The band is currently opening for Bachman-Turner Overdrive and The Marshall Tucker Band on the Roll On Down The Highway 2025 Tour. The trio of big rock and roll is making a stop at the Rose Music Center on July 26.
“I’m really having more fun with this band than I think I ever have. I think we all feel that way,” Freiberg told me. “We’re just keeping it up and getting out there and playing for as many people as we can. Every gig feels like magic. I can’t believe it.”
Jefferson Airplane — aka the band that penned ubiquitous 1960s classics like “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” — begat Jefferson Starship, which eventually begat Starship (aka the band that penned ubiquitous 1980s classics like “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” and “We Built This City”). Though the nebulous history of shifting personnel and legal troubles surrounding the names is too much to delve into here, the important thing to note is that the Jefferson Family Tree had a hand in three of the greatest decades of rock music. David Freiberg was there for (most) all of it.
After lead singer Grace Slick exited Jefferson Starship in the late ‘80s, the band went on hiatus. Eventually, Catherine Richardson — who sings the Janis Joplin parts in the current lineup of Big Brother and the Holding Company — took over in 2008. Slick, a prominent 1960s psychedelic figure, gave Richardson her blessing.
“Cathy had been a Jefferson Starship fan since she was a teenager. She’s just a fantastic, fantastic singer,” Freiberg said. “It was made in heaven, man.”
Richardson and Slick, along with guitarist Jude Gold, collaborated on writing the song “It’s About Time” from the 2020 album, “Mother of the Sun.” Staying true to its cosmic rock, science-fiction motifs that are ever present in Jefferson Starship’s music, the album still very much feels like a ‘70s arena rock record. The single “Setting Sun” features Freiberg’s vocals, with him and Richardson sharing the glory of the massive chorus.
Opening on this tour, however, Freiberg says that the band is going to stick to the hits — i.e., the hits of all three Jefferson Family Tree bands — because “Lord knows there are hits back there.”
When Freiberg left Jefferson Starship, he went to hang out with the late Gary Duncan from Quicksilver Messenger Service, his Fillmore-era San Francisco band from ‘65. He started a home studio, sang a tenor solo at a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and played viola in a classical quartet for a while. He also produced dance music with his wife, Linda Imperial.
With Freiberg and his bands being synonymous with San Francisco counterculture, I asked him if the movements happening in the ‘60s and ‘70s still have legs today, and if he still has hope for the world.
“The only real answer is for people to realize that everybody is a person,” he said. “There’s no us or them. We’re all humans. We should take care of our people.”
When not on the road, celebrating five decades of the music, the members of Jefferson Starship try to find time to get back into the studio. Freiberg says it’s more fun when everybody’s in one place, grooving together.
“I can remember when I was a kid, and I went to see the Beatles movie, ‘A Hard Day’s Night,’ and saw the imaginary Beatles all living in the same place and hanging out together all day long,” Freiberg said. “That’s kind of happening now. We miss each other when we’re not playing, and it gets that imaginary feeling that was in my brain. It’s just complete love between five people. It’s amazing. It feels like magic every night that we get to play.”
Brandon Berry covers the music and arts scene in Dayton and Southwest Ohio, spotlighting local musicians, underground and touring bands, cultural events, fringe phenomena and creative spaces. He buys duplicate copies of every Chuck Klosterman book, and sometimes makes music. Reach him at branberry100@gmail.com.
How to go
What: Bachman-Turner Overdrive and The Marshall Tucker Band,
with special guest Jefferson Starship
When: 7 p.m., July 26
Where: Rose Music Center, 6800 Executive Blvd., Huber Heights
Cost: $51.50-$98.50
Tickets: rosemusiccenter.com
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