History Music / JeffersonStarship

Despite its numerous links to the Airplane, Jefferson Starship originated with the experimental albums "Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun" (credited to Kantner, Slick and latter-day Airplane singer David Freiberg) and "Manhole" (labelled as a Grace Slick solo album), both of which were primarily the handiwork of Kantner and Slick (then cohabiting and engaged in a relationship) alongside a rotating pool of musicians (including several former Airplane personnel). Following the low sales with which the costly "Manhole" was met, record corporation RCA threatened to drop the couple from its label, compelling them to rally (alongside the people mentioned above) and form a new band wielding a more commercially-viable sound. The resulting album, 1974's ''Dragon Fly'', was a ProgressiveRock-influenced sprawl of spacey-sounding rock, producing two hits (the hard-rocking album opener "Ride the Tiger" and the early power ballad "Caroline", the latter written and sung by former Airplane founder and frontman Marty Balin in a guest capacity). Partially due to the success of "Caroline", Balin became a full-time member of Jefferson Starship several months after the album's release, thus rejoining the successor of the group he had left five years earlier and enabling the Starship to recreate the shaggy three-part vocal harmonies (provided by Balin, Slick and Kantner) characterizing much of the Airplane's earlier work. The group's second album, the polished soft rock-based ''Red Octopus'' (their final work to feature Creach) would become their most successful album, topping the Billboard album chart for four non-consecutive weeks in 1975). With a little help from the main single from that album (Balin's ultra-slick pop ballad "Miracles", which hit no.3 in the charts), the Starship had, within eighteen months of its formation, become more commercially successful than Music/JeffersonAirplane ever were.

Despite its numerous links to the Airplane, Jefferson Starship originated with the experimental albums "Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun" (credited to Kantner, Slick and latter-day Airplane singer David Freiberg) and "Manhole" (labelled as a Grace Slick solo album), both of which were primarily the handiwork of Kantner and Slick (then cohabiting and engaged in a relationship) alongside a rotating pool of musicians (including several former Airplane personnel). Following the low sales with which the costly "Manhole" was met, record corporation RCA threatened to drop the couple from its label, compelling them to rally (alongside the people mentioned above) and form a new band wielding a more commercially-viable sound. The resulting album, 1974's ''Dragon Fly'', was a ProgressiveRock-influenced sprawl of spacey-sounding rock, producing two hits (the hard-rocking album opener "Ride the Tiger" and the early power ballad "Caroline", the latter written and sung by former Airplane founder and frontman Marty Balin in a guest capacity). Partially due to the success of "Caroline", Balin became a full-time member of Jefferson Starship several months after the album's release, thus rejoining the successor of the group he had left five years earlier and enabling the Starship to recreate the shaggy three-part vocal harmonies (provided by Balin, Slick and Katner) characterizing much of the Airplane's earlier work. The group's second album, the polished soft rock-based ''Red Octopus'' (their final work to feature Creach) would become their most successful album (topping the Billboard album chart for four non-consecutive weeks in 1975), and with a little help from the main single from that album (Balin's ultra-slick pop ballad "Miracles", which hit no.3 in the charts) they became more commercially successful than Music/JeffersonAirplane ever were.

The following year, vocalist Mickey Thomas (previously known for singing the yacht rock hit "Fooled Around and Fell in Love") joined the band to fill both Slick and Balin's roles and subsequently became the effective leader of the group in the 80's, although the songs themselves would remain sourced from the group's more veteran members. Simultaneously, Barbata was replaced by famous British session drummer (and former Music/{{Journey}} member) Aynsley Dunbar, with Thomas' Elvin Bishop Band alumnus Donny Baldwin succeeding him in 1982. Through these new additions, the group revamped itself into a leaner hard-rock band reminiscent of contemporaries Music/{{Boston}} and Music/{{Foreigner}}, although Kantner's more esoteric and Airplane-flavored political anthems (now outfitted with trappings of punk and new wave) would continue to persist on their albums deep into the Reagan era. By 1981, Grace Slick - having undergone rehab and released two solo albums in the interim - was back, but all of these line-up changes were bracing to take their toll on the band. Numerous younger members, led by Micky Thomas (and joined, eventually, by Slick), increasingly advocated to fully modernize the band's sound and embrace broadly-romantic synthpop, whereas Kantner (having experienced a songwriting resurgence following both the group's genre shift and a near-fatal brain aneurysm) adamantly persisted with his more '60s-inspired stylings, which both these bandmates and the group's producers increasingly viewed as anachronistic and commercially unviable within the boundaries of the Starship's increasingly-rigid arena-rock image. These conflicts attained a peak during production of ''Nuclear Furniture'' in 1984, prompting Kantner to depart shortly following the album's completion. He would subsequently sue the remaining members over their continued use of the band's name; ultimately, the case was settled under the condition that the group would cease use of the "Jefferson" moniker going forward. Lacking one of its primary creative forces and with only a single prominent member of Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick) remaining, the group was thus reborn as the infamous Music/{{Starship}}.

The following year, vocalist Mickey Thomas (previously known for singing the yacht rock hit "Fooled Around and Fell in Love") joined the band to fill both Slick and Balin's roles and subsequently became the effective leader of the group in the 80's, although the songs themselves would remain sourced from the group's more veteran members. Simultaneously, Barbata was replaced by famous British session drummer (and former Music/{{Journey}} member) Aynsley Dunbar, with Thomas' Elvin Bishop Band alumnus Donny Baldwin succeeding him in 1982. Through these new additions, the group revamped itself into a commercial hard-rock band reminiscent of contemporaries Music/{{Boston}} and Music/{{Foreigner}}, although Kantner's more esoteric and Airplane-flavored political anthems (now outfitted with trappings of punk and new wave) would continue to persist on their albums deep into the Reagan era. By 1981, Grace Slick - having undergone rehab and released two solo albums in the interim - was back, but all of these line-up changes were bracing to take their toll on the band. Numerous younger members, led by Micky Thomas (and joined, eventually, by Slick), increasingly advocated to fully modernize the band's sound and embrace broadly-romantic synthpop, whereas Kantner (having experienced a songwriting resurgence following both the group's genre shift and a near-fatal brain aneurysm) adamantly persisted with his more '60s-inspired stylings, which both these bandmates and the group's producers increasingly viewed as anachronistic and commercially unviable within the boundaries of the Starship's increasingly-rigid arena-rock image. These conflicts attained a peak during production of ''Nuclear Furniture'' in 1984, prompting Kantner to depart shortly following the album's completion. He would subsequently sue the remaining members over their continued use of the band's name; ultimately, the case was settled under the condition that the group would cease use of the "Jefferson" moniker going forward. Lacking one of its primary creative forces and with only a single prominent member of Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick) remaining, the group was thus reborn as the infamous Music/{{Starship}}.

The following year, vocalist Mickey Thomas (previously known for singing the yacht rock hit "Fooled Around and Fell in Love") joined the band to fill both Slick and Balin's roles and subsequently became the effective leader of the group in the 80's. Simultaneously, Barbata was replaced by famous British session drummer (and former Music/{{Journey}} member) Aynsley Dunbar, with Thomas' Elvin Bishop Band alumnus Donny Baldwin succeeding him in 1982. Through these new additions, the group revamped itself into a commercial hard-rock band reminiscent of contemporaries Music/{{Boston}} and Music/{{Foreigner}}, although Kantner's more esoteric and Airplane-flavored political anthems (now outfitted with trappings of punk and new wave) would continue to persist on their albums deep into the Reagan era. By 1981, Grace Slick - having undergone rehab and released two solo albums in the interim - was back, but all of these line-up changes were bracing to take their toll on the band: numerous younger members (and, eventually, Grace Slick) advocated to fully modernize the band's sound, whereas Kantner (having experienced a songwriting resurgence following both the group's genre shift and a near-fatal brain aneurysm) adamantly persisted with his more '60s-inspired stylings, which both these bandmates and the group's producers increasingly viewed as anachronistic and commercially unviable within the boundaries of the Starship's increasingly-rigid arena-rock image. These conflicts attained a peak during production of "Nuclear Furniture" in 1984, prompting Kantner to depart shortly following the album's completion. He would subsequently sue the remaining members over their continued use of the band's name; ultimately, the case was settled under the condition that the group would cease use of the "Jefferson" moniker going forward. Lacking one of its primary creative forces and with only a single prominent member of Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick) remaining, the group was thus reborn as the infamous Music/{{Starship}}.

Despite its numerous links to the Airplane, Jefferson Starship originated with the experimental albums "Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun" (credited to Kantner, Slick and latter-day Airplane singer David Freiberg) and "Manhole" (labelled as a Grace Slick solo album), both of which were primarily the handiwork of Kantner and Slick (then cohabiting and engaged in a relationship) alongside a rotating pool of musicians (including several former Airplane personnel). Following the low sales with which the costly "Manhole" was met, record corporation RCA threatened to drop the couple from its label, compelling them to rally (alongside the people mentioned above) and form a new band wielding a more commercially-viable sound. The resulting album, 1974's ''Dragon Fly'', was a ProgressiveRock-influenced sprawl of spacey-sounding rock, producing two hits (the hard-rocking album opener "Ride the Tiger" and the early power ballad "Caroline", the latter written and sung by former Airplane founder and frontman Marty Balin in a guest capacity). Partially due to the success of "Caroline", Balin became a full-time member of Jefferson Starship several months after the album's release, thus rejoining the successor of the group he had left five years earlier. The group's second album, the polished soft rock-based ''Red Octopus'' (their final work to feature Creach) would become their most successful album (topping the Billboard album chart for four non-consecutive weeks in 1975), and with a little help from the main single from that album (Balin's ultra-slick pop ballad "Miracles", which hit no.3 in the charts) they became more commercially successful than Music/JeffersonAirplane ever were.

While the group's next (primarily Balin-helmed) two albums, ''Spitfire'' and ''Earth'', cemented the Starship's commercial success further - rendering them one of the most prominent soft-rock and AOR acts of the late '70s - this popularity was not to last. During the recording of ''Red Octopus'', Kantner and Slick severed their six-year romance; Slick, feeling increasingly pressured by the demands imposed by parenting her and Kantner's young daughter and indifferent towards the Starship's increasingly-conservative songwriting direction, began a relationship with lighting man Skip Spence to Kantner's chagrin. Likewise, Marty Balin, perceiving himself as upstaged by Slick within the Airplane years earlier, was becoming increasingly exasperated with their revived working relationship. Over the following years, these mounting tensions fuelled Slick's already-significant alcoholism further, climaxing following the release of "Earth" in 1978, in which she was asked to resign following a disastrous concert in Hamburg. Then came the Star Wars Holiday Special, and not long after that, both Balin (due to creative burnout) and John Barbata (due to sustaining near-fatal injuries in a road accident) exited, leaving Kantner the sole remaining founding member of the Airplane to persist in the group.

While the group's next (primarily Balin-helmed) two albums, ''Spitfire'' and ''Earth'', cemented the Starship's commercial success further - rendering them one of the most popular soft-rock and AOR acts of the late '70s - this popularity was not to last. During the recording of ''Red Octopus'', Kantner and Slick severed their six-year romance; Slick, feeling increasingly pressured by the demands imposed by parenting her and Kantner's young daughter and indifferent towards the Starship's increasingly-conservative songwriting direction, began a relationship with lighting man Skip Spence to Kantner's chagrin. Likewise, Marty Balin, perceiving himself as upstaged by Slick within the Airplane years earlier, was becoming increasingly exasperated with their revived working relationship. Over the following years, these mounting tensions fuelled Slick's already-significant alcoholism further, climaxing following the release of "Earth" in 1978, in which she was asked to resign following a disastrous concert in Hamburg. Then came the Star Wars Holiday Special, and not long after that, both Balin (due to creative burnout) and John Barbata (due to sustaining near-fatal injuries in a road accident) exited, leaving Kantner the sole remaining founding member of the Airplane to persist in the group.

Despite its numerous links to the Airplane, Jefferson Starship originated with the experimental albums "Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun" (credited to Kantner, Slick and latter-day Airplane singer David Freiberg) and "Manhole" (labelled as a Grace Slick solo album), both of which were primarily the handiwork of Kantner and Slick (then cohabiting and engaged in a relationship) alongside a rotating pool of musicians (including several former Airplane personnel). Following the low sales with which the costly "Manhole" was met, record corporation RCA threatened to drop the couple from its label, compelling them to rally (alongside the people mentioned above) and form a new band wielding a more commercially-viable sound. The resulting album, 1974's ''Dragon Fly'', was a ProgressiveRock-influenced sprawl of spacey-sounding rock, producing two hits (the hard-rocking album opener "Ride the Tiger" and the early power ballad "Caroline", the latter written and sung by former Airplane founder and frontman Marty Balin in a guest capacity). Partially due to the success of "Caroline", Balin became a full-time member of Jefferson Starship several months after the album's release, thus rejoining the successor of the group he had left five years earlier. The group's second album, the polished soft-rock-based ''Red Octopus'' (their final work to feature Creach) would become their most successful album (topping the Billboard album chart for four non-consecutive weeks in 1975), and with a little help from the main single from that album (Balin's "Miracles", which hit no.3 in the charts) they became more commercially successful than Music/JeffersonAirplane ever were.

But despite all that, their main pop culture distinction these days is being "That band that showed up in ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial''".

While the group's next (primarily Balin-helmed) two albums, ''Spitfire'' and ''Earth'', cemented the Starship's commercial success further, this popularity was not to last. During the recording of "Red Octopus", Kantner and Slick severed their six-year romance; Slick, feeling increasingly pressured by the demands imposed by parenting her and Kantner's young daughter and indifferent towards the Starship's increasingly-conservative songwriting direction, began a relationship with lighting man Skip Spence to Kantner's chagrin. Likewise, Marty Balin, perceiving himself as upstaged by Slick within the Airplane years earlier, was becoming increasingly exasperated with their revived working relationship. Over the following years, these mounting tensions fuelled Slick's already-significant alcoholism further, climaxing following the release of "Earth" in 1978, in which she was asked to resign following a disastrous concert in Hamburg. Then came the Star Wars Holiday Special, and not long after that, both Balin (due to creative burnout) and John Barbata (due to sustaining near-fatal injuries in a road accident) exited, leaving Kantner the sole remaining founding member of the Airplane to persist in the group.

The following year, vocalist Mickey Thomas (previously known for singing the yacht rock hit "Fooled Around and Fell in Love") joined the band to fill both Slick and Balin's roles and subsequently became the effective leader of the group in the 80's. Simultaneously, Barbata was replaced by famous British session drummer (and former Music/{{Journey}} member) Aynsley Dunbar, with Thomas' Elvin Bishop Band alumnus Donny Baldwin succeeding him in 1982. Through these new additions, the group revamped itself into a commercial hard-rock band reminiscent of contemporaries Music/{{Boston}} and Music/{{Toto}}, although Kantner's more esoteric and Airplane-flavored political anthems would continue to persist on their albums deep into the Reagan era. By 1981, Grace Slick - having undergone rehab and released two solo albums in the interim - was back, but all of these line-up changes were bracing to take their toll on the band: numerous younger members (and, eventually, Grace Slick) advocated to fully modernize the band's sound, whereas Kantner (having experienced a songwriting resurgence following both the group's genre shift and a near-fatal brain aneurysm) adamantly persisted with his more '60s-inspired stylings, which both these bandmates and the group's producers increasingly viewed as anachronistic and commercially unviable within the boundaries of the Starship's increasingly-rigid arena-rock image. These conflicts attained a peak during production of "Nuclear Furniture" in 1984, prompting Kantner to depart shortly following the album's completion. He would subsequently sue the remaining members over their continued use of the band's name; ultimately, the case was settled under the condition that the group would cease use of the "Jefferson" moniker going forward. Lacking one of its primary creative forces and with only a single prominent member of Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick) remaining, the group was thus reborn as the infamous Music/{{Starship}}.

'''Jefferson Starship''' (named after the ad-hoc supergroup that played on Paul Kantner's UsefulNotes/{{Hugo|Award}}-nominated science-fiction concept album ''Music/BlowsAgainstTheEmpire'') is an American soft rock and, later, ArenaRock band formed in 1974. It is the noticeably more commercially-oriented SpiritualSuccessor to Music/JeffersonAirplane, which had broken up two years earlier, and initially featured Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, David Freiberg, Papa John Creach and [[Music/TheTurtles John Barbata]] from its predecessor's final lineup. Other founding members include teenage guitarist Craig Chaquico (previously a frequent guest on Kantner's solo albums) and bassist/guitarist Peter Kaukonen, the brother of Jorma from Music/JeffersonAirplane (Peter Kaukonen was gone after their first tour, replaced by British session man Pete Sears, who had featured on Grace Slick's solo album ''Manhole''). As implied in interviews, Kantner's initial vision for Jefferson Starship was essentially that of a revived (and more accessible) Jefferson Airplane, in which individual members were encouraged to pool their own songwriting and playing inclinations into a GenreRoulette, hence the band's tendency to frequently swing between conservative pop-rock and more socially-commentative and esoteric tracks such as "Stairway to Cleveland" and "Rose Goes to Yale".

'''Jefferson Starship''' (named after the ad-hoc supergroup that played on Paul Kantner's UsefulNotes/{{Hugo|Award}}-nominated science-fiction concept album ''Music/BlowsAgainstTheEmpire'') is an American soft rock and, later, ArenaRock band formed in 1974. It is the noticeably more commercially-oriented SpiritualSuccessor to Music/JeffersonAirplane, which had broken up two years earlier, and initially featured Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, David Freiberg, Papa John Creach and [[Music/TheTurtles John Barbata]] from its predecessor's final lineup. Other founding members include teenage guitarist Craig Chaquico (previously a frequent guest on Kantner's solo albums) and bassist/guitarist Peter Kaukonen, the brother of Jorma from Music/JeffersonAirplane (Peter Kaukonen was gone after their first tour, replaced by British session man Pete Sears, who had featured on Grace Slick's solo album ''Manhole'').

Despite its numerous links to the Airplane, Jefferson Starship originated with the experimental albums "Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun" (credited to Kantner, Slick and latter-day Airplane singer David Freiberg) and "Manhole" (labelled as a Grace Slick solo album), both of which were primarily the handiwork of Kantner and Slick (then cohabiting and engaged in a relationship) alongside a rotating pool of musicians (including several former Airplane personnel). Following the low sales with which the costly "Manhole" was met, record corporation RCA threatened to drop the couple from its label, compelling them to regroup (alongside the people mentioned above) and form a new band wielding a more commercially-viable sound. The resulting album, 1974's "Dragon Fly", was a ProgressiveRock-influenced sprawl of spacey-sounding rock, producing two hits (the hard-rocking album opener "Ride the Tiger" and the early power ballad "Caroline", the latter written and sung by former Airplane founder and frontman Marty Balin in a guest capacity). Partially due to the success of "Caroline", Balin became a full-time member of Jefferson Starship several months after the album's release, thus rejoining the successor of the group he had left five years earlier. The group's second album, the polished soft-rock-based ''Red Octopus'' (their final work to feature Creach) would become their most successful album (topping the Billboard album chart for four non-consecutive weeks in 1975), and with a little help from the main single from that album (Balin's "Miracles", which hit no.3 in the charts) they became more commercially successful than Music/JeffersonAirplane ever were.

While the group's next (primarily Balin-helmed) two albums, ''Spitfire'' and ''Earth'', cemented the Starship's commercial success further, this popularity was not to last. During the recording of "Red Octopus", Kantner and Slick severed their six-year romance; Slick, increasingly pressured by both the demands imposed by parenting her and Kantner's young daughter and indifferent towards the Starship's increasingly-conservative songwriting direction, began a relationship with lighting man Skip Spence to Kantner's chagrin. Likewise, Marty Balin, perceiving himself as upstaged by Slick within the Airplane years earlier, was becoming increasingly exasperated with their revived working relationship. Over the following years, these mounting tensions fuelled Slick's already-significant alcoholism further, climaxing following the release of "Earth" in 1978, in which she was asked to resign due to her out-of-control alcoholism and a disastrous concert in Hamburg. Then came the Star Wars Holiday Special, and not long after that, both Balin (due to creative burnout) and John Barbata (due to sustaining near-fatal injuries in a road accident) exited, leaving Kantner the sole remaining founding member of the Airplane to persist in the group. The following year, vocalist Mickey Thomas joined the band to fill both Slick and Balin's roles and subsequently became the effective leader of the group in the 80's. Simultaneously, Barbata was replaced by famous British session drummer (and former Music/{{Journey}} member) Aynsley Dunbar, with Thomas' Elvin Bishop Band alumnus Donny Baldwin succeeding him in 1982. Through these new additions, the group revamped itself into a commercial hard-rock band reminiscent of contemporaries Music/{{Boston}} and Music/{{Toto}}, although Kantner's more esoteric and Airplane-flavored political anthems would continue to persist on their albums deep into the Reagan era. By 1981, Grace Slick, having undergone rehab and released two albums in the interim, was back, but all of these line-up changes were bracing to take their toll on the band: numerous younger members (and, eventually, Grace Slick) advocated to fully modernize the band's sound, whereas Kantner (having experienced a songwriting resurgence following both the group's genre shift and a near-fatal brain aneurysm) adamantly persisted with his more '60s-inspired stylings, which both these bandmates and the group's producers increasingly viewed as anachronistic and commercially unviable within the boundaries of the Starship's increasingly-rigid arena-rock image. These conflicts attained a peak during production of "Nuclear Furniture" in 1984, prompting Kantner to depart shortly following the album's completion. He would subsequently sue the remaining members over their continued use of the band's name; ultimately, the case was settled under the condition that the group would cease use of the "Jefferson" moniker going forward. Lacking one of its primary creative forces and with only a single prominent member of Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick) remaining, the group was thus reborn as the infamous Music/{{Starship}}.

While the group's next (primarily Balin-helmed) two albums, ''Spitfire'' and ''Earth'', cemented the Starship's commercial success further, this popularity was not to last. During the recording of "Red Octopus", Kantner and Slick severed their six-year romance; Slick, increasingly pressured by both the demands imposed by parenting her and Kantner's young daughter and indifferent towards the Starship's increasingly-conservative songwriting direction, began a relationship with lighting man Skip Spence to Kantner's chagrin. Likewise, Marty Balin, perceiving himself as upstaged by Slick within the Airplane years earlier, was becoming increasingly exasperated with their revived working relationship. Over the following years, these mounting tensions fuelled Slick's already-significant alcoholism further, climaxing following the release of "Earth" in 1978, in which she was asked to resign due to her out-of-control alcoholism and a disastrous concert in Hamburg. Then came the Star Wars Holiday Special, and not long after that, both Balin (due to creative burnout) and John Barbata (due to sustaining near-fatal injuries in a road accident) exited, leaving Kantner the sole remaining founding member of the Airplane to persist in the group. The following year, vocalist Mickey Thomas joined the band to fill both Slick and Balin's roles and subsequently became the effective leader of the group in the 80's. Simultaneously, Barbata was replaced by famous British session drummer (and former Music/{{Journey}} member) Aynsley Dunbar, with Thomas' Elvin Bishop Band alumnus Donny Baldwin succeeding him in 1982. Through these new additions, the group revamped itself into a commercial hard-rock band reminiscent of contemporaries Music/{{Boston}} and Music/{{Toto}}, although Kantner's more esoteric and Airplane-flavored political anthems would continue to persist on their albums deep into the Reagan era. By 1981, Grace Slick, having undergone rehab and released two albums in the interim, was back, but all of these line-up changes were bracing to take their toll on the band: numerous younger members (and, eventually, Grace Slick) advocated to fully modernize the band's sound, whereas Kantner (having experienced a songwriting resurgence following both the group's genre shift and a near-fatal brain aneurysm) adamantly persisted with his more '60s-inspired stylings, which both these bandmates and the group's producers increasingly viewed as anachronistic and commercially unviable within the boundaries of the group's increasingly-rigid arena-rock image. These conflicts attained a peak during production of "Nuclear Furniture" in 1984, prompting Kantner to depart shortly following the album's completion. He would subsequently sue the remaining members over their continued use of the band's name; ultimately, the case was settled under the condition that the group would cease use of the "Jefferson" moniker going forward. Lacking one of its primary creative forces and with only a single prominent member of Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick) remaining, the group was thus reborn as the infamous Music/{{Starship}}.

Despite its numerous links to the Airplane, Jefferson Starship originated with the experimental albums "Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun" (credited to Kantner, Slick and latter-day Airplane singer David Freiberg) and "Manhole" (labelled as a Grace Slick solo album), both of which were primarily the handiwork of Kantner and Slick (then cohabiting and engaged in a relationship) alongside a rotating pool of musicians (including several former Airplane personnel). Following the low sales with which the costly "Manhole" was met, record corporation RCA threatened to drop the couple from its label, compelling them to regroup (alongside the people mentioned above) and form a new band wielding a more commercially-viable sound. The resulting album, 1974's "Dragon Fly", was a ProgressiveRock-influenced sprawl of spacey-sounding rock, producing two hits (the hard-rocking album opener "Ride the Tiger" and the early power ballad "Caroline", the latter written and sung by former Airplane founder and frontman Marty Balin in a guest capacity). Partially due to the success of "Caroline", Balin became a full-time member of Jefferson Starship in 1975 (five years following his departure from the Airplane). The group's second album, the polished soft-rock-based ''Red Octopus'' (their final work to feature Creach) would become their most successful album (topping the Billboard album chart for four non-consecutive weeks in 1975), and with a little help from the main single from that album (Balin's "Miracles", which hit no.3 in the charts) they became more commercially successful than Music/JeffersonAirplane ever were.

Despite its numerous links to the Airplane, Jefferson Starship originated with the experimental albums "Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun" (credited to Kantner, Slick and latter-day Airplane singer David Freiberg) and "Manhole" (labelled as a Grace Slick solo album), both of which were primarily the handiwork of Kantner and Slick (then cohabiting and engaged in a relationship) alongside a rotating pool of musicians (including several former Airplane personnel). Following the low sales with which the costly "Manhole" was met, record corporation RCA threatened to drop the couple from its label, compelling them to regroup (alongside the people mentioned above) and form a new band wielding a more commercially-viable sound. The resulting album, 1974's "Dragon Fly", was a ProgressiveRock-influenced sprawl of spacey rock, producing two hits (the hard-rocking album opener "Ride the Tiger" and the early power ballad "Caroline", the latter written and sung by former Airplane founder and frontman Marty Balin in a guest capacity). Partially due to the success of "Caroline", Balin became a full-time member of Jefferson Starship in 1975 (five years following his departure from the Airplane). The group's second album, the polished soft-rock-based ''Red Octopus'' (their final work to feature Creach) would become their most successful album (topping the Billboard album chart for four non-consecutive weeks in 1975), and with a little help from the main single from that album (Balin's "Miracles", which hit no.3 in the charts) they became more commercially successful than Music/JeffersonAirplane ever were.

'''Jefferson Starship''' (named after the ad-hoc supergroup that played on Paul Kantner's UsefulNotes/{{Hugo|Award}}-nominated science-fiction concept album ''Music/BlowsAgainstTheEmpire'') is an American soft rock and, later, ArenaRock band formed in 1974. It is the noticeably more commercially-oriented SpiritualSuccessor to Music/JeffersonAirplane, which had broken up two years earlier, and initially featured Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, David Freiberg, Papa John Creach and [[Music/TheTurtles John Barbata]] from its predecessor's final lineup. Other founding members include teenage guitarist Craig Chaquico (previously a frequent guest on Kantner's solo albums) and bassist/guitarist Peter Kaukonen, the brother of Jorma from Music/JeffersonAirplane (Peter Kaukonen was gone after their first tour, replaced by British session man Pete Sears, who had featured on Grace Slick's solo album ''Manhole''). Despite its numerous links to the Airplane, Jefferson Starship originated with the experimental albums "Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun" (credited to Kantner, Slick and latter-day Airplane singer David Freiberg) and "Manhole" (labelled as a Grace Slick solo album), both of which were primarily the handiwork of Kantner and Slick (then cohabiting and engaged in a relationship) alongside a rotating pool of musicians (including several former Airplane personnel). Following the low sales with which the costly "Manhole" was met, record corporation RCA threatened to drop the couple from its label, compelling them to regroup (alongside the people mentioned above) and form a new band wielding a more commercially-viable sound. The resulting album, 1974's "Dragon Fly", was a ProgressiveRock-influenced sprawl of spacey rock, producing two hits (the hard-rocking album opener "Ride the Tiger" and the early power ballad "Caroline", the latter written and sung by former Airplane founder and frontman Marty Balin in a guest capacity). Partially due to the success of "Caroline", Balin became a full-time member of Jefferson Starship in 1975 (five years following his departure from the Airplane). The group's second album, the polished soft-rock-based ''Red Octopus'' (their final work to feature Creach) would become their most successful album (topping the Billboard album chart for four non-consecutive weeks in 1975), and with a little help from the main single from that album (Balin's "Miracles", which hit no.3 in the charts) they became more commercially successful than Music/JeffersonAirplane ever were.

'''Jefferson Starship''' (named after the ad-hoc supergroup that played on Paul Kantner's UsefulNotes/{{Hugo|Award}}-nominated science-fiction concept album ''Music/BlowsAgainstTheEmpire'') is an American soft rock and, later, ArenaRock band formed in 1974. It is the noticeably more commercially-oriented SpiritualSuccessor to Music/JeffersonAirplane, which had broken up two years earlier, and initially featured Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, David Freiberg, Papa John Creach and [[Music/TheTurtles John Barbata]] from its predecessor's final lineup. Other founding members include teenage guitarist Craig Chaquico (previously a frequent guest on Kantner's solo albums) and bassist/guitarist Peter Kaukonen, the brother of Jorma from Music/JeffersonAirplane (Peter Kaukonen was gone after their first tour, replaced by British session man Pete Sears, who had featured on Grace Slick's solo album ''Manhole''). Jefferson Airplane founder and frontman Marty Balin, having left the Airplane in 1970, officially joined Jefferson Starship shortly after the release of their debut album ''Dragon Fly'' from 1974. Their second album, the polished soft-rock-based ''Red Octopus'' (their final work to feature Creach) would become their most successful album (topping the Billboard album chart for four non-consecutive weeks in 1975), and with a little help from the main single from that album ("Miracles", which hit no.3 in the charts) they became more commercially successful than Music/JeffersonAirplane ever were.

While the group's next (primarily Balin-helmed) two albums, ''Spitfire'' and ''Earth'', cemented the Starship's commercial success further, this popularity was not to last. In 1978, Slick was asked to resign due to her out-of-control alcoholism and a disastrous concert in Hamburg. Then came the Star Wars Holiday Special, and not long after that, both Balin (due to creative burnout) and John Barbata (due to sustaining near-fatal injuries in a road accident) exited, leaving Kantner the sole remaining founding member of the Airplane to persist in the group. The following year, vocalist Mickey Thomas joined the band to fill both Slick and Balin's roles and subsequently became the effective leader of the group in the 80's. Simultaneously, Barbata was replaced by famous British session drummer (and former Music/{{Journey}} member) Aynsley Dunbar, with Thomas' Elvin Bishop Band alumnus Donny Baldwin succeeding him in 1982. Through these new additions, the group revamped itself into a commercial hard-rock band reminiscent of contemporaries Music/{{Boston}} and Music/{{Toto}}, although Kantner's more esoteric and Airplane-flavored political anthems would continue to persist on their albums deep into the Reagan era. By 1981, Grace Slick was back, but all of these line-up changes took its toll on the band: numerous younger members advocated to fully modernize the band's sound, whereas Kantner adamantly persisted with his more '60s-inspired stylings, which both these bandmates and the group's producers increasingly viewed as anachronistic and commercially unviable. These conflicts attained a peak during production of "Nuclear Furniture" in 1984, prompting Kantner to depart shortly following the album's completion. He would subsequently sue the remaining members over their continued use of the band's name; ultimately, the case was settled under the condition that the group would cease use of the "Jefferson" moniker going forward. Lacking one of its primary creative forces and with only a single prominent member of Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick) remaining, the group was thus reborn as the infamous Music/{{Starship}}.

'''Jefferson Starship''' (named after the ad-hoc supergroup that played on Paul Kantner's UsefulNotes/{{Hugo|Award}}-nominated science-fiction concept album ''Music/BlowsAgainstTheEmpire'') is an American soft rock and, later, ArenaRock band formed in 1974. It is the noticeably more commercially-oriented SpiritualSuccessor to Music/JeffersonAirplane, which had broken up two years earlier, and initially featured Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, David Freiberg, Papa John Creach and [[Music/TheTurtles John Barbata]] from its predecessor's final lineup. Other founding members include teenage guitarist Craig Chaquico (previously a frequent guest on Kantner's solo albums) and bassist/guitarist Peter Kaukonen, the brother of Jorma from Music/JeffersonAirplane (Peter Kaukonen was gone after their first tour, replaced by the British Pete Sears). Jefferson Airplane founder and frontman Marty Balin, having left the Airplane in 1970, officially joined Jefferson Starship shortly after the release of their debut album ''Dragon Fly'' from 1974. Their second album, the polished soft-rock-based ''Red Octopus'' (their final work to feature Creach) would become their most successful album (topping the Billboard album chart for four non-consecutive weeks in 1975), and with a little help from the main single from that album ("Miracles", which hit no.3 in the charts) they became more commercially successful than Music/JeffersonAirplane ever were.

'''Jefferson Starship''' (named after the ad-hoc supergroup that played on Paul Kantner's UsefulNotes/{{Hugo|Award}}-nominated science-fiction concept album ''Music/BlowsAgainstTheEmpire'') is an American soft rock and, later, ArenaRock band formed in 1974. It is the noticeably more commercially-oriented SpiritualSuccessor to Music/JeffersonAirplane, which had broken up two years earlier, and initially featured Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, David Freiberg, Papa John Creach and [[Music/TheTurtles John Barbata]] from its predecessor's final lineup. Other founding members include teenage guitarist Craig Chaquico (previously a frequent guest on Kantner's solo albums) and bassist/guitarist Peter Kaukonen, the brother of Jorma from Music/JeffersonAirplane (Peter Kaukonen was gone after their first tour, replaced by the British Pete Sears). Jefferson Airplane founder and frontman Marty Balin, having left the Airplane in 1970, officially joined Jefferson Starship shortly after the release of their debut album ''Dragon Fly'' from 1974. Their second album, the polished soft-rock-based ''Red Octopus'' (their final work to feature Creach) would become their most successful album, and with a little help from the main single from that album ("Miracles", which hit no.3 in the charts) they became more commercially successful than Music/JeffersonAirplane ever were.

'''Jefferson Starship''' (named after the ad-hoc supergroup that played on Paul Kantner's UsefulNotes/{{Hugo|Award}}-nominated science-fiction concept album ''Music/BlowsAgainstTheEmpire'') is an American soft rock and, later, ArenaRock band formed in 1974. It is the noticeably more commercially-oriented SpiritualSuccessor to Music/JeffersonAirplane, which had broken up two years earlier, and initially featured Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, David Freiberg, Papa John Creach and [[Music/TheTurtles John Barbata]] from its predecessor's final lineup. Other founding members include teenage guitarist Craig Chaquico (previously a frequent guest on Kantner's solo albums) and bassist/guitarist Peter Kaukonen, the brother of Jorma from Music/JeffersonAirplane (Peter Kaukonen was gone after their first tour, replaced by the British Pete Sears). Jefferson Airplane founder and frontman Marty Balin, having left the Airplane in 1970, officially joined Jefferson Starship shortly after the release of their debut album ''Dragon Fly'' from 1974. Their second album, the polished soft-rock-based ''Red Octopus'' (their final work to feature Creach) would become their most successful album, and with a little help from the main single from that album ("Miracles", which hit no.3 in the charts) they became more commercially successful than Music/JeffersonAirplane ever were. However, today they're probably best remembered as, "That band that showed up in ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial''".

Called "hard to get by", it's real name!\\
Makin' it believe that you just don't...\\
Feel the same!\\

-->- ''"Jane"''

That's not the end of the story for Jefferson Starship though. Paul Kantner re-formed Jefferson Starship in 1992, and for the first few years they used the name "The Next Generation" next to Jefferson Starship (a reference to [[Series/StartrekThenextgeneration Star Trek: The Next Generation]]). They eventually dropped that, but they remain active today, mainly as a touring act. The revived band has featured a multitude of rotating personnel from the original group, among them Marty Balin, Papa John Creach (until his death in 1994) and, more recently, David Freiberg and Donny Baldwin, with Grace Slick contributing vocals on a small number of occasions. For a period in the mid-late '90s, the band's lineup likewise featured iconic Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady; resultantly, the track "I'm on Fire" (hailing from the revived group's first album, ''Windows of Heaven''), through featuring Balin, Kantner, Casady and a guest vocal from Slick, reunited a higher percentage of Jefferson Airplane's most iconic lineup than the original Jefferson Starship ever did. Kantner remarked of the band: 'I'm working on erasing the bad history of Jefferson Starship, in the '80s when it went bad. I had to leave the band, it got so bad. I'm usually the last one at the party, as a general rule'. They released two studio albums (the aforementioned ''Windows'' in 1998 and ''Jefferson's Tree Of Liberty'' in 2008) and several live albums before Kantner died from multiple organ failure and septic shock following a heart attack in 2016.

* '''[[Music/TheTurtles John Barbata]]''' - drums, percussion, backing and lead vocals, congas (1974-1979)

* ControlFreak: Mickey Thomas by all accounts.

* '''[[Music/JeffersonAirplane Grace Slick]]''' - lead vocals, piano (1974-1978, 1981-1984)

* IAmTheBand: This is very much so for Paul Kantner, the only member to be a part of every incarnation, until his death in 2016.

* TheSeventies: Jefferson Starship successfully morphed into an ArenaRock group along the lines of {{Music/Toto}} (as a matter of fact, their hit song "Jane" was accused of aping Toto's single "Hold The Line", right down to the piano triplets).

'''Jefferson Starship''' (named after the ad-hoc supergroup that played on Paul Kantner's UsefulNotes/{{Hugo|Award}}-nominated science-fiction concept album ''Music/BlowsAgainstTheEmpire'') is an American soft rock and, later, ArenaRock band formed in 1974. It is the noticeably more commercially-oriented SpiritualSuccessor to Music/JeffersonAirplane, which had broken up two years earlier and featured Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, David Freiberg, Papa John Creach and [[Music/TheTurtles John Barbata]] from its predecessor's final lineup. Other founding members include teenage guitarist Craig Chaquico and bassist/guitarist Peter Kaukonen, the brother of Jorma from Music/JeffersonAirplane (Peter Kaukonen was gone after their first tour, replaced by the British Pete Sears). Jefferson Airplane founder and frontman Marty Balin, having left the Airplane in 1970, officially joined Jefferson Starship shortly after the release of their debut album ''Dragon Fly'' from 1974. Their second album, the polished soft-rock-based ''Red Octopus'' (their final work to feature Creach) would become their most successful album, and with a little help from the main single from that album ("Miracles", which hit no.3 in the charts) they became more commercially successful than Music/JeffersonAirplane ever were. However, today they're probably best remembered as, "That band that showed up in ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial''".

While the group's next (primarily Balin-helmed) two albums, ''Spitfire'' and ''Earth'', cemented the Starship's commercial success further, this popularity was not to last. In 1978, Slick was asked to resign due to her out-of-control alcoholism and a disastrous concert in Hamburg. Then came the Star Wars Holiday Special, and not long after that, both Balin (due to creative burnout) and John Barbata (due to sustaining near-fatal injuries in a road accident) exited, leaving Kantner the sole remaining founding member of the Airplane to persist in the group. The following year, lead vocalist Mickey Thomas joined the band to fill both Slick and Balin's roles and subsequently became the effective leader of the group in the 80's. Simultaneously, Barbata was replaced by famous British session drummer Aynsley Dunbar, with Thomas' former alumnus Donny Baldwin succeeding him in 1982. Through these new additions, the group revamped itself into a commercial hard-rock band reminiscent of contemporaries Music/{{Boston}} and Music/{{Toto}}, although Kantner's more esoteric and Airplane-flavored political anthems would continue to persist on their albums deep into the Reagan era. By 1981, Grace Slick was back, but all of these line-up changes took its toll on the band: numerous younger members advocated to fully modernize the band's sound, whereas Kantner adamantly persisted with his more '60s-inspired stylings, which both these bandmates and the group's producers increasingly viewed as anachronistic and commercially unviable. These conflicts attained a peak during production of "Nuclear Furniture" in 1984, prompting Kantner to depart shortly following the album's completion. He would subsequently sue the remaining members over their continued use of the band's name; ultimately, the case was settled under the condition that the group would cease use of the "Jefferson" moniker going forward. Lacking one of its primary creative forces and with only a single prominent member of Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick) remaining, the group was thus reborn as the infamous Music/{{Starship}}.

That's not the end of the story for Jefferson Starship though. Paul Kantner re-formed Jefferson Starship in 1992, and for the first few years they used the name "The Next Generation" next to Jefferson Starship (a reference to [[Series/StartrekThenextgeneration Star Trek: The Next Generation]]). They eventually dropped that, but they remain active today, mainly as a touring act. The revived band has featured a multitude of rotating personnel from the original group, among them Marty Balin, Papa John Creach (until his death in 1995) and, more recently, David Freiberg and Donny Baldwin, with Grace Slick contributing vocals on a small number of occasions. For a period in the mid-late '90s, the band's lineup likewise featured iconic Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady; resultantly, the track "I'm on Fire" (hailing from the revived group's first album, ''Windows of Heaven''), through featuring Balin, Kantner, Casady and a guest vocal from Slick, reunited a higher percentage of Jefferson Airplane's most iconic lineup than the original Jefferson Starship ever did. Kantner remarked of the band: 'I'm working on erasing the bad history of Jefferson Starship, in the '80s when it went bad. I had to leave the band, it got so bad. I'm usually the last one at the party, as a general rule'. They released two studio albums (the aforementioned ''Windows'' in 1998 and ''Jefferson's Tree Of Liberty'' in 2008) and several live albums before Kantner died from multiple organ failure and septic shock following a heart attack in 2016.