Balin had a gift for disciplined, delicate songcraft that helped rein in the wilder impulses of Kantner, "a madman on stage" whose compositions could be difficult to translate in the studio. ![]() They developed a yin-and-yang dynamic that gave shape to their increasingly ambitious ideas. It was Kantner who first taught him how to roll a joint. In 1965, when Balin recruited Kantner, a friend from the San Francisco folk scene, to form a new rock band, they were just "crazy guys in the '60s, having fun," Balin said. But from the start, co-founders Balin and Kantner were the twin engines who propelled Jefferson Airplane to stardom, writing or co-writing more than half of their songs from 1966 to 1970, including the protest anthem Volunteers. Balin went solo and enjoyed a hit in 1981 with the song 'Hearts.' In 1989, he joined up with a short-lived Airplane reunion tour and returned four years later to Jefferson Starship, finally. Jefferson Airplane was a collaborative entity, with singer Grace Slick, guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady and drummer Spencer Dryden writing and contributing to songs like White Rabbit and Somebody to Love. In 1996, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jefferson Airplane played Woodstock, Altamont and Monterey Pop they appeared on the covers of Life and Rolling Stone. ![]() ![]() ![]() In many ways, Balin, who has lived in Carrollwood since 1999, knew Kantner better than anyone.įifty-one years ago, the two men co-founded Jefferson Airplane, the seminal psychedelic rock band that soundtracked American counterculture in the late '60s, thrusting concepts like drug use, free love and rebellion from the San Francisco shadows into the mainstream.
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