Grace Slick - Legal Disputes

Legal Disputes

Slick and Tricia Nixon, former President Richard Nixon's daughter, are alumnae of Finch College. Grace was invited to a tea party for the alumnae at the White House in 1969. She invited the political activist Abbie Hoffman to be her escort and planned to spike President Richard Nixon's tea with 600 micrograms of LSD. The plan was thwarted when they were prevented from entering after being recognized by White House security personnel, as Slick had been placed on an FBI blacklist.

In 1971, after a long recording session, she crashed her car into a wall near the Golden Gate Bridge while racing with Jorma Kaukonen. She suffered a concussion and later used the incident as the basis of her "Never Argue with a German if You're Tired or European Song", which appears on the Bark album (1971).

While Slick had troubles with the law while acting as a part of Jefferson Airplane, she was arrested individually at least three times for what she has referred to as "TUI" ("Talking Under the Influence") and "Drunk Mouth". While technically the charges were DUI, the three arrests mentioned in her autobiography occurred when she was not actually inside a vehicle. The first arrest occurred after an argument in the car with then-partner Paul Kantner, who became tired of bickering, pulled the car keys from the ignition, and tossed them through the car window onto someone's front lawn. While Slick crawled around on the lawn looking for the keys, a police officer arrived and asked what was happening. Her response (laughter) did not amuse the officer, and she was taken to jail.

The second time occurred after Slick had neglected to check the oil level in her car engine and flames began leaping out from under the hood. When an officer arrived and, as previously, asked what was happening, her response that time was less amusing and more sarcastic. With her car ablaze, it seemed obvious to her what was happening. As a result of her quip, she was taken to the Marin County jail.

The third arrest was after an officer encountered her sitting against a tree trunk in the back woods of Marin County drinking wine, eating bread, and reading poetry. When the officer asked what she was doing, her sarcastic response got her another ride to the Marin County jail.

She was reportedly arrested in 1994 for assault with a deadly weapon after pointing an unloaded gun at a police officer. She alleged that the officer had come onto her property without explanation.