Jefferson Airplane co-founder Paul Kantner dies at age 74

Jefferson were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and their performance at the ceremony was the first time original members Marty Balin, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, Spencer Dryden and Kantner had played together since 1970.

“Paul was a key architect in the development of what became known as the San Francisco Sound”, Neil Portnow, president and CEO of the Recording Academy, the organization in charge of the Grammy Awards, said in a statement.

The San Francisco native co-founded the psychedelic rock outfit best remembered for classic songs like “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit“, sung by the dynamic Grace Slick. He was also a political anarchist who openly used psychedelic drugs, including LSD, during Jefferson Airplane’s rise, but he swore them off in the ’70s.

Jefferson Starships’ Paul Kantner performs in NY in 2001. Kantner quit the group in 1984, but would rejoin in 1992 and continue to play with them until his death. Kantner wrote music and lyrics for the more direct and detailed B-side, We Can Be Together, which declared, “We are all outlaws in the eyes of America…” He had suffered a previous heart attack in March 2015.

The band split in 1972 and Kantner and Slick led a reconstituted lineup as Jefferson Starship. The first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, was released in October 1966.

By the early ’70s, the Airplane were on the verge of a break up and Kantner released a solo concept album with Grace Slick, singer of Jefferson Airplane, called Blows Against the Empire. It went on to reach platinum heights with the mid-’70s albums “Red Octopus”, “Spitfire” and “Earth“.

After a legal battle over the rights to the name, his bandmates regrouped as Starship and enjoyed global hits with We Built This City, Sara and Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now. He dropped out of college to pursue a career in folk music and became friendly with Crosby and future Starship member David Freiberg, spending days and nights on the beach, strumming guitars and indulging in Crosby’s premium stash of marijuana. The band scored two Top 40 hits in 1967, “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit“. He was aged 74.