In an interview hailing from December 12, 2015, Grace Slick, former lead singer of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, shed light on the turbulent world of rock and roll during the 1960s and shared her views on the tragic overdose deaths of Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison.
Slick delved into her past, discussing her experiences with the Monterey Pop Festival, her relationship dynamics within her bands, and her personal aversion to playing rock music after the age of 50. But it was her reflections on substance abuse and the music industry that stood out.
Regarding the drug-fueled culture of the ’60s, Slick noted that many young musicians of the era consumed drugs out of curiosity and the desire to experiment with their effects. She recalled that Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison, who died from OD, wrote about their suicidal tendencies all along. However, she claimed that they were only using substances for fun:
“Janis [Joplin], Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. They’ve written books about the drama, about how suicidal, miserable, and haunted by demons they were. Okay, we all have little problems, but trust me, when you’re in your 20s, you take as many drugs as possible; that was the deal.
You could screw anybody you wanted because we didn’t have AIDS then, and you were getting paid to travel around the world to make music. Trust me, you’re not suicidal. We were taking drugs for fun, mainly. We wanted to test: How do you feel when you do this? Ooh, that’s interesting. LSD, oh, that’s nice. I want to relax.”
So, she argued that the thrill of experiencing different sensations, coupled with the lack of knowledge about AIDS and a globe-trotting lifestyle funded by their musical pursuits, set the stage for a hedonistic period. As Slick implied, Joplin, Hendrix, and Morrison’s deaths weren’t as tragic as they seemed.
Slick then talked about the distinction between what she labeled ‘fun drugs’ and more dangerous substances like heroin. Her personal avoidance of heroin stemmed not from fear but from what she described as laziness:
“Taking fun drugs is hardball entertainment. You’ve got to know that going in. Taking harder drugs – and I’m talking about the stuff that doctors give you as well – is a crapshoot. Heroin is especially tough because the amounts are so small you think you’ll just have a little more. Well, just a little more will kill you.
I never took heroin, really, because I’m too lazy. God kind of saved me there. It’s too much trouble. You need a dealer, and he may not be home. You have to tie off your arm. You have to hit a vein. The doctors can’t even hit a vein on me. My veins are way too deep. I snorted heroin once but didn’t get any feeling from it. I thought, ‘Okay, I don’t need that.'”
Morrison was found dead in his Paris apartment in 1971 at the age of 27. While heart failure is often cited as the suspected cause, some close to Morrison believe he may have succumbed to a heroin overdose.
A book published in 2007 by Parisian nightclub owner Sam Bernett argued that Morrison’s death took place in his nightclub due to heroin, with the scene later staged to look like an accident in Morrison’s apartment. However, due to the absence of an autopsy, the exact cause remains a topic of speculation.
Joplin met a similarly tragic end in 1970 in Hollywood, California. The Los Angeles County coroner, Thomas Noguchi, confirmed her cause of death as an accidental heroin overdose. Her road manager, John Cooke, discovered Joplin in her hotel room and theorized that she might have unknowingly taken a much stronger batch of heroin than she usually did.
