John Barbata, the drummer for the Turtles, Jefferson Airplane, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Younger, who turned away from rock on the peak of his profession, have died. He was 79 years previous.
His demise was announced in a social media post by Jefferson Airplane on Monday. The reason for demise was not given and a listing of survivors was not instantly out there.
Barbata joined the Turtles after leaving his highschool band and located success virtually instantly, taking part in drums on the band’s best-known monitor, “Pleased Collectively,” launched in 1967.
“I heard the Turtles had been in search of a drummer, they referred to as me into the studio to strive me out on some session work, the primary track we recorded was ‘Pleased Collectively’,” Barbata wrote on his now-defunct web site, archived by web.archive.org.
“We obtained it multi functional fell swoop,” he mentioned.
The track spent three weeks at primary and have become a pop basic. It has been carried out by acts as diverse as Mel Tormé, Weezer, Miley Cyrus and the punk band Simple Plan.
Barbata got here to the Turtles after leaving his highschool band, The Sentinals, in San Luis Obispo, California, and heading to Los Angeles to pursue a profession in music.
In an interviewThe self-taught drummer spoke concerning the fast catapult to fame that “Pleased Collectively” gave the band and recalled taking part in on tv reveals like “The Ed Sullivan Present” and witnessing up shut the eagerness of teenage followers within the Sixties.
“The Turtles had been the primary and final group I used to be in the place the youngsters had been nonetheless screaming and going loopy,” Barbata mentioned in his memoir, “Johny Barbata: The Legendary Lifetime of a Rock Star Drummer.”
He described a scene at a live performance in Alabama the place he and his bandmates needed to combat their method via a crowd of ladies pulling their hair, ripping buttons and no matter else they may from their our bodies to maintain as souvenirs.
He would go away the band in 1970 to hitch Crosby, Stills, Nash and Younger, taking part in on the people rock band’s dwell album and “4 Approach Avenue” tour in 1971, which offered 5 million copies that 12 months. He later performed on a number of of the band members’ solo works.
David Geffen, who had simply began his first report label, invited Barbata to hitch a brand new group referred to as the Eagles, however he declined, saying he could not go away CSNY, in line with a profile of him within the ebook “Nice Rock Drummers.” of the sixties” by Bob Cianci.
The final bands he joined had been Jefferson Airplane, which he joined in 1972, and its later offshoot, Jefferson Starship. His drums appeared on Jefferson Airplane’s newest studio album “Long John Silver.” He additionally labored as a session drummer.
John Barbata, born April 1, 1945 in New Jersey, mentioned he labored on greater than 100 albums and was featured on 20 hit singles by the tip of his musical profession, though he was not at all times credited.
After surviving a severe automobile accident in Northern California in 1978, he was deserted by Jefferson Starship. At age 33, he determined to go away rock music and develop into a born-again Christian.
He turned excited by 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 line with “Nice Rock Drummers of the Sixties.”
“I used to be very fortunate,” Barbata mentioned. “I had an excellent profession. Most drummers solely seem as soon as. I went thrice and performed with the perfect musicians on this planet.”
