Grace Slick, Jefferson Airplane, Woodstock Festival 1969
Notable songs
that Grace Slick recorded with Jefferson Airplane/Starship include "White
Rabbit" (which she supposedly wrote in 30 minutes),
"Somebody
to Love", "We
Built This City", "Lather,"
and "Nothing's
Gonna Stop Us Now". The songs "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit
" appeared on Rolling Stone's top 500 greatest songs of all time.
Like Joplin,
Slick's uncompromising persona and powerful voice helped to open up new
modes of expression for female performers, giving a new legitimacy to the
role of the female lead singer in the male-dominated world of rock music.
She was friends with Janis, Jerry Garcia and Jim Morrison. She has
one daughter, born in 1971. China's father is former Jefferson Airplane
guitarist Paul
Kantner, with whom Grace had a relationship from 1969 through 1975.
She sarcastically told a hospital nurse to name the child "god"
with a little "g" causing anxt among the staff.
Slick left Starship and rock 'n roll in 1988 at age 48 because she
believed that old rock and rollers look ridiculous.
Grace released her 1998 autobiography, " Grace Slick: Somebody to Love? A Rock and Roll Memoir" . She was dubbed "The Chrome Nun" and had several minor run-ins with the law which she then translated into hit albums. For example, (1971) she was charged with driving under the influence after crashing her Mercedes into a wall near the Golden Gate Bridge while racing with Jorma Kaukonen. She suffered only a concussion, and later used the incident as the basis of her "Never Argue with a German if You're Tired or European Song", which appears on the "Bark" album. Slick had publicly acknowledged her alcoholism and commented on her use of LSD.
In 2006, Grace suffered from diverticulitis. After initial surgery, she had a relapse requiring further surgery and a tracheotomy. She was placed in an induced coma for two months and then had to learn to walk again.
