[2] First playing as a lead guitarist with the Washington, D.C.-area rhythm and blues band The Triumphs, he switched to bass during his high school years, and while still underage (and with a forged I.D.)

Casady stepped beyond the bass guitar's conventional supporting role in rock & roll, in order to explore melodic ideas suggested by the rhythms and chord progressions.

The live Airplane album Bless Its Pointed Little Head, recorded in 1968, demonstrates Casady's unique walking line style to the fullest, as his Guild Starfire bass signal went through a Versatone amplifier, which produced a distinctive growling sound when the instrument was played in a high register.

On later Airplane albums, such as Bark, Long John Silver and the live Thirty Seconds Over Winterland, Casady switched over to a $4,000 custom-made Alembic bass (No.

The extraordinarily grand sound Casady produced during his 1968–1971 heyday—nowhere better heard than in his multi-tracked playing on "Sunrise", a song from Paul Kantner's 1970 solo album Blows Against the Empire—inspired fans to assign him the affectionate nickname of "God".

[citation needed] Other noteworthy Casady performances on Jefferson Airplane recordings include the Top 10 hit "White Rabbit" (on the album Surrealistic Pillow, 1967), "Rejoyce" and "Watch Her Ride" (After Bathing at Baxter's, 1967), "Crown of Creation", "If You Feel" and "The House at Pooneil Corners" (Crown of Creation, 1968), "Crazy Miranda" and "War Movie" (Bark, 1971), and the co-written composition "Long John Silver" (Long John Silver, 1972).

For years in live performance with the Airplane, Casady's showcase was the Paul Kantner composition "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil", which gave the bassist the opportunity to improvize an open-ended solo that was different every night and often astonishing.

The Fly Jefferson Airplane DVD includes one such performance videotaped at The Family Dog, where Casady pulls off a solo that visibly impresses fellow band member Grace Slick.

He was likewise adept at complementing the musicianship of his fellow players; the live version of "Volunteers" on the Woodstock album is a notable example of cooperating bass and keyboard rhythm with session pianist Nicky Hopkins.

Later works, especially Live in Japan (1997), still testify to his creativity as evidenced by the continually evolving bass solos on "Candy Man", "Good Shepherd" and "99 Year Blues".

During this time, Casady helped found a modern rock band, SVT, with Brian Marnell, a promising songwriter and frontman, keyboardist Nick Buck, and drummer Bill Gibson, later replaced by Paul Zahl.

][citation needed] After Marnell's death from a drug overdose Casady and Zahl continued the basic SVT sound with guitarist Jack Johnson and singer/songwriter/guitarist Owen Masterson in a band called The Yanks.

Like other Airplane-related solo works it featured substantial support from other players such as Warren Haynes, Doyle Bramhall II, Jorma Kaukonen, Fee Waybill, Ivan Neville, the group Box Set, and many other musician friends.