The singer Grace Slick crowned as the greatest symbol of the 1960: “Very vocal, very outspoken, very funny”
Grace Slick, Jefferson Airplane’s singer and songwriter of “White Rabbit”, says Janis Joplin was a stronger symbol of the 1960s counterculture than she was. Slick’s view matters because she was herself at the heart of the era and knew Joplin closely.
Slick recalled Joplin as lively, outspoken and funny, challenging the image of her as only a tortured figure. She described their friendship as “fire and ice”, with Joplin as the fire, and said Joplin’s distinctive style and boundary-pushing voice captured the decade especially well. Joplin died of a drug overdose in 1970, aged 27.
- Grace Slick considered Janis Joplin a greater symbol of the 1960s.
- Slick remembered Joplin as funny, outspoken and full of life.
- She credited Joplin’s style and voice with embodying the era.