Mickey Thomas: The Voice Behind Starship

Hi, it's J-Bo. Welcome back to an incredible Music Drives Us today. We are honored to talk to one of the premier voices of pop and rock music. He's one of the soundtracks of our lives. You know his voice with big hits like Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, We Built This City, Fooled Around and Fell in Love. Sarah, of course, the iconic voice of Starship and Jefferson Starship. Mickey Thomas, welcome to Music Drives Us.

Oh, well, thank you, J-Bo. It's good to be here with you.

This is a very special time for me because I... played you as a baby DJ starting in the late 70s, well, mid-70s, with Fooled Around and Fell in Love, which we'll talk about the 50th anniversary of your gigantic hit with Elvin Bishop. We'll talk about your Christmas album. We'll talk about your documentary and your trip to Italy this weekend. So we'll get it all in there.

Man, you are up to speed.

Oh, yeah. Well, you don't get to talk to Mickey Thomas every day. All

right.

But I got to start with, there's very few bands that you can count on one hand that reinvented themselves four times. Tell me I got this right. We got the 60s Jefferson Airplane with, of course, Grace Slick. We got the 70s Jefferson Starship with Marty Ballin. And then you come in, in the middle and late 80s, with Jane and Nuclear Furniture, and then the more modern day 80s Starship, where you led the way into this incredible legacy. But as I mentioned before we started, I played Miracles and With Your Love and Count On Me when they came out. A little soft, kind of pop rock, soft rock. When they called you to join the band, did I hear you were a little reluctant at first?

Well, yeah, because I was just coming out of the Elvin Bishop Band. It was early 1979. My plan was I was getting ready to head to Miami to work on a solo album with Bill Simzik, the great Bill Simzik, who produced Filled Around and Fell in Love, as well as many, many other things. That was my mindset. Coming out of Elvin Bishop band and with my influences and my roots were more in blues and R&B and gospel. I didn't really see how it would fit musically going into the Jefferson Starship. Because as you just mentioned, what I was accustomed to hearing was Miracles and Count On Me and Run Away With Your Love, which are all fine songs, but like you said, all soft mid-tempo ballads. I said, well, I was just thinking, I just don't see me doing that. I don't think that's a real fit. They kept pestering me. That was one of those deals where I wasn't playing hard to get or anything like that. But the more reluctant I was, the more determined they became to try to at least get me to come over and listen to what we're doing, see where we want to take the band. So I did. After a while, I thought, well, what have I got to lose? They're all probably pretty cool guys, interesting characters, Cantner, Pete Sears, Craig Chikiso, Freiberg. So I did. And Ainsley Dunbar was coming into the band too at the same time. He had just joined. So that piqued my interest too because I was a big fan of Ainsley's. So I went over. meeting the guys, we're hanging out in Paula's living room, just kind of talking. And then they started playing me a rough version of Jane. And I