Born 87 Years Ago Today In Illinois, This Rock Icon Became A Mom At The Height Of Her Fame

Grace Slick is often considered the face of San Francisco's psychedelic rock movement, first gaining popularity in the band the Great Society, then achieving global success in Jefferson Airplane. Today, October 30, the woman known as The Acid Queen turns 87 years old, and we not only wanted to look back at the start of her career, but also how she became a mother at the height of fame.

Slick was invited to join Jefferson Airplane after another member left, and she brought two songs to the band that eventually became their highest chart-toppers. Motherhood didn't seem to slow the Illinois native down, though, since she continued to record and tour with Jefferson Airplane until they split in 1972. Slick then fronted the band Jefferson Starship, then Starship, and released a string of solo LPs as well. These days, she focuses on painting and is no longer in the rock world, but let's go back to the beginning and see how she navigated motherhood while Jefferson Airplane was still flying high.

Grace Slick was working as a model in the San Francisco-based department store I. Magnin at the start of the '60s. She also married Jerry Slick in 1961, and back then, belting out rock tunes professionally wasn't something that was high on her wish list. But that would change in the summer of '65 after Slick read about a band called Jefferson Airplane that was establishing itself in the San Francisco music scene when she went to see them at The Matrix, a pizza shop turned nightclub that was co-owned by Jefferson Airplane's Marty Balin. 

That one performance motivated Slick to start the Great Society with her husband and brother-in-law, Darby Slick. Then, in October of 1966, Jefferson Airplane singer Signe Anderson left the group after having a baby, and Jefferson Airplane's bass guitarist, Jack Casady, asked Slick if she wanted to join his band after seeing her at San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom, an invitation that she accepted. 

The two songs that she brought with her from the Great Society were "White Rabbit," which she wrote, as well as "Somebody to Love," penned by Darby Slick. Those two songs landed on "Surrealistic Pillow," the first Jefferson Airplane album that showcased Slick's vocals and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and spent 56 weeks on the chart. Jefferson Airplane were now a huge commercial success. Slick then became pregnant in 1970 as the band's popularity continued to soar.

In a 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, Grace Slick talked about her pregnancy and how she would navigate motherhood while being a rock star, saying that her child would be raised communally. "In my case, there are a whole lot of different chicks around, and everybody is sort of helping each other out with various different things, and they can take the child for a while, and I can theirs at the house, at the beach and we can trade off."

China Kantner Isler was born on January 25, 1971, and Slick told The Guardian in 2025 that she tried to be a different kind of mother by bringing her child on tour with her, a decision that Slick said panned out well. Isler, however, talked about the times that she wasn't on the road with her parents and how difficult it was when they were gone. 

"I had a nanny, Pat Dugan, who was my anchor," Isler told The Saturday Evening Post. "I really missed my parents when they were on tour for four months at a time ... The loss created pain and fear, and Pat would remedy that as much as she could ... People say, 'Oh, you grew up with money and fame; everything's cool.' But it's not. When people are always pulling at your parents while you want their attention, it's hard."