‘I get to hang out with my best friends’: Jefferson Starship founder David Freiberg talks touring with the arena rock powerhouse

Jefferson Starship rose from the ashes of the trailblazing psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane in 1974 to become an arena rock powerhouse. David Freiberg, who was with the band during their transition from Airplane to Starship reunited with the group in 2005 and has been performing with them ever since. He calls their current lineup “my favorite right now.”

“Not that everybody who went before weren’t important — they were absolutely important. But it all grew into this,” Freiberg said, “and everybody in our band has complete respect for everybody who’s ever been in it.”

Jefferson Starship will perform live at Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino in Santa Fe on Saturday, Feb. 14. Joining them are the Southern rock pioneers, The Marshall Tucker Band.

Freiberg, who currently sings and plays guitar with Jefferson Starship, is also known for playing electric bass, keyboards and percussion.

“I just do whatever’s needed to make music with a bunch of people,” he said.

Freiberg was not a founding member of Jefferson Airplane, but he knew co-founder Paul Kantner (1941–2016) years earlier.

“I joined for their very last tour,” Freiberg said, “but I knew Paul Kantner as a folk singer before we even thought about being in rock ’n’ roll bands. We had big ideas about being a folk duo.”

After watching The Beatles’ 1964 musical comedy film, “A Hard Day’s Night,” the two shifted their musical sights from folk to rock, Freiberg said. Kantner started Jefferson Airplane, and Freiberg joined Quicksilver Messenger Service, a blues-influenced jam band, who, along with their contemporaries, the Grateful Dead, were integral to the 1960s counterculture scene in San Francisco.

“I had been a folk 12-string finger-picker,” Freiberg said. “When I got into Quicksilver Messenger Service, there was no bass player. So, they gave me a bass, and I figured out what was going on — or what I thought was going on.”

The only instrument Freiberg ever had any formal training on was the viola. His family had a piano, which he played for fun as a child. Unlike his brother and sister, though, Freiberg never took piano lessons.

“A piano is like a typewriter,” Freiberg said. “If you know how to read the notes, you can play it by ear and figure out how it all works.”

Frieberg has played piano and keyboard on a number of albums, including “Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun,” which he released in 1973 with fellow Jefferson Airplane members Kantner and Grace Slick, but he said he mostly uses the piano as a songwriting tool.

“It’s a good thing to write songs on, because you’ve got a big range. You can play the bass (notes) at the lower end, and you’ve got two hands, and they both play notes,” Freiberg said. “On a guitar, it takes two hands to play (any) notes.”

On the subject of songwriting, Freiberg is modest.

“I’ve written a bunch of songs, but I don’t consider myself particularly a songwriter,” he said.

Although he co-wrote one of Jefferson Starship’s biggest hits — “Jane” — he emphasized that it was a collaborative effort. Jim McPherson co-wrote the lyrics, Kantner came up with the introductory melody, and Craig Chaquico gave the song its hard-driving sound.

“I wrote it with an idea of something like The Rolling Stones’ ‘Ruby Tuesday’ period, and I think Craig (Chaquico) was probably listening to Toto,” Freiberg said. “So, he made the whole arrangement more of a harder rock tune, and it really worked that way. So, he’s completely responsible for that part.”

At 87, Freiberg still loves touring.

“I feel like that’s when I get to hang out with my best friends,” he said. “I’ve noticed some of the other bands we’ve toured with, they’ll say, ‘Jeez, do you guys always eat together? You’re always together.’”

Freiberg was surprised to learn that some bands never see each other until they get onstage. For him, the friendship and camaraderie are what music is all about.

“It feels like family,” he said. “It’s wonderful.”

Logan Royce Beitmen is an arts writer for the Albuquerque Journal. He covers visual art, music, fashion, theater and more. Reach him at lbeitmen@abqjournal.com or on Instagram at @loganroycebeitmen.