OXFORD, AL — When Cathy Richardson sat in the last row of a Jefferson Starship concert as a 14-year-old fan in 1983, becoming the voice at the front of the legendary band was beyond anything she had imagined for herself.
Asked what that teenage girl might say if someone told her where she would eventually end up, Richardson laughed.
“I think she’d say, ‘You’re crazy,’” Richardson told the Calhoun Journal. “It’s beyond something that I could have thought of for myself.”
More than four decades after that concert — and nearly two decades after Richardson joined Jefferson Starship in 2008 — she will take the stage with the band at the Oxford Performing Arts Center on Oct. 6.
For Richardson, the journey from fan to frontwoman wasn’t instantaneous, even after she joined the group.
Jefferson Starship co-founder Paul Kantner had assembled the lineup, and Richardson said it remained very much his band during those early years. That began to change as Kantner’s health increasingly kept him from performing.
“When he wasn’t there, I naturally fell into that role,” Richardson said, estimating that it took roughly five years before she began to feel that Jefferson Starship had truly become her band as well.
Carrying a Legacy Without Imitating It
Taking the microphone in a band whose history includes one of rock music’s most recognizable voices presents an unusual challenge.
Richardson has never been asked to become Grace Slick.
Still, when performing songs such as “White Rabbit,” Richardson acknowledges that a little of Slick inevitably finds its way into the performance.
“I probably do a little bit make my voice sound like Grace as best as I can on that one,” she said.
Richardson also remembers the intensity Slick brought to the stage, particularly through her eyes.
“She was very intense with her eyes,” Richardson said. “I’ll give them a little of the eyes and stare directly at them.”
Then she laughed.
“I don’t try to scare people.”
Richardson’s relationship with Slick, however, extends far beyond studying the legendary singer’s performances.
Slick’s support has become deeply personal.
“Grace is an icon, and she is the queen,” Richardson said.
She recalled Slick saying Jefferson Starship couldn’t continue unless Richardson remained its singer and later asking Richardson to sing in her place when Jefferson Airplane received its Lifetime Achievement Award.
“It’s really a responsibility I take very seriously, and I am hugely honored,” Richardson said. “It just helps me feel more confident about what I’m doing to know that I’ve got her 1 million % behind my back.”
A Legacy That Is Still Being Written
Jefferson Starship isn’t interested solely in recreating its past.
The band continues to record new music, including its newer single “Jetpack,” while deliberately creating material Richardson believes belongs naturally alongside the music audiences already associate with Jefferson Starship.
The band’s current work also connects generations of its history.
Richardson pointed to Pete Sears returning on bass and longtime members David Freiberg and Donny Baldwin contributing vocals, alongside guitarist Jude Gold, keyboardist Chris Smith and Richardson herself.
Richardson said the newer material feels true to the Jefferson Starship legacy because of the musicians involved and the way the songs fit within the band’s catalog.
The group doesn’t overwhelm concert audiences with unfamiliar songs — Richardson said they might introduce one new song during a show — but she has watched audiences embrace the newer music.
“The fans are paying attention,” she said, adding that audiences have even begun singing along with some of the band’s newer material.
Five People — and It’s All Live
For those who know the songs but haven’t seen the current Jefferson Starship lineup, Richardson has a prediction.
“I think people will be surprised,” she said. “I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised by how tight the band is, how much sound we make.”
And that sound isn’t being manufactured backstage.
Richardson noted that Jefferson Starship doesn’t currently tour with an electric bass player. Smith handles bass parts on keyboards while Baldwin plays drums and Gold handles guitar.
“We don’t have any tracks or any enhancers,” Richardson said. “It’s just we’re singing and playing live.”
After years together, she believes audiences are hearing a band that has developed genuine chemistry.
“How much sound is coming out of the five people — and it’s all human,” Richardson said. “We’ve got a very tight show. It’s a lot of fun.”
The set list continues to evolve, even from night to night.
Among Richardson’s personal favorites is “Stranger.”
“I love playing that song every night and having that in the set,” she said.
‘Just Keep Moving Forward’
Richardson’s path to Jefferson Starship included a career as an independent artist, portraying Janis Joplin in the theatrical production Love, Janis, performing with Big Brother and the Holding Company and even earning a Grammy nomination.
But there was never one cinematic moment when everything suddenly changed.
“There was never really one big moment that it was like, ‘I’ve made it,’” Richardson said. “Nothing ever happens the way you think it will.”
Even the Grammy nomination came and went.
“When it was over, it was over,” she said. “I was like, ‘Okay, what now?’”
Her career instead became a succession of steps followed by the same question: What’s next?
“So just keep moving forward,” Richardson said.
Eventually, one of those steps took her to San Francisco.
Richardson was coming out of a difficult period in her life when another opportunity to perform in Love, Janis arose. She accepted and moved west.
That decision changed nearly everything.
The production earned strong reviews. Big Brother and the Holding Company invited her to sing. She met Jefferson Starship. She met longtime guitarist Jude Gold.
And she met Rachel, who became her wife and with whom she now has two children.
“Boy, is that life-changing?” Richardson said. “That’s like the direct line of when my life became something different.”
After years of working to strengthen Jefferson Starship’s current incarnation, Richardson has reached another realization.
“Now I’m just like, let’s just enjoy it.”
‘How Do I Get to Do This?’
Despite nearly two decades with Jefferson Starship, Richardson hasn’t become numb to what happened to that teenager sitting in the last row.
The thought still crosses her mind nearly every time she performs.
“How do I get to do this?” she said. “This is my actual job.”
More importantly, she said Jefferson Starship has finally given her something she imagined a band was supposed to be when she was a child.
“All for one, one for all — a family,” Richardson said.
For the first time, she said, everyone in her band is pursuing the same mission.
“And we go up there unified every night,” Richardson said, “with the goal of just rocking their face holes.”
That mission arrives in Oxford on Oct. 6.
Richardson said longtime fans can come for the music that accompanied earlier chapters of their lives, while younger fans can experience a piece of rock history they weren’t around to see the first time.
She particularly points to 88-year-old David Freiberg.
“David Freiberg is living history,” Richardson said. “You have to see him to believe how he can sing and what he does at his age. He’s just extraordinary.”
“Come on out and have a great time,” Richardson said. “Take a time machine back to those times in your life where music was everything and rock and roll.”
Then Richardson offered perhaps the simplest preview of what audiences can expect from Jefferson Starship in Oxford:
“It won’t suck.”
