From Grace: One Slick Life

She was the original rock 'n' roll diva.

As the lead singer of The Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick was a leading figure in the psychedelic counter-culture of the '60s. Now, with the help of her friend, Andrea Cagan, Slick has written her autobiography, Somebody To Love: A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir, reports CBS 'This Morning' Co-Anchor Mark McEwen.

Slick, 58, began life as the blond-haired, middle-class daughter of an investment banker and a part-time actress-band leader. In 1961, she met and married Jerry Slick, the son of her parents' best friends. It was during this brief marriage that the couple formed a band called The Great Society.

During her stint as a singer with The Great Society (when she wrote and performed the psychedelic anthem White Rabbit), Slick was invited to join The Jefferson Airplane. After replacing the band's original lead singer, who dropped out to have a baby, Slick brought both White Rabbit and Somebody To Love to the hit list of the group, which was already popular.

In her book, Slick recalls her drug-dazed and alcohol-soaked performances, as well as her friendships with such rock 'n' roll icons as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, and Joni Mitchell. She also writes about "the triple crown" of rock festivals: Woodstock, Monterey Pop, and Altamont. The Jefferson Airplane was the only rock band to play all three.

"I wanted to [write] about biomedical research fraud," says Slick. But her publisher balked, so she ended up writing about sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. "It's celebrity trash for cash," Slick says drily.

"I don't have any secrets that I'm aware of. [But] I don't care. Everybody is a jerk, and everybody is an angelÂ… If people see stuff they think is stupid, look in the mirror. You have some of your own stuff, too. Who cares?"

Slick says she especially dislikes seeing older people still on the rock stage.

"I was on the stage way too long, as far as I'm concerned," she says flatly. "There is something, to me, that looks really weird about old people on a rock 'n' roll stage."

Slick in the '60s (CBS)

She also writes about her many lovers, including all her bandmates (except one); her longtime relationship with bandleader Paul Kantner (with whom she had a daughtr); the legendary Jim Morrison, and Skip Johnson, the lighting director whom she eventually married.

From the '60s, what does she remember most: sex, drugs, or rock 'n' roll?

"It's all one thing," says Slick, later adding, "Yeah, it was pretty much what you think it was."

Slick, who has had nearly as many arrests as boyfriends, discusses her penchant for harassing cops, and her aborted attempt to spike President Nixon's tea with a hallucinogenic drug when she visited the Nixon White House with Abbie Hoffman. (She had been invited to a college reunion by her classmate, Trisha Nixon.)

Also chronicled in the book is the Airplane's eventual transformation from rebellious rockers to the sleeker sounding '70s version, Jefferson Starship, and, finally, to mainstream pop stars in the '80s, under the name Starship.

Slick, who lives in Malibu, Calif., spends much of her time as an advocate for animal welfare.