JIM THORPE, Pa. — David Freiberg, who was a founding member of rock band Jefferson Starship when it morphed out of Jefferson Airplane in the early 1970s, says that for the past 20 years, he's been having more fun than ever before in his career.
Of course, that Jefferson Starship was around for 30 years before that — this year it's celebrating its golden anniversary.
Admittedly, despite its catalogue of 1970s and '80s hit songs such as "Miracles," "With Your Love," "Count on Me" and "Jane" and a legacy of carrying on Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship could easily be described as a volatile band — with more than two dozen different members and several breakups in its history.
"Right now it’s wonderful. I’m having such a good time with this band."Jefferson Starship singer David Freiberg
But for the past two decades, the group has had a stable lineup that Freiberg calls "a really great band."
"Right now it’s wonderful," Freiberg said with a laugh in a recent phone call. "I’m having such a good time with this band."
It's that band — which also includes Cathy Richardson on vocals, Jude Gold on lead guitar, Chris Smith on keyboards and bass and Donny Baldwin on drums — that will play at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 14, at Penn's Peak in Penn Forest Township.
Tickets, at $28-$33, remain available at the Penn's Peak website.
An ever-changing lineup
Even Freiberg left Jefferson Starship for an extended period in the 1990s and 2000s.
It was he, singer Grace Slick, singer/guitarist Paul Kantner and drummer John Barbata who, in 1074, transitioned from Jefferson Airplane — the group whose psychedelic rock helped propel the 1960s with songs such as "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit."
Within four years, the new group had five Top 20 hits, but with a quickly rotating lineup.
Slick left and returned. Singers Marty Balin and Mickey Thomas had stints on male lead vocals, as other members came and went.
It was Freiberg who gave the band its last Top 20 hit in 1979, with "Jane."
"It was about my girlfriend," Freiberg said. "I was sitting at a soundcheck or something and I had these changes I was making. I was playing on piano, actually.
"And Marty was sitting around and said, ‘Hey, that sounds pretty nice.’ And I said, ‘I’m thinking of writing a song for you to sing.’ And he said, ‘Cool, let me hear it.’
"And then he quit the band before we ever got it finished,'" Freiberg said, laughing.
“I made demos the way I was playing it, but kind of thought it should rock and asked [lead guitarist] Craig Chaquico — he was the youngest in the band and I knew he listened to hard rockers.
“And he came over and he heard it and he said, ‘I know just what to do.’ And we put it together and it was his arrangement, completely.”
'Wasn't fun anymore'
But the band's tendency to splinter caught up to Freiberg by 1984.
"I left because what they needed was somebody who was a whiz-bang keyboard player and I’m a songwriting keyboard player," he said.
"I can do things, but I can’t do everything, you know what I mean? I never took piano lessons. They needed somebody who knew how to play, you know?" he said with a laugh.
"I left right before they dropped the ‘Jefferson.' And at that point, when they dropped the ‘Jefferson,’ just after Paul [Kantner] left, I said, ‘This is not what I’m supposed to do, either.’Jefferson Starship singer David Freiberg
“I couldn’t do what somebody would want me to do — it would be beyond me technically. And so that’s what they needed, and that wasn’t me. And you got plenty of singers — you got Grace, you got Mickey.
"And so we mutually decided I should leave, and I happily did.”
Balin left, and when Kantner followed, and Slick and Thomas transitioned Jefferson Starship into Starship, which had a gold No. 1 hits with "We Built This City" and "Sara" in 1985.
"I left right before they dropped the ‘Jefferson,’" Freiberg said. And at that point, when they dropped the ‘Jefferson,’ just after Paul left, I said, ‘This is not what I’m supposed to do, either.’
“And I just started going on other ways into music, you know, and recording stuff with my wife, Linda Imperial and had a great time, more or less.
“But the band just wasn’t fun anymore.”
'We had to keep it together'
Kantner resurrected Jefferson Starship in 1992, and the band continued to have a rotating lineup.
“Marty would be in it sometimes and Jack Casady was in it for a while and Papa John [Creach] was in it till he passed away," Freiberg said.
"And even Grace was there for one or two gigs. She hasn’t played now for way over 30 years, so…
“And he asked me to come sit in when they played close to where I live, and I sat in and did a couple of songs and it was fun.
"And he said, ‘Hey, we got a little tour coming up. You want to do a couple of gigs down the coast? And I said, ‘Yeah,’ and it was still fun, and I never stopped. ‘Cause it was fun again.”
"When Jude joined the band, it seemed magical to all of us. And we just had to keep it together. And all of a sudden we looked around and said, ‘This is really fun.' Every now and then Paul [Kantner] would say, ‘Man, I have a really great band now.’"Jefferson Starship singer David Freiberg
Instead of cycling through members, the reformed Jefferson Starship “kept adding people," Freiberg said.
Smith, the keyboard player, joined the band in 1998. Guitarist Gold rejoined in 2012.
"When Jude joined the band, it seemed magical to all of us," Freiberg said. "And we just had to keep it together. And all of a sudden we looked around and said, ‘This is really fun.'
"Every now and then Paul would say, ‘Man, I have a really great band now.’"
So, Freiberg said that when Kantner died in 2016, "we had to keep it together."
'What are we waiting for?'
In 2020, Jefferson Starship released just its third album since re-forming, "Mother of the Sun."
"We have a bunch of songwriters in the band, great musicians and we just jammed," Freiberg said. "We brought it to the studio I’m actually calling you from — I have a small setup — and just started jamming.
"We actually went into the big studio when we managed to find some time when we weren’t playing and did the tracks for ‘Mother of the Sun.’"
"As long as I can do it, I’m going to keep doing it. Because I’ve never had more fun in my life.”Jefferson Starship singer David Freiberg
Freiberg said part of the motivation was the song "What Are We Waiting For."
"That was one of Paul’s expressions, you know?" he said. "He would always say, ‘What are we waiting for?’ And we had this one jam, and Donnie, the drummer, just started singing that.
"And it’s kind of this anthem that everything is going wrong in the world — we really know what to do. All we have to do is do it. The answer is, ‘What are we waiting for?’”
Freiberg said he expects Jefferson Starship will continue recording.
“We got a whole pile of songs that we haven’t gotten out yet," he said. "And we have some more things that we’re working on — we never had a chance to finish them.
"One of these days, we’ll figure out how to be in the same place when we’re not touring,” he said, laughing again.
He said he has no objections to Thomas now touring under the name Starship, singing some of the same songs he does, though he has no real contact with him.
“I went and checked the band out when they were playing at the county fair near here, and they sounded good," Freiberg said.
“It’s fine. It’s an irony that he produced these songs — I hope he doesn’t mind that we sing the songs in our act. Donnie was there, so he sang all the high harmonies.
“It’s a free country — do what you want. He’s a great singer. He’s a great singer.”
Asked whether Jefferson Starship will continue after he's gone, Freiberg, who is 85, said, “I don’t know. I hope so. I hope so, ‘cause there’s a whole pile of good songs there.
"As long as people want to hear them — yeah, why not?”
But answering that is hard because he doesn't anticipate quitting, he said.
“It’s hard; I don’t foresee it," he said. "As long as I can do it, I’m going to keep doing it. Because I’ve never had more fun in my life.”
