JEFFERSON AIRPLANE GUITARIST PAUL KANTNER DEAD AT 74
Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship co-founding guitarist Paul Kantner is dead at the age of 74, according to The San Francisco Gate. Kantner, who had been battling health issued for decades, was laid low by a heart attack last March, and suffered another attack earlier this week. Kantner’s cause of death was attributed to multiple organ failure and septic shock. Funeral and memorial plans are still pending.

Kantner was romantically linked to frontwoman Grace Slick from 1969 to 1975, and they have one daughter together, former MTV VJ, China Slick Kantner. Paul Kantner also has two other sons from other relationships. Up until his death, Paul Kantner fronted a new version of Jefferson Starship, and is the only member to have been a part of every lineup of both Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship through the years.
In 1980, Kantner suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, yet apparently made a full recovery. Jefferson Airplane was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

Jefferson Airplane/Starship frontman Marty Balin posted a tribute to Kantner on his Facebook page, saying: “PAUL — So many memories rushing through my mind now. So many moments that he and I opened new worlds. He was the first guy I picked for the band and he was the first guy who taught me how to roll a joint. And although I know he liked to play the devil’s advocate, I am sure he has earned his wings now”. Sai Ram ‘Go with God.'”

Paul Kantner played a substantial part in songwriting for both Jefferson Airplane and then Jefferson Starship, having co-written “Volunteers,” “We Can Be Together,” “Ride The Tiger,” and — along with David Crosby and Stephen Stills — the Crosby, Stills, & Nash classic, “Wooden Ships.” His signature 12-string Rickenbacker sound always kept one foot firmly planted in the band’s Height Asbury stomping ground. After the Airplane’s initial run ended in 1972, Jefferson Starship, which was born out of a Kantner solo project, enlisted the help of fellow Airplane members Grace Slick and Marty Balin.

By 1984, with the band’s commercial stock rising and drifting further into the pop field, Kantner quit the band and sued them for the rights to the name, resulting in the band morphing into a the Top 40 powerhouse, Starship. In 1989 he formed KCB Band with fellow Airplane members Marty Balin and bassist Jack Casady, who along with Jorma Kaukonen, had formed Hot Tuna while the Airplane was still together.