October 30, 1965 Harmon Gymnasium, University of California, Berkeley, CA

The Airplane were unhappy with bass player Bob Harvey. RCA Records had offered to sign the band if they went fully electric, like The Byrds. Harvey, with a background in bluegrass, did not make the effort to learn electric bass, and the band wanted him replaced. Jorma Kaukonen’s brother (Peter) was an excellent musician and attending Stanford. However, Jorma’s father insisted that Peter remain in college so that he would not be drafted and sent to Vietnam. Jorma ended up calling on the younger brother of one of his teenage Washington DC friends.

Jorma and Jack Casady had played guitar together in a DC rock band called The Triumphs in the early 1960s, and Casady had subsequently switched to bass. Jorma had never actually heard him play bass, but Jack took the gig in return for the promise of $50 a week and a plane ticket. When Jorma picked Jack up at the airport, he supposedly said “You’d better be able to play bass or I’ll kill you.”