Starship's 1985 album, Knee Deep in the Hoopla, was certified platinum by the RIAA, and included two singles that went to number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart: "We Built This City" and "Sara".

[1] Their follow up album, No Protection, released in 1987, was certified gold and featured the band's third number one single, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now".

[2] David Freiberg stayed with the band after the lawsuit and attended the first studio sessions for the next album, Knee Deep in the Hoopla.

[4][5] The album was finished with the five remaining members, consisting of Slick, co-lead singer Mickey Thomas, guitarist Craig Chaquico, bassist Pete Sears, and drummer Donny Baldwin.

[7][8] Sears went on to play keyboards with former Jefferson Airplane members Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady in Hot Tuna for ten years.

The last song on the album, "Set the Night to Music", would later become a hit in 1991, re-recorded as a duet by Roberta Flack and Maxi Priest.

Following the completion of the album sessions in 1987, Brett Bloomfield was brought in to replace Sears and Mark Morgan joined the band on keyboards.

Slick left Starship in February 1988, going on to join the reformed Jefferson Airplane for an album and tour in 1989, before retiring from music.

The band went on another tour to support the album; recruiting backing singers Christina Marie Saxton and Melisa Kary to fill the gap left by Slick's departure.

A third track originally recorded during this time period, "Keys to the City", was released in October 2012 on the album Playlist: The Very Best of Starship.

Shortly after the release of the 1991 greatest hits album, manager Bill Thompson decided to fire the group and told RCA that the band was done making records.

[1][7][22] Besides Thomas, the new lineup featured: Melisa Kary (vocals), Jeff Tamelier (guitar), Bobby Vega (bass), T. Moran (drums), John Lee Sanders (keyboards, saxophone), Max Haskett (trumpet, backing vocals) and Bill Slais (saxophone, keyboards).

[23][24] Melisa Kary and Christina Marie Saxton, who had both performed with the group as backing singers on tour in 1989 through 1990, also had stints as official members in the revived band.

[28] Starship's first new studio album of original music in over two decades, Loveless Fascination produced by Jeff Pilson of the band Foreigner, was released on September 17, 2013.

[36] In 1999, former Starship trumpet player Max Haskett, who performed with the band from their reformation in 1992 until the following year, died from pancreatic cancer.

Although no statement was issued by the group, the biography section of the official Starship website was updated, removing Calvert and listing Coey as a band member.