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Artist News Business News Legal
New lawsuit over Jefferson Starship name
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 28 April 2017
A founding member of Jefferson Starship has gone legal to try to stop the current incarnation of the band from using the name.
The rock band Jefferson Starship evolved out of the group Jefferson Airplane of course, and birthed the spin off outfit Starship, so that’s already pretty confusing. Guitarist Craig Chaquico was a founder member of the Jefferson Starship line-up, and subsequently played with Starship too.
The Jefferson Starship name was originally retired in the mid-1980s after a little legal wrangling between various members of the band. However Paul Kantner, a founder member of both Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, subsequently started using the latter moniker again in the 1990s.
Chaquico says that he gave permission for that latter use of the band’s brand, but that that agreement was with Kantner personally, and he died last year. Kantner’s final set of bandmates do not have his permission to continue using the name now and – says Chaquico – past agreements between the original members of the group mean his permission is required.
To that end the guitarist has asked a judge to intervene and prevent the current line-up from using the name. According to the Associated Press, he states that: “For this band line-up to tour and call itself Jefferson Starship is woefully misleading to the public and confuses longtime fans”.
