Last time former Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship lead singer Grace Slick discussed the Monterey Pop Festival, her relationship with former band mates Marty Balin and Mickey Thomas, a dislike of Elvis Presley but enthusiasm for the British invasion and her aversion to playing rock music after the age of 50. Here, the 1996 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee opines about Jimi Hendrix and substance abuse, and an early career in modeling, among other things.
Jim Clash: Before you were a singer, you modeled. Did that experience help on stage?
Grace Slick: No, it’s completely different. I modeled at a place called I. Magnin Department Stores in San Francisco. I don’t think it’s there anymore. I was on the third floor, the couture department, wearing $10,000 dresses. You wear one, wander around. All the rich people come up and feel the material, ask how much it is, and then you go change. It wasn’t like runway modeling. There’s New York, Los Angeles, London, Rome -- but San Francisco's not a big modeling town.
Jefferson Airplane lead singer Grace Slick says she never shot heroin, mainly because she was too... [+]
JC: When did you make the switch to music?
GS: I went to see Jefferson Airplane play and I thought, ‘Gee, that’s way better. I could do that.’ My mom was a singer. They only have to work a couple of hours a night, can drink and hang out and hustle people. So I stopped modeling and formed a group with my husband [Jerry Slick] and his brother [Darby] called The Great Society. We would open for the Airplane. It was way more interesting to sing rock and roll than to wander around changing clothes every 10 minutes.
JC: You played at music festivals with Jimi Hendrix. Your thoughts on him so many years later?
GS: He probably represents as an individual the sixties more than anybody else If you’re talking about rock and roll. The Beatles and the [Rolling] Stones may represent it as bands. Obviously Martin Luther King and JFK represent the sixties overall, but if you’re talking about rock probably Jimi is the guy. The color, the clothes, the fact that he flipped from being for the war in Vietnam to against it within a year, his music, his stunning guitar playing, his showmanship.
JC: We lost him, of course, to substance abuse.
GS: Janis [Joplin], Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. They’ve written books about the drama, about how suicidal, miserable and haunted by demons they were. Okay, we all have little problems but trust me, when you're in your 20s, you took as many drugs as possible, that was the deal. You could screw anybody you wanted because we didn’t have AIDS then, and you were getting paid to travel around the world to make music. Trust me, you’re not suicidal. We were taking drugs for fun, mainly. We wanted to test: How do you feel when you do this? Ooh, that’s interesting. LSD, oh, that’s nice. I want to relax.
JC: How about harder drugs like heroin?
GS: Taking fun drugs is hardball entertainment. You’ve got to know that going in. Taking harder drugs – and I’m talking about the stuff that doctors give you as well – is a crapshoot. Heroin is especially tough because the amounts are so small you think you’ll just have a little more. Well, just a little more will kill you. I never took heroin, really because I’m too lazy. God kind of saved me there. It’s too much trouble. You need a dealer, and he may not be home. You have to tie off your arm. You have to hit a vein. The doctors can’t even hit a vein on me. My veins are way too deep. I snorted heroin once, but didn’t get any feeling from it. I thought, 'Okay, I don’t need that.'
JC: What about drinking? There was a lot of that back then, too.
GS: Alcohol’s a lot easier because it’s legal, and in the state of California liquor stores open at 6 a.m. and close at 2 a.m. Between two and six is a little rough, but if you stock up, you’re okay. Alcohol is a slow process. First your wife gets mad, maybe you lose your job, and then it takes years unless it’s an automobile accident. One of the main reasons I don’t do it anymore is hangovers - just too painful! The older you get, your body is not as able to handle that kind of stuff. I’d probably kill myself now if I were still drinking.
(Editor’s Note: To read part one of this interview, click here)
