John Barbata, the drummer for the Turtles, Jefferson Airplane, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Younger, who walked away from rock music on the top of his profession, has died. He was 79.
His demise was introduced in a social media submit by Jefferson Airplane on Monday. A explanation for demise was not given and an inventory of survivors was not instantly out there.
Mr. Barbata joined the Turtles after leaving his highschool band and loved success nearly instantly, drumming on the band’s best-known monitor, “Blissful Collectively,” launched in 1967.
“I heard that the Turtles have been in search of a drummer, they referred to as me right down to the studio to attempt me out on some session work, the primary music we recorded was ‘Blissful Collectively,’” Mr. Barbata wrote on his now defunct web site, archived by internet.archive.org.
“We acquired it in a single take,” he stated.
The music spent three weeks at No. 1 and have become a pop traditional. It’s been carried out by acts as assorted as Mel Tormé, Weezer, Miley Cyrus and the punk band Easy Plan.
Mr. Barbata got here to the Turtles after leaving his highschool band, The Sentinals, in San Luis Obispo, Calif. for Los Angeles to pursue a profession in music.
In an interview, the self-taught drummer spoke of the fast catapult to fame “Blissful Collectively” had given the band and recalled acting on tv packages like “The Ed Sullivan Present” and witnessing the eagerness of Sixties teen followers up shut.
“The Turtles was the primary and final group I used to be in the place the children have been nonetheless screaming and going loopy,” Mr. Barbata stated in his memoir, “Johny Barbata: The Legendary Lifetime of a Rock Star Drummer.”
He described one scene at a present in Alabama the place he and his bandmates needed to blaze their manner via a crowd of women pulling at their hair and ripping buttons and no matter else they might off their our bodies to maintain as souvenirs.
He would depart the band in 1970 to hitch Crosby, Stills, Nash and Younger, taking part in on the folks rock band’s dwell album and tour “4 Manner Road” in 1971, which offered 5 million copies that yr. He later performed on a number of of the band members’ solo works.
David Geffen, who had simply began his first document label, invited Mr. Barbata to hitch a brand new group referred to as the Eagles, however he declined, saying he couldn’t depart C.S.N.Y., in keeping with a profile on him within the guide “Nice Rock Drummers of the Sixties” by Bob Cianci.
The final bands that he joined have been Jefferson Airplane, which he joined in 1972, and its later offshoot, Jefferson Starship. His drums appeared on Jefferson Airplane’s ultimate studio album “Lengthy John Silver.” He additionally labored as a session drummer.
John Barbata, born on April 1, 1945 in New Jersey, stated he had labored on greater than 100 albums and had a hand in 20 hit singles by the top of his musical profession, although he was not all the time credited.
After surviving a critical automotive accident in Northern California in 1978, he was dropped by Jefferson Starship. At age 33, he determined to depart rock music and develop into a born-again Christian.
He dabbled in Christian music and finally settled on a ranch in rural Oklahoma together with his spouse and daughter, and made and offered redwood espresso tables, in keeping with “Nice Rock Drummers of the Sixties.”
“I used to be very lucky,” Mr. Barbata stated. “I had an excellent profession. Most drummers solely go round as soon as. I went round thrice and performed with one of the best musicians on this planet.”
