Jefferson Starship was an American rock band that was popular in the 1970s and 1980s. It developed from San Francisco-based psychedelic rock group Jefferson Airplane.

During the transitional period of the early 1970s, Paul Kantner (founding member of Jefferson Airplane ) recorded Blows Against the Empire, a concept album featuring an ad hoc group of musicians that he dubbed Jefferson Starship, marking the first use of that name. This edition of Jefferson Starship (such as it was) included members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ( David Crosby and Graham Nash ) and members of Grateful Dead ( Jerry Garcia , Bill Kreutzmann , and Mickey Hart ), as well as some o