Grace Slick, the erstwhile vocalist for Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship and, later, Starship, has released the first song since 1989 that carries her name. Slick is co-billed, along with California singer-songwriter Michelle Mangione, on “Lahaina Shine,” a 2024 download-only release benefiting families in Maui, Hawaii, that were impacted by the fires on the island in August 2023. The pair cowrote the song, according to a description provided with the download, “after hearing of the devastation caused by the fires on the island, a place that holds personal significance to both artists.”
“Lahaina Shine” can be downloaded from the website Play It Forward, with all proceeds going to the People’s Fund of Maui. Those interested in downloading the song can pay whatever they can afford. As of March 18, 2024, over $32,000 has been donated.
According to Play it Forward, “In November, Mangione recruited over 100 people to gather on the beach in Long Beach, California, to play ukuleles while singing the chorus of the song in unison. Audio from the event was used in the final recording.”
Said Slick, 84, in a press release, “The headlines have faded, but Lahaina still needs donations in order to rebuild. We love this place and are committed to aiding in the effort to restore it.”
Mangione, the site says, “is a California native who likes to use music to help those in need.” Slick has teamed with her before, as co-writer of “What Is a Saint” and “Love Disappears” on Mangione’s 2009 What Is a Saint album, and the following year as co-writer and backing vocalist on “The Edge of Madness,” on Mangione’s album Ponies. The latter was Slick’s final credited recording until “Lahaina Shine,” which marks the first time she has taken co-billing on a recording since the Airplane’s 1989 reunion album and tour.
Since her retirement from the music business following that LP and tour, Slick has since devoted herself to painting, and has garnered high praise for her portraits of former Airplane bandmates as well as peers such as Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia and Jim Morrison. Slick has famously declared numerous times that she does not believe that “old people belong on a rock ’n’ roll stage” and has steadfastly refused to record either with groups or as a solo artist. She skipped the Airplane’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, although she did show up, along with fellow surviving Airplane members Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, at the unveiling of the group’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2022.
