Grace Slick

Grace Slick

Slick circa 1970
Background information
Birth name Grace Barnett Wing
Also known as Gracie, The Acid Queen, The Chrome Nun
Born (1939-10-30) October 30, 1939
Highland Park, Illinois, U.S.
Genres Psychedelic rock, acid rock, hard rock, blues rock, pop
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, visual artist
Instruments Vocals, keyboards, guitar, bass, oboe, flute, harmonica, clarinet
Years active 1964–1990 (music), 1998–present (visual arts)
Labels RCA
Associated acts Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, Starship, The Great Society
Website Grace Slick paintings

Grace Barnett Slick (née Wing; born October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, artist and former model, widely known as the first female diva in rock and roll history and a searing voice in the mid-1960's San Francisco psychedelic renaissance. Her iconic career spanned all or parts of four decades, most notably with the ground-breaking Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship and Starship band. She started with The Great Society and also had stints as a solo performer.

Biography

Early life

Grace Barnett Wing was born October 30, 1939, in Highland Park, Illinois, to Ivan W. Wing (1907–1987), of Norwegian and Swedish descent, and Virginia (née Barnett; 1910-1984), a lineal descendant of passengers of the Mayflower.[1] In 1949 her brother Chris was born.[2] Her father, working in the investment banking sector for Weeden and Company, was transferred several times when she was a child and, in addition to the Chicago area, she lived in Los Angeles and San Francisco, before her family finally settled in Palo Alto, California, south of San Francisco, in the early 1950s.[3]

Wing attended Palo Alto Senior High School before switching to Castilleja High School, a private all-girls school in Palo Alto. Following graduation, she attended Finch College in New York City from 1957 to 1958, and the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, from 1958 to 1959. On August 26, 1961, Wing married Gerald "Jerry" Slick, an aspiring filmmaker, and after the couple briefly moved away from San Francisco, Grace Slick worked as a model at an I. Magnin department store for three years. Slick also started composing music, including a contribution to a short film by Jerry Slick.[3][4]

The Great Society

The Great Society in 1965. Grace is carried by her then husband, Jerry Slick. His brother, Darby, is at right.

In August 1965, Slick read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle pertaining to the newly formed Jefferson Airplane. Despite being situated in the growing musical center of San Francisco, Slick only half-heartedly considered it for a profession until she watched the band live at The Matrix.[5] As a result, Slick (vocals, guitar), accompanied by Jerry Slick (drums), Jerry's brother, Darby Slick (lead guitar), and David Miner (bass guitar) formed a group called The Great Society, a play on the social reform program of the same name. On October 15, 1965, the band made its debut performance at a venue known as the Coffee Gallery, and soon after Slick composed the psychedelic piece, White Rabbit.[3] The song, a reflection on the hallucinatory effects of psychedelic drugs, when performed live, featured a speedier tempo, and was an instant favorite among the band's followers.[6] Although Slick was an equal contributor to The Great Society's original material, it was Darby Slick who pushed the band toward becoming a raga-influenced psychedelic act. By late 1965, they had become a popular attraction in the Bay Area. Between October and December 1965, The Great Society entered Golden Studios, and recorded several tracks under the supervision of Sylvester Stewart. One single emerged from the demos, the Darby Slick-penned "Someone to Love" on the locally based Autumn Records label. Grace Slick supplied vocals, guitar, piano and recorder.[7][8]

Jefferson Airplane

That autumn Jefferson Airplane's singer Signe Toly Anderson left the band to raise her child, and Jack Casady asked Slick to join them. Slick stated that she joined the Airplane because it was run in a professional manner, unlike The Great Society. She took two compositions from The Great Society with her: White Rabbit, which she is purported to have written in an hour,[9] and Somebody to Love, both of which became hits and appear on Rolling Stone's top 500 greatest songs of all time. Though both songs were first performed by The Great Society, their versions of the songs were quite different; the Great Society's rendering of "White Rabbit" featured an oboe solo by Slick.

With Slick on board, the Airplane began recording new music, and they turned in a psychedelic direction from their former folk-rock style. By 1967, Surrealistic Pillow and the singles taken from it were great successes, and Jefferson Airplane became one of the most popular bands in the country. Slick earned a position as one of the most prominent female rock musicians of her time. Other songs she recorded with Jefferson Airplane include Two Heads, Lather, and Greasy Heart. In 1968, Slick performed Crown of Creation on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in blackface and ended the performance with a Black Panther fist.[10] In an appearance on a 1969 episode of the Dick Cavett Show, she became the first person to say "motherfucker" on live television during a performance of "We Can Be Together" by Jefferson Airplane.[11]

Jefferson Starship

Slick in 1976
Slick and Kantner with Jefferson Starship

After Jefferson Airplane terminated, Slick formed Jefferson Starship along with other bandmates and also began a string of solo albums with Manhole, followed by Dreams, Software, and Welcome to the Wrecking Ball. Manhole also featured keyboardist/bassist Pete Sears who later joined the original Jefferson Starship in 1974. Sears and Slick penned several early Jefferson Starship songs together, including Hyperdrive and Play On Love. Dreams, which was produced by Ron Frangipane and incorporated many of the ideas she encountered attending 12-step program meetings, is the most personal of her solo albums and was nominated for a Grammy Award. The song "Do It the Hard Way" from Dreams is one example of Slick's music at the time.[12]

Slick was nicknamed "The Chrome Nun" by David Crosby, who also used the nickname "Baron von Tollbooth" for Paul Kantner. Their nicknames appear as the title of an album she made with bandmates Paul Kantner and David Freiberg: Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun.

Starship

During the 1980s, while Slick was the only former Jefferson Airplane member in Starship, the band went on to score three chart-topping successes with We Built This City, Sara, and Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now. Despite the success, Slick since has spoken negatively about the experience and the music.[13] She left the group again in 1988, shortly after the release of No Protection. In 1989 Slick, and her former Jefferson Airplane band members reformed the group, released a reunion album, and made a successful tour.[14]

Retirement

Slick left Starship during 1988. After a brief Jefferson Airplane reunion and tour the following year, she retired from the music business. During a 1998 interview with VH1 on a Behind the Music documentary featuring Jefferson Airplane, Slick, who was never shy about the idea of getting old, said that the main reason she retired from the music business was that "All rock-and-rollers over the age of 50 look stupid and should retire." In a 2007 interview, she repeated her belief that, "You can do jazz, classical, blues, opera, country until you're 150, but rap and rock and roll are really a way for young people to get that anger out," and, "It's silly to perform a song that has no relevance to the present or expresses feelings you no longer have."

Despite her retirement, Slick has appeared a couple of times over the years with Paul Kantner's revamped version of Jefferson Starship when the band played in Los Angeles. The most recent appearance was during a post-9/11 gig during which she came on the stage initially covered in black from head to toe in a makeshift burqa. She then removed the burqa to reveal a covering bearing an American flag and the words No Fear. Her statement to fans on the outfit was: "The outfit is not about Islam, it's about repression; this flag is not about politics, it's about liberty."[15]

After retiring from music, Slick began painting and drawing. She has done many renditions of her fellow 1960s musicians, such as Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia, and others. In 2000, she began displaying and selling her artwork. She attends many of her art shows across the United States. She has generally refrained from engaging in the music business, although she did perform on Knock Me Out, a track from In Flight, the 1996 solo debut from former 4 Non Blondes singer, and friend of daughter China, Linda Perry. The song was also on the soundtrack to the film The Crow: City of Angels.

In a 2001 USA Today article, Slick said, "I'm in good health and people want to know what I do to be this way ... I don't eat cheese, I don't eat duck—the point is I'm vegan." However, she admitted she's "not strict vegan, because I'm a hedonist pig. If I see a big chocolate cake that is made with eggs, I'll have it."[16] Slick released her autobiography, Somebody to Love? A Rock and Roll Memoir, in 1998 and narrated an abridged version of the book as an audiobook. A biography, Grace Slick, The Biography, by Barbara Rowes, was released in 1980 and is currently out of print.

In 2006, Slick 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.[17]

Also in 2006, Slick gave a speech at the inauguration of the new Virgin America airline, which named their first aircraft Jefferson Airplane.[18][19] In 2008, Slick contributed vocals to the hidden track (actually a previously unreleased 1970 outtake featuring Slick, Paul Kantner and Jack Traylor) of the latest Jefferson Starship release, Jefferson's Tree of Liberty.[20] In 2010, Slick co-wrote Edge of Madness with singer Michelle Mangione to raise money for remediation efforts following the BP Oil Spill.[21]

Personal life

Slick has been married twice—to Gerald "Jerry" Slick, a cinematographer, from 1961 to 1971, then to Skip Johnson, a Jefferson Starship lighting designer, from 1976 to 1994. She has one child—a daughter, China Wing Kantner (born January 25, 1971).[22][23] China's father is the former Jefferson Airplane guitarist Paul Kantner, with whom Slick had a relationship from 1969 to 1975.

During her hospital stay after China's birth, Slick joked to one of the attending nurses that she intended to name the child "god" with a lowercase g, as she "wished for the child to be humble." The nurse took Slick seriously, and her report of the incident caused a minor stir,[24][25] as well as the creation of a rock-and-roll urban legend.[26]

Slick publicly has acknowledged her alcoholism, discussed her rehabilitation experiences, and commented on her use of LSD, marijuana and other substances in her autobiography, various interviews and several celebrity addiction and recovery books including The Courage to Change by Dennis Wholey and The Harder They Fall by Gary Stromberg and Jane Merrill. During Jefferson Starship's 1978 European tour, Slick's alcoholism became a problem for the band. The group had to cancel the first night in Germany because she was too intoxicated to perform, causing the audience to riot. Slick performed the next night with the band but was so inebriated she could not sing properly. She also attacked the audience, mocking Germany for losing World War II, and groping both female audience members and band mates.[27] The next day, she left the group. That same year, Slick was dragged off a San Francisco game show for abusing the contestants.[28] She was admitted to a detoxification facility at least twice, once during the 1970s at Duffy's in Napa Valley,[29] and once in the 1990s with daughter China.[30]

Incidents

Slick and Tricia Nixon, former President Richard Nixon's daughter, are alumnae of Finch College. Slick was invited to a tea party for the alumnae at the White House in 1969. She invited political activist Abbie Hoffman to be her escort and planned to spike President Richard Nixon's tea with 600 micrograms of LSD. The plan was thwarted when they were prevented from entering after being recognized by White House security personnel, as Slick had been placed on an FBI blacklist. Slick later speculated that she only received the invitation because it was addressed to "Grace Wing" (the singer's maiden name), and that she never would have been invited if the Nixons had known that "Grace Wing" was the anti-establishment singer Grace Slick.[31]

In 1971, after a long recording session, Slick crashed her car into a wall near the Golden Gate Bridge while racing with Jorma Kaukonen.[32] She suffered a concussion and later used the incident as the basis of her song Never Argue with a German if You're Tired (or 'European Song'), which appears on the Bark album (1971).[33]

While Slick had troubles with the law while performing as a part of Jefferson Airplane, she was arrested at least four times for what she has referred to as "TUI" ("Talking Under the Influence") and "Drunk Mouth."[34]

The first arrest occurred after an argument in the car with then-partner Paul Kantner, who became tired of bickering, pulled the car keys from the ignition, and tossed them through the car window onto someone's front lawn. While Slick crawled around on the lawn looking for the keys, a police officer arrived and asked what was happening.

Another incident occurred after an officer encountered her sitting against a tree trunk in the backwoods of Marin County drinking wine, eating bread, and reading poetry. When the officer asked what she was doing, her sarcastic response got her another ride to the Marin County jail.[35]

The singer was also reportedly arrested in 1994 for assault with a deadly weapon after pointing an unloaded gun at a police officer. She alleged that the officer had come onto her property without explanation.[36]

Visual art

Grace Slick in 2008

After retiring, and after a house fire, divorce, and breakup, Slick began drawing and painting animals, mainly to amuse herself and because doing so made her happy during a difficult period in her life.[37] Soon thereafter, she was approached about writing her memoir, which ultimately became Somebody to Love? A Rock-and-Roll Memoir. Her agent saw her artwork and asked her to do some portraits of some of her various contemporaries from the rock-and-roll genre to be included in the autobiography. Hesitant at first (because she thought “it was way too cute. Rock-n-Roll draws Rock-n-Roll”), she eventually agreed because she found she enjoyed it, and color renditions of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jerry Garcia appeared in the completed autobiography.[38][39] An “Alice in Wonderland”-themed painting and various other sketches are scattered throughout the book. Her paintings of Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady were used for the cover art of the album The Best of Hot Tuna. Though Slick has been drawing and painting since she was a child, she admits to not being able to multitask and therefore did not do much of it while she was focusing on her musical career.[39] A notable exception is the cover art of her first solo album, Manhole, which she signed "Child Type Odd Art by Grace."

Slick is not bound by any specific style or medium in her production of visual art and has no interest in developing one.[40] She uses acrylic paints (she says oil takes too long to dry), canvas, pen, ink, scratchboard, pastels, and pencil. Many of her works are mixed media. Her styles range from the children’s bookish “Alice in Wonderland” themes to the realism of the rock and roll portraits and scratchboards of animals to the minimalist ink wash styled nudes to a variety of other subjects and styles.[41]

The best-selling prints and originals are her various renditions of the white rabbit and the portraits of her colleagues in the music industry.[42] In 2006, the popularity of her “Alice in Wonderland” works led to a partnership with Dark Horse Comics, Inc. that resulted in the release of stationery and journals with the “Wonderland” motif.[43]

While critics have variously panned and praised her work, Slick seems indifferent to the criticism.[44] She views her visual artistry as just another extension of the artistic temperament that landed her in the music scene in the first place, as it allows her to continue to produce art in a way that does not require the physical demands of appearing on a stage nightly or traveling with a large group of people.[38][39]

Slick attends many of her art gallery shows across the United States, sometimes attending over 30 shows in a year. While she says she enjoys talking with the people who come to her art shows, she is not a fan of the traveling involved, particularly the flying.[38] At most of her art shows, those who purchase a piece of her art get a photo with Slick, an opportunity to chat, and a personalized autograph on the back of the piece that has been purchased.

Legacy

Slick was one of the first female rock stars, alongside her close contemporary Janis Joplin, and therefore an important figure in the development of rock music in the late 1960s. Her distinctive vocal style and striking stage presence exerted influence on other female performers including Stevie Nicks[45] and Patti Smith.[46]

Slick's longevity in the music business helped her to earn a rather unusual distinction; the oldest female vocalist on a Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping single. "We Built This City" reached no. 1 on November 16, 1985, shortly after her 46th birthday. The previous record was age 44 for Tina Turner, with 1984's no. 1 smash, What's Love Got To Do With It. Turner (who is one month younger than Slick) turned 45 two months after the song topped the charts. Slick broke her own record in April 1987 at age 47 when Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now topped the U.S. charts. Her record stood for 12 years but was ultimately broken by Cher, who was 53 in 1999 when Believe hit no. 1.

Slick did vocals for a piece known as Jazz Numbers, a series of animated shorts about the numbers 2 through 10 (a no. 1 short was never made), which aired on Sesame Street. The segment for the number two appeared in the first episode of the first season of Sesame Street, November 10, 1969. She was nominated for a Grammy award in 1981 as Best Rock Female Vocalist for her solo album Dreams.[47]

She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of Jefferson Airplane.[48]

In 1993, she narrated the Stephen King short story "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" on his Nightmares & Dreamscapes audiobook.

She was ranked no. 20 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll in 1999.[49]

Discography

with The Great Society
with Jefferson Airplane
with Jefferson Starship
with Starship
with Paul Kantner
Solo
Year Album U.S. Billboard 200 UK Albums Chart
1973 Manhole 127 -
1980 Dreams 32 28
1981 Welcome to the Wrecking Ball! 48 -
1984 Software 206 -
Guest appearances

References

  1. ↑ ""New England and Rock," Part 3: The Ancestry of Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, with an Addendum on Further New England Ancestors of the Beach Boys". Notablekin.org. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  2. ↑ Grace Slick, Barbara Rowes, Doubleday 1980, p.14
  3. 1 2 3 "Grace Slick". jeffersonairplane.com. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Grace Slick Biography". biography.com. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Grace Slick on why she went into the music business". Youtube.com. 2008-07-22. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  6. ↑ Viscounti, Tony. "1,001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die p. 201".
  7. ↑ "The Great Society". bayareabands.com. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  8. ↑ Richie Unterberger. "The Great Society - Biography". allmusic.com. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  9. ↑ Rowes, Barbara (1980). Grace Slick: The Biography. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co. pp. 40–41. ISBN 0-385-13390-1.
  10. ↑ "Crown Of Creation" (Smothers Brothers) by Jefferson Airplane on YouTube
  11. ↑ Jefferson Airplane - Dick Cavett (We Can Be Together) on YouTube
  12. ↑ Slick, Grace; Andrea Cagan (1998-09-01). Somebody to Love? A Rock-and-Roll Memoir. New York, New York: Warner Books. pp. 281–283. ISBN 978-0446523028.
  13. ↑ "At 2:34, Slick discusses her disdain towards the Starship years". Youtube.com. 2008-11-09. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  14. ↑ Pareles, Jon (August 29, 1989). "On-Again Off-Again Jefferson Airplane Is On Again". New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
  15. ↑ Susman, Gary (2001-10-04). "Sound Bytes". Ew.com. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  16. ↑ "Grace Slick rocks the world of meat". Usatoday.com. 2001-09-26. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  17. ↑ "Counterculture Meets Mall Culture for Grace Slick". Washingtonpost.com. 2007-01-13. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  18. ↑ "Virgin America Debuts First Aircraft, Jefferson Airplane, at SFO". Global News Wire. October 11, 2006. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
  19. ↑ Armstrong, David (October 11, 2006). "Virgin America plane ready to fly / Airline still awaits approval to begin service from SFO". SF Gate. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
  20. ↑ "New Jefferson Starship Album Of Formative Folk Treasures: Jefferson's Tree Of Liberty". Top40-charts.com. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  21. ↑ "The GRAMMY Museum: In the L.A. LIVE District". Grammymuseum.org. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  22. ↑ "Names In The News". Tri City Herald. January 26, 1971. Retrieved December 5, 2010.
  23. ↑ "Daughter Born To Pop Singer". The Day. January 26, 1971. Retrieved December 5, 2010.
  24. ↑ Slick, Grace; Andrea Cagan (1998-09-01). Somebody to Love? A Rock-and-Roll Memoir. New York, New York: Warner Books. pp. 207–8. ISBN 978-0446523028.
  25. ↑ "Singer says her daughter's real name is god". The Windsor Star. February 1, 1971. Retrieved December 6, 2010.
  26. ↑ "Snopes.com: God Slick". www.snopes.com. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  27. ↑ Behind The Music: Jefferson Airplane, VH1, Paramount Television, 1998.
  28. ↑ "Jefferson Airplane website". Jeffersonairplane.com. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  29. ↑ Slick, Grace; Andrea Cagan (1998-09-01). Somebody to Love? A Rock-and-Roll Memoir. New York, New York: Warner Books. pp. 274–5. ISBN 978-0446523028.
  30. ↑ Sischy, Ingrid (1988). "Grace Slick: on the 40th anniversary of the summer of love, Ingrid Sischy takes a trip down the rabbit hole with the woman who was at the red-hot center of those wild times—the one and only Grace Slick". Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  31. ↑ Slick, Grace; Andrea Cagan (1998-09-01). Somebody to Love? A Rock-and-Roll Memoir. New York, New York: Warner Books. pp. 189–94. ISBN 978-0446523028.
  32. ↑ Slick, Grace; Andrea Cagan (1998-09-01). Somebody to Love? A Rock-and-Roll Memoir. New York, New York: Warner Books. pp. 224–5. ISBN 978-0446523028.
  33. ↑ Fong-Torres, Ben (1971-09-30). Jefferson Airplane Grunts: 'Gotta Evolution'. Rolling Stone. pp. 28–30.
  34. ↑ Wholey, Dennis (1984). The Courage to Change. New York, New York: Warner Books. p. 133. ISBN 0-446-30006-3.
  35. ↑ Slick, Grace; Andrea Cagan (1998-09-01). Somebody to Love? A Rock-and-Roll Memoir. New York, New York: Warner Books. pp. 267–71. ISBN 978-0446523028.
  36. ↑ Slick, Grace; Andrea Cagan (1998-09-01). Somebody to Love? A Rock-and-Roll Memoir. New York, New York: Warner Books. pp. 340–3. ISBN 978-0446523028.
  37. ↑ "Photo of a plane dropping fire retardant on Grace Slick's home gutted by a grass fire". Star-News. September 18, 1993. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
  38. 1 2 3 "Morley View - Legends: Grace Slick". Rocknworld.com. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  39. 1 2 3 "Somebody to paint: Grace Slick on art, music, age and outrage". Billdeyoung.com. 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  40. ↑ http://www.malibusurfsidenews.com/archives/06212007.pdf
  41. ↑ "NoHo Magazine - The Art of Grace Slick". Limelightagency.com. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  42. ↑ Grooms, John (2006-11-15). "State of Grace: Rock icon Grace Slick paints her way to a new life". Charlotte.creativeloafing.com. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  43. ↑ "''White Rabbit Rides a Dark Horse'' by Grace Slick, April 26, 2006". Darkhorse.com. 2011-10-28. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  44. ↑ Curtis, Kim. "Slick trades microphone for paintbrush". Santa Rosa Democrat. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
  45. ↑ "''Stevie Nicks - Off The Record''". Nicksfix.com. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  46. ↑ "Patti Smith". Sugarbuzzmagazine.com. 2007-03-12. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  47. ↑ "Grammy Award Nominees". Awards and Shows. 1981. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
  48. ↑ Hinckley, David (19 January 1996). "This is Dedicated to the Women We Love...". New York Daily News. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
  49. ↑ "100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll (Hour 1)".

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