GET SLICK

VOLUNTEERS, the fifth Jefferson Airplane album and the last with the classic lineup of vocalists Grace Slick, Paul Kanter, Marty Balin with lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady and drummer Spencer Dryden, sounds as vital today, 50 years on, as it did when it was released in 1969.

“We were an interesting beast of a band,” says Jorma today. “We were a pop band but not really. We weaponized our talent organically, we were angry, and it came out. We didn’t really play well with others. The label kept trying to censor Paul, Jack and Grace but those three held fast.

“The fact that we finally got to record at home in San Francisco in Wally Heider’s great studio, after doing our albums in Los Angeles, was big for us. It let friends like Jerry Garcia, Stephen Stills, David Crosby and Nicky Hopkins be on the album. As the songs took shape, personalities started to emerge. We wanted to motivate people politically. And we didn’t separate ourselves from our audience. We were them and they were us.” Keying in on themes of revolution and the environment, the album had gargantuan psychedelic jams (like the 8:26 “Hey Fredrick”) as well as what they used to call “hippie country” like “The Farm” and centuries-old folk music (“Good Shepherd”).

Grace Slick permitted Goldmine a rare interview for the occasion.

GOLDMINE: It’s an honor to speak with you, Grace. How are you?

GRACE SLICK: OK, for 80. But I tend to forget stuff.

GM: When I originally bought Volunteers in 1969 when I was 18, I remember thinking, “Damn, they made this music specifically for people to listen to while stoned!”

GS: I thought the same way about

Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis and Gil Evans. I once took some acid and listened to that album for 24 hours straight. It was literally burned into my brain!

GM: You’re of that first generation of larger-then-life ‘60s rock stars who us fans loved so much because Volunteers