[8] With the Beatles-led British Invasion, Balin was inspired by the emerging folk rock genre to form a group in March 1965 that would follow that lead, as well as opening a nightclub for them to perform.

[14][15][16] A native San Franciscan, Kantner had started out performing on the Bay Area folk circuit in the early 1960s, alongside fellow folkies Jerry Garcia and David Crosby.

Kaukonen was invited to jam with the new band, and although initially reluctant to join, he was won over after playing his guitar through a tape delay device that was part of the sound system used by Ken Kesey for his Acid Test parties.

[31] Gleason's support raised the band's profile considerably, and within three months Katz was fielding offers from recording companies, although they had yet to perform outside the San Francisco Bay Area.

[37] A few weeks later, on November 6, they appeared at a benefit concert for the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the first of many promotions by rising Bay Area entrepreneur Bill Graham, who later became the band's manager.

[37] The group's first single was Balin's "It's No Secret" (a tune he wrote with Otis Redding in mind); the B-side was "Runnin' Round This World", the song that led to the band's first clash with RCA Victor over the lyric "The nights I've spent with you have been fantastic trips".

After their debut LP was completed in March 1966, Skip Spence quit the band and he was eventually replaced by Spencer Dryden, who played his first show with the Airplane at the Berkeley Folk Festival on July 4, 1966.

[51] Slick's recruitment proved pivotal to the Airplane's commercial breakthrough—she possessed a powerful and supple contralto voice that complemented Balin's and was well-suited to the group's amplified psychedelic music.

[52] In December 1966, Jefferson Airplane was featured in a Newsweek article about the booming San Francisco music scene, one of the first in a welter of similar media reports that prompted a massive influx of young people to the city and contributed to the commercialization of hippie culture.

On January 14, alongside the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane headlined the "Human Be-In", the famous all-day "happening" in Golden Gate Park, one of the key events leading up to the "Summer of Love".

During this period the band gained its first international recognition when rising British pop star Donovan, who saw them during his stint on the U.S. West Coast in early 1966, mentioned the Airplane in his song "The Fat Angel", which subsequently appeared on his Sunshine Superman LP.

[55] The group's second LP record|LP, Surrealistic Pillow, recorded in Los Angeles with producer Rick Jarrard in 13 days at a cost of $8,000, launched the Airplane to international fame.

"[57] In addition to the group's two best-known tracks, "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love", the album featured "My Best Friend" by former drummer Skip Spence, Balin's driving blues-rock songs "Plastic Fantastic Lover" and "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds", and the atmospheric Balin-Kantner ballad "Today".

[59] Monterey showcased leading bands from several major music "scenes" including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the United Kingdom, and the resulting TV and film coverage gave national (and international) exposure to groups that had previously had only regional fame.

The Airplane's famous appearance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour performing "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" was videotaped in color and augmented by developments in video techniques.

[65] Its famous cover, drawn by artist and cartoonist Ron Cobb,[66] depicts a flying machine (constructed around an idealized version of a typical Haight-Ashbury district house) soaring above the chaos of American commercial culture.

[72] In a notorious incident at a concert in Amsterdam, while Jefferson Airplane was performing "Plastic Fantastic Lover", Doors singer Jim Morrison, under the influence of a combination of drugs that fans had given him, appeared on stage and began dancing "like a pinwheel".

[citation needed] Hot Tuna began during a break in Jefferson Airplane's touring schedule in early 1969 while Slick recovered from throat node surgery that left her unable to perform.

[78] A few days after the band headlined at a free concert in New York's Central Park in August 1969, they performed in what Slick called the "morning maniac music" slot at the Woodstock Festival, for which the group was joined by noted British session keyboard player Nicky Hopkins.

[86] The event became notorious for the fatal stabbing of teenager Meredith Hunter in front of the stage by Hells Angels after he drew a revolver during the Rolling Stones' performance.

Later that year, the band was further augmented by the addition of veteran jazz violinist Papa John Creach, a friend of Covington who officially joined Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane for their fall tour in October 1970.

Although he had remained a key part of live performances after the band's creative direction shifted from brooding love songs, the evolution of the polarized Kantner/Slick and Kaukonen/Casady cliques—compounded by an emerging drinking problem—had finally left him the odd man out.

This further complicated the recording of their long-overdue follow-up to Volunteers; Balin had recently completed several new songs, including "Emergency" and the elongated R&B-infused "You Wear Your Dresses Too Short," both of which later appeared on archival releases.

The single "Pretty As You Feel", excerpted from a longer jam with members of Santana and featuring lead vocals by Joey Covington, its principal composer, was the last Jefferson Airplane chart hit, peaking at No.

Consequently, while the band played several dates in August in support of Bark (including two concerts in the New York metropolitan area and a show apiece in Detroit and Philadelphia), no tour was planned.

Following a private concert/party commemorating the formation of Grunt Records at San Francisco's Friends and Relations Hall in September, the band would not reconvene until several Midwestern engagements in January 1972.

Shortly before the tour commenced, David Freiberg (who had recently completed a prison sentence for marijuana possession after leaving Quicksilver Messenger Service) joined as a belated replacement for Balin.

At the end of the second show, the group was joined on stage by Balin, who sang lead vocals on "Volunteers" and the final song, "You Wear Your Dresses Too Short".

[96][97][98][99] The initial lineup consisted of the remaining members of Jefferson Airplane (Kantner, Slick, Freiberg, Barbata, Creach); bassist Peter Kaukonen (soon replaced by British multi-instrumentalist Pete Sears, a veteran of Creach's debut solo album and Manhole); and lead guitarist Craig Chaquico, a member of Grunt Records band Jack Traylor and Steelwind who contributed to the Kantner/Slick solo albums beginning with Sunfighter.

On March 4, 1988, Slick made a cameo appearance during a Hot Tuna San Francisco performance at the Fillmore (with Kantner and Creach joining in), facilitating a potential reunion of Jefferson Airplane.