Jefferson Airplane Founder Paul Kanter Dead

The guitarist passed away after suffering multiple organ failure on Thursday (28Jan16). He suffered a heart attack earlier this week, according to multiple reports. Kantner was also a founding member of Jefferson Airplane's offshoot band, Jefferson Starship. Born in March, 1941, the musician formed Jefferson Airplane in San Francisco in the early 1960s with Marty Balin and the band quickly became huge in the Bay area, serving as the first headliner at promoter Bill Graham's fabled Fillmore Auditorium.

  The group released it's first album, The Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, in 1966 and singer Grace Slick joined the band a year later, recording instant psychedelic rock classics Somebody to Love and White Rabbit. Kantner and Slick went on to form Jefferson Starship in 1974. He left the band a decade later.   The guitarist was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.