Jorma Kaukonen credits Jerry Garcia as Jefferson Airplane's "spiritual advisor," who influenced the band's album Surrealistic Pillow
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Both Garcia and Bob Weir had a huge impact on Kaukonen and Jefferson Airplane as a whole
"My past is with me all the time," Kaukonen shares with PEOPLE
Bands often look to one another for inspiration and advice, sometimes even spiritually. Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen knows this all too well.
Kaukonen, now 85, talks to PEOPLE about the Grateful Dead's impact on Jefferson Airplane.
In 1967, Jefferson Airplane releasedSurrealistic Pillow,the band's first album with vocalist Grace Slick and drummer Spencer Dryden. The album featured the popular songs "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit." For Kaukonen, the albumpushed them into "uncharted territory"and was a "quantum leap" from their first album.
But, like another band one famously sang, Kaukonen got by "with a little help" from his friends — Jerry Garcia, more specifically.
"We're also fortunate inSurrealistic Pillowthat if you look at the record, I think it lists Jerry Garcia as a spiritual advisor," he explains. "Jerry had played bluegrass bands and jug bands, rock and roll bands for years. His input into arranging and playing rock and roll music was so important at that time."
Another member of the Grateful Dead also had a major impact on the band and Kaukonen himself — Bob Weir.
"Bob is one of these truly, truly amazing human beings and he's left a hell of a legacy behind him," he shares. "I met Bob when he was probably maybe 16. I think Jerry brought him to a gig and that would've been when I was playing acoustic guitar, way before Jefferson Airplane."
Kaukonen goes on to say that he always considered Weir a "biophile, a lover of life."
"He was just always, always reaching for the stars. I was pretty much happy just basically being a folky blues musician in a small town in California," Kaukonen shares. "Bob was always looking ahead, and he's always been an inspirational guy to me, and it was an honor that I could call him a friend. He's sorely missed."
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Weirdied in January 2026from "underlying lung issues" after "beating cancer." He was 78.
One of the things that inspired Kaukonen the most about Weir was "the way that he would go after things that he wanted to go after."
Another major inspiration for Kaukonen was one of Weir's mentors, the Reverend Gary Davis, whom he fondly remembers from "a geeky guitar player story."
"He was a Black gospel singer that lived in New York. I met the Reverend because he was a friend of one of my mentors, but I never 'studied' with him," he shares. "I remember that Bob actually went to Queens, New York, and took lessons from Reverend Davis himself and the version that the Grateful Dead worked up of 'Samson and Delilah' was directly inspired by the way Bob learned."
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"I'm a finger-style guitar player, and Bob wasn't, but the Reverend used all these really odd chords that were idiosyncratic to his style, and Bob learned all those chords and incorporated them into the Grateful Dead version of 'Sampson and Delilah,'" he adds.
Both looking back and looking forward, Kaukonen shares, "My past is with me all the time."
"I find that I listen to all kinds of music, but I haven't really found myself motivated to really snag guitar techniques from more modern musicians," he admits. "That's not just that I'm an old stick in the mud. It's just that I really love the roots of where I'm coming from. To mix my metaphors, it's a very deep mine and I've hardly gotten to the bottom yet."
Now in his 80s, the guitarist continues to play and released the albumWabash Avenuein 2025. He will tour this year, with a stop in Michigan's Historic Ironwood Theatre with John Hurlbut. Kaukonen will also stop at Newport Folk Festival later in the summer.
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