lived with was a violent bipolar as well.

Her daughter was an actress at one point. She's in The Evening Star.

[quote]( spoiler alert: she didn’t follow through with it)

She was denied security clearance to go in The White House, as was her escort Abbie Hoffman.

I saw her at the Fillmore East. I liked Jefferson Airplane a lot back then. T whey were very druggy and drugged, mostly drum bashing. I remember that at the second show Grace Slick did the whole gig with her back to the audience. VERY Sixties.

I've read her autobiography and the biography by Barbara Rowes. Fascinating woman who was often her own worst enemy. She did everything and everyone and I think she enjoyed most of it. She was always more about alcohol than other drugs (though when she was with Kantner they hoovered up a lot of blow). Very distinctive voice.

The last few Airplane albums are appalling, particularly her contributions to them. For someone who wrote intelligent, thoughtful lyrics to songs like Eskimo Blue Day and Rejoyce, then churning out garbage like Milk Train was a steep, fast descent into mediocrity. Eat Starch, Mom from Long John Silver has some great guitar work, though.

r101 What about Pat Benatar?

R20 why don't you look on youtube you dumb fuck

r108 Yeah let's do away with forums and discussions and questions online altogether and just say to everyone oh just Google it. It's not me that's dumb may I suggest when you are the one on an Internet discussion board with such a futile passive aggressive chip on your shoulder attitude.

Grace has been asked in interviews why she thinks she survived it all when so many of her contemporaries didn't and she said that she never touched heroin, which definitely helped. She's also admitted that her drug of choice was mostly alcohol and that takes a lot longer to kill a person than hard drugs. She said that while she did coke and a few other things, those were never her primary drugs and she was never a daily user.

For your particular post at R20, my comment at 109 was appropriate. I didn't reference the other discussions.

r111 Has she ever described herself as being an addict and has she indicated if she is now teetotal? Thanks

Her daughter was a big VJ on MTV--China Kantner.

Grace was from a very prominent, wealthy family (as mentioned). She's said that her parents were Republicans but they were always loving and supportive of her career. Her father helped her manage her JA money and turn it into a massive fortune (her words).

Grace quit drinking sometime in the 1990s and has been sober ever since. The linked interviews have her talking about it.

r112 You didn't need to have referenced other discussions for my point to stand and be valid as your objection could be applicable for a very high number of posts on this forum . Little inquisitive posts such as the one you originally snarked nastily about serve as a helpful lubricant in thread discussions that can help keep the flow of discussion and add to and expand a topic.

R77 Not Tricia, dear old dad was her target. She may have gotten away with it if her date hadn't been Abbie Hoffman.

Thanks r115 In all likelihood given the link between high blood pressure and alcohol abuse she probably would never have reached 80 if she hadn't of quit the demon drink.

Grace looks her best in the "We Built This City" music video.

As long as a person takes medication high blood pressure is completely manageable.

[quote] Sounds pretty dismissive to me, but wait, isn't Grace Slick that wild-eyed druggy from the 60's? Yeah, I like her music, what did she sing again? Is she still alive? Amazing

Stevie Nicks SHOULD be dismissed. Her persona and her songwriting are insipid, and she takes herself as seriously as Grace Slick takes herself.

r120 I'm not sure that's accurate in circumstances when you are taking or rather abusing other substances that cancel out or reduce the beneficial effect of the medication.

I've known lots of drinkers on BP medication and they've all been fine.

r123 Heavy drinkers? I am talking about alcohol abuse not alcohol consume moderately.

One of our local family doctors as well two of my cousins who are general practice doctors or GPS as they are known in the UK insist that alcohol abuse affects your blood pressure levels negatively if you abuse alcohol even if you are taking medication.

Grace's best work was her pre-fame live hippy performances

okay fine r124 but I know people who are the opposite.

r126 I don't doubt that at all as general medical advice on such matters is never universally applicable to all eg some people gorge on sugar for decades and never get diabetes or some medications that are not meant to be combined with others for safety reasons can actually be safely combined by a significant minority .The advice is general not specifically tailored to every individual.

FUCKING HELL r127 just STFU! Christ.

No I won't r128 You were giving out bad medical information perhaps because you want to believe that as long as you take medication you can drink as much as you want . I don't know but I felt it needed to be challenged and I did so in a respectful polite way. You shouldn't push that kind of information and not expect challenge.

Thanks r125

I came to say EXACTLY what r25 said. It was so creepy, I checked the date to make sure I hadn't written that a long time ago and forgotten about it!

r129 I said I knew people on BP meds who drink and they're fine. That's all. Jesus Christ don't argue to death every single point you misinterpret.

Her looks went down fast. Just in few years. Look at her late 60s videos on YouTube, she's hot. Then early-mid 70s ones. Totally different person.

It was the booze r133. It really affects a person's looks.

Old crone here. Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane came out just as I hit my teens. Unless you were alive during that era you cannot imagine the cultural change she represented. Think back to the 60s and how many rock star women were there. Grace preceded Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks etc. She was sort of a role model for girls who didn't want the traditional path of marriage. Women didn't have careers at that time, nor did they have separate credit. They were totally dependent on a husband. She was exciting. Think back to how many openly gay men and women there were before the 70s. It was a very different time.

Like R68, I learned about Slick and Jefferson Airplane as a teenager, though on my own and not in school.

Given so many DLers frau-like taste in music, it's no surprise there is much love for her Starship work, but Airplane was pretty cutting edge in its day and though many of the kyrics seem incredibly dated "Data control and IBM and sicience is mankind's brother But all I see is draining me On my plastic fantastic lover" their music seemed to encapsulate the rebellion of the 60s which was led mostly by privileged kids like Slick rebelling against their parents... just as her Starship days seemed to encapsulate the whole notion of ex-hippies settling down in the 80s to become Yuppies, sell out and many money.

If I had to pick one song to represent the 60s hippie vibe--both the over the top lyrics and the trippy acid sound of the music--, it's probably Plastic Fantastic Lover, where she does backup.

^sell out and MAKE money

r132 I don't believe for a minute you know lots of people who abuse alcohol and drink heavily and it has no effect on their blood pressure. A few exceptions to the norm yes. Lots of people .No.

Whatever r138 I couldn't give a fuck. I do know people and I don't really care if you don't believe it.

r133 Very sad. I have seen this in some around. One gay guy absolutely drop dead boyish gorgeous aged 20. Model looks. Two and a half years later after lots of heavy boozing he looked about 32 and on the rough side.In many ways looked like a completely different person. A waste in a way.

r135 that's a great post. I wasn't around back then but I can see how revolutionary it was.

I read an interview with Grace awhile back and she said you have to remember that she was part of the first wave of rock stars. Rock music literally did not exist before then, so there was no blueprint on how to act. They all made it up as they went along. She mentioned that before she and her contemporaries came along, it was Fabian and Connie Francis. The contrast was startling.

The Wikipedia piece on Slick is very well done OP

Crazy that she and the other Airplane members are older than Boomers, they're Joe Biden's age.

Slick, as noted, was the daughter of an investment banker and grew up in Palo Alto, attended U of Miami in the late 50s

I suspect most of her classmates were suburban matrons in the late 60s with kids and housekeepers and garden club and tennis. What a very different life she lead!

OP? Can't you find some other forum to hang out on?

Thanks.

R138 so much for letting others discuss

Here's a video of an interview with Slick and David Letterman in 1983

Letterman looks so young.

The video of her trying to be punk is sad, though she is funny.

R140 why make up stuff? I don't believe that for a second

r144 Me giving my opinion doesn't stop other people discussing. I am entitled to disbelieve or be sceptical a claim or statement by another poster. I am not the one poster in this thread who has told other posters to shut up or f*** off.

r146 As is your right. He was very well known on the Liverpool gay scene in the 1990s so I know there are many others who saw this sorry tale. He had looks to die for and it was such a shame hard partying and drinking cost him his looks so prematurely.

Anyway back to Grace she seems to be in the minority of celebrities who have not tried to go to any significant lengths to try and turn back the tide of time on her looks.

Pre-MTV and great. I want to know who the Joe Dallesandro boy is in the video..

She compliments Ronstadt in her book too, doesn't mind losing.a Grammy to her. Benatar too. And the only reason she didn't acid trip Tricia Nixon is because they kicked her out on sight. "We know who you are" even though she RSVPd as Grace Wing, her real name.

Many thanks r145

Still odd to me that the 60s folk with embalmed insides -- Grace, Mick, etc. -- all live long and the health nut 80s gang -- Jackson, Michaels, Prince, etc. -- die off fast.

r149 Always a good healthy sign that an ugly showbiz ego hasn't taken root when an artist or performer can genuinely compliment their peers and contemporaries.

[quote] the health nut 80s gang -- Jackson, Michaels, Prince,

They were all serious drug abusers for years.

The biggest Baby Boomer sellout who ever sold out. “We Built This City” on multiple lists as the worst pop song ever. Venal.

^^^Agree.

r154 Isn't she too old to be classed as a babyboomer?

She is R156 -- all of the Airplane are Greatest Generation but their music was Boomer music.

This is what she sounded like live, the song was recorded at Fillmore West in SF in 1968, pretty much her heyday

The hate for We Built This City is overdone. When it peaked it was far better than most (not all) of the chart toppers for that week.

1 5 WE BUILT THIS CITY –•– Starship – 11 (1)

2 4 YOU BELONG TO THE CITY –•– Glenn Frey – 10 (2)

3 1 MIAMI VICE THEME –•– Jan Hammer – 11 (1)

4 3 HEAD OVER HEELS –•– Tears For Fears – 10 (3)

5 2 PART TIME LOVER –•– Stevie Wonder – 11 (1)

6 7 SEPARATE LIVES –•– Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin – 7 (6)

7 11 BROKEN WINGS –•– Mr. Mister – 9 (7)

8 12 NEVER –•– Heart – 10 (8)

9 9 BE NEAR ME –•– ABC – 13 (9)

10 10 LAY YOUR HANDS ON ME –•– Thompson Twins – 9 (10)

11 16 WHO’S ZOOMIN’ WHO –•– Aretha Franklin – 8 (11)

12 14 YOU ARE MY LADY –•– Freddie Jackson – 11 (12)

13 8 TAKE ON ME –•– A-Ha – 19 (1)

14 6 SAVING ALL MY LOVE FOR YOU –•– Whitney Houston – 14 (1)

15 19 LOVE THEME FROM ST. ELMO’S FIRE –•– David Foster – 13 (15)

16 13 ONE NIGHT LOVE AFFAIR –•– Bryan Adams – 10 (13)

17 21 ONE OF THE LIVING –•– Tina Turner – 7 (17)

18 29 ELECTION DAY –•– Arcadia – 4 (18)

19 25 SLEEPING BAG –•– ZZ Top – 5 (19)

20 15 LOVIN’ EVERY MINUTE OF IT –•– Loverboy – 13 (9)

It's not easy being a fan of hers, I've loved much of her back catalog, especially her 1980 solo LP "Dreams". But her worst character trait (laziness) came out when she decided to retire in the early 90s from recording/performing. She could've done so much more music during the 90s, even into the 00s, but gave it all up. Her stupid excuse was that she didn't think "old" people shouldn't be on a stage. She was only in her early 50s when she decided to do this.

107 here, forgot to mention that I've read Got A Revolution! which is a biography of all the members of the Airplane. It had a lot of information and fleshed out what I knew about them and gave structure and context to their story.

It also made me realize that everyone in that band was an asshole, including Grace (which I'd already figured out). Very interesting group of people but they were all jerks. That doesn't change my opinion of their music though.

[quote]Who was the most famous person she fucked or is thought to have fucked?

I don't know but I just found a Jim Morrison story.

[quote]We co-headlined in Frankfurt, Copenhagen, London and Amsterdam, and I can’t remember which country we were in when it happened. But I do remember strangely isolated things like the color of the rug in the hotel hallway (rose pink and maroon) and the nervousness I felt standing in front of the door to Jim’s room.

[quote]It’s daytime, he’s probably asleep. If he’s asleep, then he won’t answer my knock, and I can go back to my room and stop shaking. What if it’s the wrong room? Oh, fuck it.

[quote]I did the “secret knock” which he wouldn’t have known anyway because it was Airplane’s private signal, the opening beat to one of our songs, to let each other know that it was one of us standing outside the door. I was surprised when Jim didn’t even ask, “Who is it?” Instead, he turned the handle and pulled the door all the way back so I could see him and the whole room. He smiled. “What’s up?”

[quote]I wish I could remember my answer, but some specifics about the past are clear while others are vague. Since I had no idea that anyone would care about this thirty years later, I never kept a diary, In fact, if I’d known the enormous impact Morrison would have on future generations, I might have been tempted to wear a tape recorder. I also wish I could tell you that he came to my room to hustle me. But it didn’t happen that way. I was, once again, the perpetrator.

[...]

[quote]This was new. Like making love to a floating art form with eyes. I’d never had anyone “study” me like that. It wasn’t the standard evaluation of body parts. He seemed to appraising the distance between us if it was an invisible garment that needed to be continually breached with each motion. With our hips joined together and his body moving up and down, if felt like he was taking a moment each time to circle the area between our bodies with his eyes and consider the space that separated us. He was a well built boy, his cock was slightly larger than average, and was young enough to maintain the engorged silent connection right through the residue of chemicals that can threaten erection.

[quote]At the same time, he was surprisingly gentle. Somehow, I’d expected a sort of frantic horizontal ritual. It’s interesting; the most maniacal guys on stage can be such sublime lovers. But everybody has to stop being a jerk sometimes. Jim mystified me with that otherworldly expression, and at the same time, his hips never lost the insistent rolling motion that was driving the dance.

r159 as has been explained Grace felt ridiculous singing the sex and drugs stuff from the 60s as a middle-aged woman, and that time period had long passed. It would've been impossible for her not to still sing those songs in concert and at any other public appearances where she was supposed to sing. I respect her for knowing when to leave, a lot of other artists should've done the same.

We Built This City is a pretty bad song, but I wouldn't call it the worst song of the 80s. It's not even close to the worst of that decade.

The set up to this thread sticks in my craw.

I suspect that much of the pushback on We Built This City was just shock that someone who had been such a counterculture icon wound up singing schlock rock and the fact that it reminded many of her one time Airplane fans that they too had grown up and sold out.

Grace also invested her money well. She didn't need to perform again.

Plus, she made a decent living as a painter.

A lot of veteran artists have to tour because they don't own their work and if they don't write their own songs, they pretty much have no choice. Streaming has not been great for royalties. And COVID has been particularly brutal on the music industry.

Even a lot of A list acts have sold their songwriting catalogues in recent years.

And a lot of male rockers have ex wives to support with alimony and a bunch of kids.

r163 Which song of the 1980s would you say was the worst?

Given that her dad was an investment banker R166, he hopefully gave her good advice on that front. In addition to leaving her with a nice chunk of change when he died.

[quote]We Built This City is a pretty bad song,

Yeah, so bad it went to #1 and became one of their biggest hits.🙄

People bitch about Starship’s 80’s output, but it got them 3 number ones. The songs have the sound of that decade. They couldn’t keep doing 60’s/70’s hippie rock for forever.

Starship (with no 'Jefferson") was pretty much Micky Thomas who and lead on "Fooled Around and Fell in Love' the decade before. He was cute but bland. "Sara" was worse than "...City" and also hit #1 somehow (with Mickey's armpiece Rebecca deMornay in the wretched video).

Worst song of the '80s? "Electric Youth" comes to mind but also is so bad, it is good too.

r166 I imagine maybe she makes a steady amount of supplementary income from royalties unless she signed them away? Whenever anybody pays to play a Grace Slick song on a jukebox in a public venue she gets a slice of that money and when added up annually could be a nice cushion although unlikely to be a kings fortune.

r171 Awe Poor Debbie Gibson lol! I have expected you to answer with a Bangles or Bananarama song for some reason!

R171 was probably one of those scuzzy hair metal fans. Gross.

Nope, I was into Smiths and Pet Shop Boys and Belinda and Go-Gos.... Watch the video to "Electric Youth" to see how bad it is, even if one likes pop as I do.

Perfume for only $5000.00

Go for it.

r170 tons of shit songs have been hits.

R54, Hate to break it you but there gay people on Kiwi Farms..

[quote]Whenever anybody pays to play a Grace Slick song on a jukebox in a public venue she gets a slice of that money

Jukebox? What decade are you living in?!

Here's an American Bandstand performance from 1967. This was from an album at the time Surrealistic Pillow. I had this at one time. Look at them there and then the live performances from Woodstock 2 years later.

Here's something from the Woodstock performance-

Jukeboxes are still in many bars.

The voice that launched a thousand trips….

Lot of BS on here. She and JA were ahead of their time. I have no doubt that many of her stories are true. I was starting college the month after Woodstock. Things were very different back then. With birth control, there were no limits. People would get venereal disease but at that time, antibiotics would cure anything. And this was before AIDS so those who wanted to could party all the time.

I think it was one of those stupid VH1 shows that first dubbed "We Built This City" as the worst song of the 80's, and it became a meme. Now it's just an automatic go-to answer for a lot of people who can't be bothered to think for themselves.

I remember when it first came out, it was actually one of those songs that people would talk about, as in "have you heard that new song by Starship?". A lot of people really liked it at the time, which is why it went to #1.

Personally it was never a favorite of mine, but I think it's a better song than either "Sara" or "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". It's something a little different, at least...I can appreciate it when artists go for something unusual, even if it's not 100% successful. It occupies a similar space as "Mr. Roboto" by Styx, another very unusual song that was a huge hit, but that a lot of people now despise.

I saw an interview not too long ago with Mickey Thomas, and he loves that it was named the Worst Song of the 80's. All that did was bring more attention to it, and got more people listening to it and buying (or streaming) it. Eventually it will probably become cool again at some point...that's how it usually works.

This is Jefferson Airplane at Monterey Pop in 1967, preceded by Canned Heat. Good samples of her voice here.

And these are like a trip down memory lane--Janis Joplin at Monterey Pop in 1967, giving a great performance. The video capture Cass Elliot in the audience blown away by how good Joplin is.

That Janis Joplin performance of Ball and Chain at Monterey Pop is one of the greatest live performances of all time ever captured on film, imho. She was insanely brilliant there.

r179 Digital jukeboxes are a very real thing and popular.I think one of the popular brands is called Angelina? Can store virtually all music unlimited to be paid publicly.

The fact that her rock star contemporaries were dying of drug overdoses didn't stop old Grace from indulging. As she said "if somebody dies in a car accident that doesn't make me stop driving." What an ass she was/is.

r179 The digital Angelina jukeboxes I mentioned. They are becoming more popular in entertainment or social venues like bars.

Fun fact: Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen (of Jefferson Airplane) named their side project band "Hot Tuna" after Grace's pussy, which they'd both tasted.

R11 When I was a kid, my parents had the issue of LIFE or LOOK magazine in which that photo appeared. I remember being shocked, both by the contrast of scary hippie Grace and her square old lady mother, and the fact that she was holding the baby upside down. The upside-down part still disturbs me, to do that to a baby for a photo. Oh, and didn't she name it small-g god? That's even more fucked up than Free Seagull.

After White Rabbit and Somebody to Love, they seemed to keep her voice in the background. Sometimes it’s downright faint.

She was a fantastic singer, big voice. She was smart enough to retire when she got old. I love her.

it wont let me post the fucking link, but Grace did "Jazzy Numbers" in 1969 for Sesame Street.

r193 yes when her daughter was born someone asked the baby's name and Grace said "it's god, with a small " g", we want her to be humble." LOL. The daughter's name is China (not much better imo)

Unpopular opinion, but I prefer Grace's voice and music overall to Joni's. Joni is a great writer and lyricist, but her fluttering voice and guitar accompaniments drive me fucking insane after a couple of tracks.

She hated old people onstage playing rock and roll...yet she shared many a stage with Papa John Creach, the electric violinist who joined Jefferson Airplane at age 53, and continued with Jefferson Starship until age 58. What's up with that? Why didn't she tell him to get his wrinkly old ass off the stage and go retire?

Wasn't there an Afterschool Special or TV Movie of the Week called "Go Ask Alice" that scarred many of you?

I seem to remember a thread about it

R194 you are so correct. I loved hearing her in the background because of course you knew who it was. Listen to “Runaway” and “Miracles”. Damn…for me it makes for a big effect on the song.

R200 you are correct. We had to read the Go Ask Alice book in high school (along with Johnny Got His Gun) in the early 70s. Then later maybe 1973 we were told to watch the Go Ask Alice tv movie.

When “Alice” started wearing The Floppy Hat you knew she became a druggie. (Jeffrey Macdonald famously used The Floppy Hat to describe a hippie murderer of his family.)

This is a great thread. Thank you OP. And thank you R180 for the American Bandstand clip. Although we eagerly awaited AB every Saturday (?) dreaming of going to the ABC Burbank Studio when we were old enough, I don’t remember JA appearing. I must’ve been at the beach on that Saturday!

Watching that thread at R180, you realize how good Dick Clark was

Grace Slick’s autobiography, “Somebody to Love?” Is an excellent read — really interesting, and one really gets a sense of Slick as a person (for better or worse).

She’s always seemed to have an I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude; especially after reading her book, i suspect a lot of this comes from her privileged background. Plus, she was beautiful when she was young, and the knowledge of that also might have contributed to her personality.

Besides the rock and roll stories, I remember her writing about her friendship with Jill St. John when she (Slick) was married to her first husband. Kind of an incongruous pairing, but Slick wrote warmly of St. John (which believe me, she didn’t do about everyone!)

Grace got a lot of hot dick in her day. Good for her!

Jukeboxes still around but no way artists get residuals from them. Only broadcast.

Listen to Grace on "St. Thomas". That incarnation with "Miracles" was still respectable. Though I do still get a laugh from the video of "We Built This City" especially Grace nothing the giant dice falling. Hard to picture her on a video set period.

r206 My understanding is if it is played in a public venue on a jukebox that is classed as broadcast with all the accompanied royalty rights. It gets added up annually by the overseeing body who distributes their financial dues to them once a year.

I guess it's possible so I stand corrected but wonder how they keep up with it. I thought it was Point of Purchase stuff, you bought the 45, you can play it in your car or anywhere else and that's the end of it.

Muzak in a store even.

No idea how they keep up with numbers of listens but feel same way as an actor in terms of Netflix, etc. The residuals are HORRIBLE by the way.

[quote]I imagine maybe she makes a steady amount of supplementary income from royalties unless she signed them away?

Someone on here a couple of years back who claimed to know Grace said a lot of her money was put into real estate . Various buildings, developments, etc. She supposedly owns or is a part owner of some apartment complexes by where she lives. She doesn't live extravagantly either. More like upper middle class. Her panting's were a big deal on the art circuit in the late 90's, early 2000's.

I don't think she needs the music royalties. Chick A Fil A wanted to use one of her songs in an ad campaign recently. She agreed, and then gave all the money she got from the deal to gay and lesbian charities.

With her side career as an artist Grace is very much to the music industry what Eve Plumb is to Hollywood. Both made their fortune and then retired to pursue their real artistic passion.

r208 Basically I think a digital log record is kept eventide a song is selected and automatically goes into a database.

I really like the idea I can support some of my favourite artists or favourite songs long after they were released or long after they were in their heyday. Especially less big artists I mean Elton John, Madonna etc don't need the extra money but some smaller stars might really appreciate it from Bananarama to Lutricia McNeil, Hazel Dean, The Lightning Seeds, Martika, Sabrina, Macy Gray, Aha, etc etc

r209 ThT is absolutely fantastic to hear .She sounds a real good soul.

The book 'Go Ask Alice' pretty much kept me away from drugs outside of weed when I was a very gullible teenager. By the time I learned the book was a hoax, I was already in my late 30s and much like Grace, felt I was a bit too old to be doing drugs.

r211 Sorry typed quickly should say a digital log everytime a song is played.

The Lightning Seeds? OMG, love!

Marty Balin was THE great singer in JA. It was also Marty's band till Grace Slick and Paul Kanter stole it from him. Like Jagger and Richards with Brian Jones.

r215 Love back to you especially on a Perfect day!!

Wow-- fascinating history to Go Ask Alice.

And it even has some homosex

Did someone say "Alice"??!

when she did white rabbit at Woodstock, She held the last note singing it live as long as she did on the album.. Great singer.

Great singer til the end of her music career at age 50. Unlike many of her contemporaries, she never lost the power in her voice. This is one of her last (great) recordings in 1989:

[quote]She doesn't live extravagantly either. More like upper middle class.

She lives in Malibu. Unless you live in a trailer in Malibu (which she does not), you are beyond upper middle class.

Malibu hasn't always cost and arm and a leg. You didn't have to be super rich to live there decades ago, when Grace bought her house.

Malibu was more of a hippie/artist colony in the 60s and 70s, it was nothing like it is now.

Grace Slick? Grace Sick!

Great voice, yes, but she also had a cool look and name. And dominant hair.

Eve Plumb made a fortune in Hollywood? And Plumb is a comparable figure to Grace Slick?

R237 ok that got a genuine lol outta me!

Look, I admit to not knowing all the names of Bananarama or the Bangles.

But not knowing the name of a legendary Rock super-star is crazy.

Have you heard of Stephen Foster? Benny Goodman? Peggy Lee? Eddie Cochran? Joan Sutherland?

We don't have people like Grace Slick in the music business anymore, and it's a shame. Courtney Love was the last wild woman of music, and that was quite some time ago.

[quote]R23 …the crowd had been standing a long time in the rain waiting to see them, but Grace Slick was sick (seemingly due to protracted drug and alcohol abuse) and couldn't perform.

I remember seeing her interviewed on Entertainment Tonight or something back in the day, and she said, “I did NOT cancel because I was drunk or high. I cancelled because I was sick, and evacuating at both ends. You cannot perform when you’re [italic]evacuating at both ends.”[/italic]

Even as a child, I was like, “That is TOO MUCH INFORMATION!”

R229 here. Full disclosure: I saw Jefferson Airplane with Grace Slick back in the day (November 21, 1970). The "opening act" was Hot Tuna. During the main show the band displayed male and female genitalia on a huge screen.

R188, I would also throw in the late wonderful obscenely talented Otis Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival.

I can watch this anyday over what is called music today.

r77 She brought Abbie Hoffman, of all people, to the White House, lol

r105 sorry missed your reply

Grace dropped the first televised F bomb on the Dick Cavett show.

She got all the good dick back in the day.

She was already 30 when the photo in the OP was taken in '69.

Remember their own generational saying "Never trust anyone over 30?"

She had that weird intense stare.

Why is this a little embarrassing?

Paul, Grace, David Crosby, Jerry Garcia, and who knows who else? Grace on piano and vocals. From the "Jefferson Starship" LP, which won a Poe Award, I believe, for "best science fiction 'novel' " the year it was released. The whole album is fantastically beautiful, and it isn't diminished at all by the subsequent "Dragonfly" / "Built this City" bullshit. The LP contains what I think is Jerry Garcia's most beautiful guitar playing. The epitome of "acid rock." This is just a little taste:

Swear to God, all this tsk-tsking about Grace's habits and chatter about Jefferson Starship, which counts for absolutely nothing in the schema of things. Are you people suburban moms????

She had a great voice, wrote some great songs, was funny and smart, and didn't give a shit--stoned to her tits, she'd come out dressed as a Brownie, as Hitler....

Get a life, motherfuckers!!!!

R241 That is one of my favorites! So trippy and beautiful.

^The whole LP is one single thing, really. The comments on the youtube site for that link indicate what that music has meant to so many people in the last 40+ years.

r158 Its a very decent song.

[quote]People bitch about Starship’s 80’s output, but it got them 3 number ones. The songs have the sound of that decade. They couldn’t keep doing 60’s/70’s hippie rock for forever.

That's why Paul Kantner left the band. There's an interview with Grace somewhere on Youtube, that was done in the last several years, where she talks about it. She said something to the effect of "Paul wanted to put seven-minute songs about outer space on the album. In the 80s. I said to him 'Paul, those days are over!;"

I loved her, she was gorgeous and had great hair and style and despite being the front of a otherwise male band, never bitched or moaned about men like the angry second wave feminists wanted her to, like other bad ass queen Janis Joplin.