A Conversation With Jefferson Starship's Paul Kantner
Mike Ragogna: Paul, you played a concert at Roswell, and your new album is called Tales From The Mothership. Of course, "Roswell" has a certain connotation, it being the at the heart of many "aliens among us" stories and the ultimate conspiracy theory. Is there any particular thing about Roswell that resonates with you?
Paul Kantner: No, Roswell is just that spirit of the unknown, and it's become quite a thing in itself because of the situation around it. We decided to play there because of that science fiction connection. "Crown Of Creation" was probably my first science fiction song that I can think of off the top of my head. At the time, I was at our house on Fulton Street and the Democratic convention of 1968 called us, the way they do--famous musicians, when they're having their conventions. They wanted us to write a song for them and I was reading a book called Rebirth by John Wyndham and I was playing a little blues lick that I had stolen from Jorma [Kaukonen]. Sort of a shuffle. There was just a good collection of song lyrics that popped out of that book that became most the lyrics of "Crown Of Creation." I just put it all together as a joke, knowing that if they read the lyrics, they'd never use it. I've never been very political in terms of dealing face-to-face with political people and we've never done a benefit except for Barry Milton from Country Joe & The Fish when he ran for judge or something in San Francisco; another sort of joke. I sent "Crown Of Creation" to them and, to their credit, somebody read the lyrics and knew that it was not what they wanted to say for their convention. So they turned it down, but it became one of our most popular songs in the aftermath.
MR: Since we're talking about sci-fi, there's your solo album Blows Against The Empire that had a pretty large musicians roster. You use the term "Jefferson Starship," a creative choice, maybe inferring it had a bigger vision than the Airplane's?
PK: Well, it wasn't, but pretty much what you said is what is. I was in the studio making an album and other bands and people were in the same studio. We would wander back and forth between each other's studios and see what they were doing, and we'd sometimes sit in on each other's songs or they'd come and sit in on some of our songs. That's how it happened, that all the people who are on that album came to be on that album.
MR: And over the years, hasn't it come close to being turned into other media events?
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO
 | Tales From The Mothership - Roswell UFO Festival 3 July 2009 4CD - £15.00 |
 | Acoustic Warrior CD - £7.99 |
 | BB Kings Blues Club, Ny, 2007 3CD - £19.99 |
 | Substage, Germany 2005 3CD - £19.99 |
| Soiled Dove DVD - £12.99 |
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