Ultimate Classic Rock Interview’s Jefferson Starship’s founding member, David Freiberg

Jefferson Starship has been to the moon and back, metaphorically speaking. This year, their music will once again carry them all over the world, from Pennsylvania to Paris.

The San Francisco-bred band is celebrating its 50th anniversary here in 2024, playing dates with the Marshall Tucker Band, but also diverse stage mates like Deep Purple. That might seem like a strange combo at first glance, but as it turns out, the heavier side of their catalog can easily build that bridge. The psychedelic side of their Jefferson Airplane days opens other portals. Their numerous radio hits gave them plenty of ammo to spend the summer of 2023 touring with Bret Michaels and Night Ranger as part of the inaugural Parti-Gras tour.

In a nutshell, they’re as busy as they ever were, something which is surprising to vocalist and guitarist David Freiberg, a founding member who joined the band in 1974. Though he left in the mid-’80s, he’s been back with the group for nearly 20 years since the early 2000s. “I certainly never thought I’d be 85 and playing in a rock and roll band,” he laughs during a conversation with UCR. “But geez, here it is and I am doing that. As far as I can tell, I’m having as much fun as I ever did.”

Talking with Freiberg is as infectious as watching his energy on stage with the band. He spoke with Ultimate Classic Rock Nights host Matt Wardlaw recently to spend some time looking back at the group’s incredible history.

There was so much going on the San Francisco music scene in the ’60s. When did you first start to realize the incredible melting pot of music that was happening around you?
I left Quicksilver Messenger Service and I just left because I wasn’t doing anything more there. It turned into Dino Valenti’s backup band, kind of. That’s nothing against Dino’s songwriting or anything like that, it’s just there wasn’t room for anybody else. I had no idea what I was going to do. I fell in with [Grateful Dead drummer] Mickey Hart, who lived down the road from me in the same town. He had an old horse ranch and built a studio in the barn. I started hanging out there and working on the album that he was doing. David Crosby was making his solo album down at Wally Heider’s. I was down there a lot. There was this thing that he called the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra. Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Graham Nash, I mean, they’d all be in the studio with a guitar or whatever. I think I even had my viola down there once. When everybody was playing there, everything was miked. The stereo two track was always running. It became known as the PERRO tapes. That was kind of an underground bootleg thing that’s out there somewhere. It was the beginning of a lot of things. Jerry was writing “Loser” for his debut solo album, so everybody was playing that. That’s where I learned that song. It was definitely inter-pollinated, I guess. [Laughs]

Read More: Jefferson Starship Is Still Flying High at 50 | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/david-freiberg-jefferson-starship-interview-2024/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral