Paul Kantner

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Paul Lorin Kantner (March 17, 1941 – January 28, 2016) was an American rock musician.

He is best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and occasional vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, a leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture era.

He continued these roles as a member of Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Airplane's successor band. Jefferson Airplane formed in 1965 when Kantner met Marty Balin.

Kantner eventually became the leader of the group and led it through its highly successful late-1960s period.

In 1970, while still active with Jefferson Airplane, Kantner and several Bay Area musicians recorded a one-off side project, Blows Against the Empire under the name "Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship". Jefferson Airplane continued to record and perform until 1973.

Kantner revived the Jefferson Starship name in 1974 and continued to record and perform with them through 1984.

He later led a reformed Jefferson Starship from 1992 until his death in 2016.

Kantner had the longest continuous membership with the band, with 19 years in the original run of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship and 24 years in the revived Jefferson Starship.

At times, he was the only founding Jefferson Airplane member to remain in Jefferson Starship.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Jefferson Airplane in 1996.

Early life

Kantner was born on March 17, 1941, in San Francisco, California, the son of Cora Lee (Fortier) and Paul Schell Kantner. Kantner had a half-brother and a half-sister by his father's first marriage, both much older than he. His father was of German descent, and his mother was of French and German ancestry. His mother died when he was eight years old, and Kantner remembered that he was not allowed to attend her funeral; his father sent him to the circus instead.

After his mother's death, his father, who was a traveling salesman, sent young Kantner to Catholic military boarding school. At the age of eight or nine, in the school's library, he read his first science fiction book, finding an escape by immersing himself in science fiction and music from then on. As a teenager he went into total revolt against all forms of authority, and he decided to become a protest folk singer in the manner of his musical hero, Pete Seeger.

After graduating from Saint Mary's College High School, he attended the University of Santa Clara (where he first befriended classmate Jorma Kaukonen) and San Jose State College (now San José State University), completing three years of coursework before dropping out to enter the music scene. For a while, he shared a communal house in Venice, Los Angeles with several other folk singers who would subsequently transition to rock, including David Crosby and David Freiberg.

Personal life

Kantner had three children: sons Gareth (a restaurateur) and Alexander (a musician who sometimes played with Jefferson Starship and now a high school English teacher), and daughter China (a former MTV VJ and actress). After joining the late 1960s San Francisco rock scene's exodus to suburban Marin County by briefly relocating to Bolinas, California in the early 1970s, he decided to return to San Francisco as the Jefferson Starship era dawned, residing for many years in "a beautiful house perched over the blue Pacific in the ritzy Sea Cliff neighborhood." Later in life, he moved to North Beach, where he frequented the original Caffe Trieste.

A lifelong cigarette smoker (with a penchant for unfiltered Camels) throughout his adult life, Kantner prophetically stated in a late-in-life interview, "I'm not going to give up the few things I enjoy. Might as well die of something I like." Identifying as a political anarchist, Kantner advocated the use of entheogens such as LSD for mind expansion and spiritual growth, and was a prominent advocate of the legalization of marijuana, which he regularly consumed for most of his adult life. In a 1986 interview, Kantner shared his thoughts about cocaine and alcohol, saying, "Cocaine, particularly, is a bummer. It's a noxious drug that turns people into jerks. And alcohol is probably the worst drug of all. As you get older and accomplish more things in life in general, you realize that drugs don't help, particularly if you abuse them." When Kantner suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1980, his attending physician at Cedars-Sinai, Stephen Levy, was quick to point out it was not a drug-related issue, saying: "There is zero relationship between Paul's illness and drugs. He doesn't use drugs."

Belying his reputation as a near-teetotaler during the commercial heyday of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, Kantner began to use alcohol more frequently in his later years, with bandmate Jude Gold ultimately characterizing Kantner's vodka intake as an "on-again/off-again love affair." In a 2016 reminiscence, Marty Balin reflected on this period: "It was sad to see. He didn't do anything to take care of his health with all his drinking and everything, smoking cigarettes all the time, pushing himself too much. He asked me to join him for this last go-round. He'd been touring around the world and I talked to him and said, 'You better be careful. Take care of yourself. You've got a grueling schedule.' He just said, 'Don't worry about me. I can do anything. I'm strong as a bull.' He WAS a hard-headed German."

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Musical career

Marty Balin, a San Francisco folk band, saw Kantner perform at the Drinking Gourd, a San Francisco folk club, and invited him to co-found Jefferson Airplane. Kantner suggested Kaukonen because the group needed a lead guitarist. Kantner, as a rhythm guitarist and one of the band's members, was the first artist to appear on all Jefferson Airplane recordings as well as Jefferson Starship. Kantner's songwriting often included whimsical or political quotes with science fiction or fantasy themes, usually set to music that had an almost martial rock sound.

Although the band retained a relatively egalitarian songwriting style, Kantner became Jefferson Airplane's most influential creative force from 1967's "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil," "Watch Her Ride" and "Crown of Creation," according to Balin's "Today" (an earlier attempt by Surrealistic Pillow) and "Volunteers." He also co-wrote the song "Wooden Ships" with David Crosby and Stephen Stills, but he was not initially acknowledged due to ongoing litigation with Jefferson Airplane's first boss. Balin lauded Kantner's music but said he was impossible to get along with and that he refused to do others's music.

Kantner was one of the performers at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966, 1966 Monterey Pop Festival, and the 1969 Woodstock Festival, which featured Jefferson Airplane. The group appeared at Altamont, where Balin was knocked unconscious during their performance by a Hells Angels member hired as guard for the show. In an on-stage confrontation with a Hell's Angel regarding the altercation, Kantner appears in the documentary film about the Altamont concert, Gimme Shelter.

Despite its commercial success, the Airplane was plagued by intra-group conflict, causing the band to splintering at the time of its heyday. Bill Graham, the group's manager, who pushed the band to do more touring and recording, escalated the situation. Kantner produced Blows Against The Empire, a concept album starring an ad hoc group of musicians whom he dubbed Jefferson Starship during the early 1970s transitional period of the Airplane's separation. The first Jefferson Starship featured Jefferson Starship (David Crosby and Graham Nash) and the Grateful Dead (Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart) as well as other Jefferson Airplane supporters (Grace Slick, Joey Covington, and Jack Casady).

Kantner and Slick sang about a group of people who had been killed in a hijacked starship in Blows Against the Empire. The album was nominated for the Hugo Award in 1971, the first prize given to science fiction enthusiasts. Despite receiving a majority of the vote in the Best Dramatic Presentation category, this was superseded by a majority that did not present the award the year. In 1983, a Kantner solo album (Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra) featuring many Blows Against the Empire players was released as a Kantner solo album.

Kantner had been in love with Grace Slick for a long time, but she was also involved in a feud with band's drummer Spencer Dryden. He had a chance with Grace after their two-year affair ended. They first began living together as a couple in 1969. They were dubbed "the psychedelic John and Yoko" by Rolling Stone. On Blows Against the Empire, Slick became pregnant, and a song about their child's impending birth, "A Child Is Coming." China Wing Kantner and Slick's daughter was born in 1971.

Kantner and Slick's two follow-up albums were released. Sunfighter was an environmentalism-tinged album released in 1971 to celebrate China's birth. China appears on the album cover, and Slick's "China" is included on the track list, a song written and performed by Slick about her new baby. After their Akron, Ohio concert, Kantner and Slick made headlines again in 1972, when they were charged with attacking a policeman. Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun were named after David Crosby gave them the couple's nicknames. Craig Chaquico, a teen guitarist who served with Jack Traylor, was discovered in 1971 by a longtime friend. Chaquico worked with Sunfighter and Baron von Tollbooth before moving on to play with all of the Starship names until 1990.

The core band on Baron von Tollbooth was officially reborn as Jefferson Starship in early 1974 after Kaukonen and Casady left the Airplane in 1973 to devote their complete attention to Hot Tuna. Kantner, Slick, and the three remaining late-airplane holdovers (vocalist/bassist/keyboardist David Freiberg, drummer John Barbata, and fiddler Papa John Creach) were joined by Chaquico and Pete Sears, a contributor to Creach and Slick's earlier solo performances with Freiberg on bass and keyboards. Marty Balin began working with Jefferson Starship when their first album, Dragon Flyer, was still in the works, co-writing the early power ballad "Caroline" with Kantner and playing it on the album. Despite the fact that "Caroline" failed to chart, the album reached No. 11 on the charts. The 11, which is better than any Jefferson Airplane-related project in three years. Red Octopus, 1975's most popular red Octopus (not including the No. 4). Balin, the three members of the epochal band, was a full member and had ensconced himself as a major creative force in the group. Both Red Octopus and Spitfire (1976), which included another Balin-penned hit in the No. 84. Kantner's "With Your Love" (a minor hit that peaked at No. 12) saw him combine his traditional songwriting style with the band's soft rock ethos in such songs as "I Want To See Another World" and "St. Charles." In 1976, the "Song to the Sun" suite was available, as 64 in 1976.

Despite the fact that Earth (1978) – to which Kantner contributed just one song – closely followed Red Octopus and Spitfire's triumph with two major Balin-sung soft rock hits (Jesse Barish's "Count on Me" [No. [No. 8] and Dewey's "Runaway" [No. (Japan's 12) Jefferson Starship saw significant personnel changes before the year's end. Skip Johnson, a Jefferson Starship roadie, had left Kantner in 1975 to marry Skip Johnson. Despite the breakup of their marriage, she stayed with the band until June 1978, when Kantner resigned after two disastrous concerts in Germany. Balin resigned from the company in October 1978 to pursue a solo career for a short time. Although no attempt was made to replace Slick, Balin was soon replaced by Mickey Thomas, who had previously worked with the Elvin Bishop Group and had previously had success as a member of the Elvin Bishop Company.

Freedom at Point Zero, a hard rock album dominated by Kantner compositions, was released in November 1979; it was the band's last Top ten album (peaking at No. 1). The No. 10) was included in the No. 10) and included the No. 10. Freiberg, musician Jim McPherson, Kantner, and Chaquico formed "Jane" on "Jane," a project that continues to be released. Kantner's latest wave-inspired "Girl with the Hungry Eyes" charted, peaking at No. 1, with a peak at No. 9. 55 years old.

Kantner was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in October 1980, in a serious case of cerebral hemorrhage. When Kantner became ill, he was on an album. He was 39 years old at the time and had a difficult road to recover without surgery. Kantner wrote about the event a year later, saying, "If there was a Big Guy up there willing to talk to me, I'd be able to listen." But nothing happened. It was all the same as a small vacation." It was his second time dealing with severe illness or injuries in the early 1960s: "I struck a tree at 40 mph head first and nearly shattered my skull." For a while, I had a plate on hand." Kantner's recovery from serious hemorrhage was attributed to his motorcycle accident; the hole left by the accident relieved the accompanying cranial pressure.

Grace Slick was back in 1981 for the Modern Times. The album, which reached No. 1, debuted at No. 2nd place. "We Do What We Want"), a Kantner-penned declamatory punk rock pastiche influenced by a term coined by Nite City guitarist Paul Warren's words. It marked the start of a new age of declining sales for the organization; however, Modern Times, Winds of Change (1982, No. 7): No. 84. (26) and Nuclear Furniture (1984); No. 28) While all obtained RIAA gold and delivered several minor hits, they failed to destabilize the Balin-era company from a strategic or commercial perspective. Despite Kantner's efforts to maintain a conversation with the punk/new wave vanguard and a more idiosyncratic approach (exemplified by Ronnie Gilbert of The Weavers' book), Jefferson Starship became increasingly dependent on the album-oriented rock style's limitations. In addition, the band continued to rely on external collaborators, including lyricist Jeannette Sears (the wife of Pete Sears) and producer Peter Wolf.

Kantner left Jefferson Starship in June 1984, claiming that the band had become too commercial and deviated too far from its countercultural roots. At the time, he was the only remaining original member of Jefferson Airplane in the organization. Kantner made his decision to leave early in the Nuclear Furniture Tour. Kantner took court action against his former bandmates over the company's name after the remainder of the band decided to continue as Jefferson Starship; the group briefly appeared on "Starship Jefferson" after Kantner's dismissal. Kantner established the company in March 1985, but the company's name was changed to Starship. No group under the terms of the deal can call itself Jefferson Starship without Paul Kantner as a member, and no group can call itself Jefferson Airplane unless Grace Slick is on board.

Kantner formed the KBC Band with Balin and Jack Casady in 1985; two years later, on Arista Records, they released their first album, KBC Band. Despite the fact that the album stalled at No. 1. A video for "America" was produced for Billboard's 75th anniversary (a Kantner-Balin joint venture that peaked at No. 1 in No. 75) on the pages. The band and the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart ranked 8 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart, and they embarked on a national tour. Kantner appeared in 1986 with Slick and her partner Skip Johnson over the taping of some telephone calls.

The KBC Band reunited Kantner with Balin and Casady, opening the door to a full-blown Jefferson Airplane reunion. After the KBC Band's demise in 1987, Kantner briefly rejoined Hot Tuna after appearing in the band's first lineup eighteen years ago. Grace Slick appeared with the band at a San Francisco concert in 1988. Spencer Dryden's classic 1966-1970 Jefferson Airplane lineup was restored to a formal setting. Columbia Records has released a self-titled album. Although the accompanying tour was a success, the revival proved to be short-lived; in 1973, the group never officially disbanded; in 1973. The reunion started as a joke, according to Grace Slick: "We hadn't even talked for a year, and we were battling forensically" – in reality, there are already some pending cases concerning my Airplane. Anyway, the plan was that I'd just sneak in, stand on the side of the stage, and come out and sing 'White Rabbit' and see what Paul did. Paul never got the joke, but he loved it, the audience loved it, and that's how it got off."

In 1996, Kantner and his Jefferson Airplane bandmates were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony marked the first appearance by any of Marty Balin's "classic" lineup, including Jack Casady, Spencer Dryden, and Kantner since 1970. Grace Slick was forced to miss the ceremonies due to a serious leg infection, but Kantner sent a note: "Grace gives her love."

Kantner revived Jefferson Starship in early 1992, with Balin joining a year later. Despite Balin's inability to perform with the group due to family obligations in the mid-2000s, the band continued to tour and tour with the band into 2015. Kantner was brought aboard in later Jefferson Starship versions with a number of former Airplane and Starship employees, most notably Casady and Freiberg, who effectively replaced Balin once more in 2005. Jefferson Starship's first studio album since Windows of Heaven, titled Jefferson's Tree of Liberty, was released in September 2008. Kantner's musical roots were revived with the release of covers of 1950s and 1960s protest songs from the American folk music revival.

Kantner began to compile collections of "sonic art" created by him and other artists in late 2010, including a collection of cover songs, sound effects, and spoken word, as well as a collection of "Paul Kantner Windowpane Collective."

Kantner was reported to have suffered a heart attack on March 25, 2015. The members of Jefferson Starship wrote on Facebook, "Paul's health took a rough turn this week." "He's in the hospital, stable, and performing tests to find out what's going on, but doctors suspect he had a heart attack." He is in the best possible care, and we're sending him all of our best wishes, positive thoughts, and healing vibes." "We're continuing the tour without him," the band said in a formal statement, "we're sold out or nearing it, and we must remember our customers and supporters who bought tickets and put on the best show possible." "We will dedicate every show to Paul until he is fit enough to return us onstage." Kantner returned to the organization later this year, just in time to commemorate Jefferson Airplane's 50th anniversary, as well as the Grateful Dead tribute group Jazz is Dead.

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