After David Crosby's death one of my siblings found an interesting video that he shared with us. It was from 1969, a Dick Cavett episode right after Woodstock when the Jefferson Airplane played and then stayed for interview and David Crosby and Stephen Stills joined them. It was a wonderful trip back in time to watch it.
After watching it, it made me wonder if Grace Slick was still alive. So of course I googled around and found that she is very much still alive and is 83 years old. I read a bit more about her and found something that surprised me so much I just had to share it here. Back in the late 1960s she and Abbie Hoffman went to Washington D.C. to meet with the then President Richard Nixon. Here's what the New York Times wrote about it back then:
"WASHINGTON, April 24— Abbie Hoffman, the Yippie leader who was a defendant in the Chicago Seven trial was turned away from the White House today when he tried to attend a tea given by Tricia Nixon.
He was accompanying Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane, a rock group. Miss Slick had been invited to the event, which was given for alumnae of Finch College.
Mr. Hoffman, conserva tively dressed and without his beard, said he was Miss Slick's “bodyguard and es cort,” but a White House Policeman would not permit him to enter the grounds, saying, “This is strictly for females.
Mr. Hoffman brought out a black flag emblazoned with a multicolored marijuana leaf and hung it on the White House gate. It was quickly removed by a White House policeman. The singer and Mr. Hoffman ran across the street and were driven away by a member of the Jefferson Airplane."
The one thing that the article doesn't mention is that they supposedly had a plan to dose the President with LSD. There were several links that I did not go to, but I was so surprised to see such headlines. We'll never know if it was true, I suppose, but it doesn't really surprise me given the times back then.
So, one more take away from making this discovery is that I added a new handshake to my collection.
I now have Grace Slick and so many musicians from those days, thanks to
my weekend of chauffeuring Abbie Hoffman around for the Kerouac
Conference in Boulder, Colorado in 1982.