Paul Kantner is a singer/songwriter and rhythm guitarist who was a founding member of
Jefferson Airplane and
Jefferson Starship.
Kantner was the first person approached by singer
Marty Balin about putting together a folk-rock group in the mid-'60s in the San Francisco Bay area.
Jefferson Airplane was among the first and the most commercially successful of the San Francisco acid rock psychedelic groups of the '60s. The group began to fragment at the end of the decade, and
Kantner released a solo album,
Blows Against the Empire, in 1970. It was followed by a duo album with his wife,
Airplane lead singer
Grace Slick,
Sunfighter, in 1971, and a trio album,
Baron Vol Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun, with
Slick and
David Freiberg (who had replaced
Balin in the Airplane) in 1973.
Kantner and
Slick reorganized the Airplane under the name
Jefferson Starship in 1974.
Kantner released a second solo album,
Planet Earth Rock 'N' Roll Orchestra, in 1983, and left
Jefferson Starship in 1984, after which the band's name was truncated to
Starship.
Kantner then launched
the KBC Band. In 1989, he was a member of a re-formed version of
Jefferson Airplane. In the '90s, he toured with a new edition of
Jefferson Starship. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide