1996

January – Jefferson Airplane is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame at the eleventh annual induction dinner. Mickey Hart and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead are their presenters.

August – The core members of Jefferson Airplane reunite for an album and tour. Following a series of partial reunions, Grace Slick, Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady release Jefferson Airplane, their first new recording together in 17 years. Grace had recently left Starship, the band that had evolved out of Jefferson Starship, which itself had emerged from the wreckage of the Airplane. Paul, Marty and Jack had performed and recorded together for a brief while as the KBC Band. Paul had also joined Jorma and Jack’s band Hot Tuna onstage during a recent tour, setting the scene for the full Airplane to make music again. Rather than recall any of the drummers from their original run, the group recruits Kenny Aronoff, who had worked for many years with John Mellencamp. Ron Nevison, who had produced some of Grace’s and the Starship’s records, is hired to produce the album, which peaks at a disappointing number 85. Critics largely dismiss the album, but the tour receives mostly positive reviews, despite the fact that the Airplane are augmented by several other musicians onstage.

September – Following the tour, which encompasses more than 25 dates, concluding with a free show in Golden Gate Park, Jefferson Airplane breaks up again, this time apparently for good, as Grace and Spencer both head into retirement. Rolling Stone Magazine calls the Airplane’s tour “most unwelcome” comeback of the year.

April – Jefferson Airplane release a live album, Thirty Seconds Over Winterland, which will be their swan song.

• January – Slick is hospitalized with a suspected throat growth, undergoing a csecond operation for nodes on her vocal cords.
• April – Live album, Bless Its Pointed Little Head, recorded at the Fillmore West on October 24-26th, 1968, and the Fillmore East, November 28-30th, 1968, makes #17 in the US.
• May – Casady is arrested for possession of marijuana, in New Orleans, and will receive a 2 1/2 year suspended sentence.
• June – Bless Its Pointed Little Head becomes the group’s first UK chart entry, spending a week at #38.
• August – The band performs at the “Atlantic City Pop Festival”, Atlantic City, NJ, before an audience of 110,000.The group headlines a concert in Tanglewood, Lenox, MA with B.B. King and The Who.
• Airplane headlines the second day, by now early Sunday morning, of the “Woodstock Music & Art Fair”, Bethel, NY.
• October – Kantner is busted for marijuana possession in Honolulu, HI, found guilty of a misdemeanor and fined $350.
• November – The group plays at the Fillmore East, with Slick dressed as Hitler and actor Rip Torn making an appearance as Richard Nixon. Also performs the  “First (and last) Annual Palm Beach International Music and Arts Festival in late November, 1969.”
• December – Volunteers, the band’s most overtly political work, reaches #13 in the US.
• The band takes part in the Rolling Stones’ ill-fated concert at Altamont Speedway, CA. Balin is attacked halfway through a song, by one of the Hell’s Angels “handling” security.
• The extracted title track, Volunteers, makes #65 in the US.
• The group plays a New Year’s Eve show at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.

• February – After Bathing at Baxter’s reaches #17 on the US charts.  Jack Casady is featured on Jimi Hendrix’s album, Electric Ladyland, and Country Joe & The Fish’s Together.  The Airplane and the Grateful Dead each take a 10% interest in a partnership to administer the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco.
• April – Greasy Heart stops at #98 on the US charts.
• The band opens the Kaleidoscope club on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles with Canned Heat.
• June – The Group appears on the cover of Life Magazine, which features articles on Cream, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Mothers of Invention and The Who, under the caption of “Jefferson Airplane, Top Rock Group, With Music That’s Hooked The Whole Vibrating World.”
• 2400 Fulton St, in San Francisco is bought as the band’s headquarters for $73,000 (later sold in 1985 for $700,000).
• August – The group performs at the “Newport Pop Festival” in Costa Mesa, CA, alongside The Byrds, Canned Heat, The Grateful Dead, Sonny & Cher, Steppenwolf and others.
• September – Band plays two nights at London’s Roundhouse, on a bill with The Doors.
• October – Returned home, they perform at the Fillmore West.
• November – Crown Of Creation hits #6 on the US charts.
• December – The extracted title track, Crown of Creation, makes it to #64 in the US.
• French movie director Jean-Luc Godard films the band playing on a rooftop in Midtown Manhattan, for his projected “One American Movie” film. After Godard drops his plans, the footage is picked up by documentary film-maker D.A. Pennebaker, and is used in “One P.M.”
• Kaukonen and Casady form a splinter group, Hot Tuna