This was a great book, and a raw, honest look into the music career of Jefferson Airplane! It is a must read for anyone who enjoys their music!

Candid, sensitively handled and a great read. I didn't know much about Jefferson Airplane before this so it was a journey of discovery for me.

I have a handful and a half of indelible music memories from the 1960s, starting with The Beatles on Ed Sullivan (trite but true) and ending with all the hippies walking down the road past my bungalow colony to Woodstock, which took place a few miles away. Somewhere in there, I remember sitting at home with my transistor radio up to my ear, listening to 77 WABC (ding!), and hearing, for the first time, Somebody to Love. Grace Slick's voice certainly commands your attention from the start, but what captured the imagination of this 11-year-old in his first year of guitar lessons was the incendiary solo that, in an era of fade-outs, brings the song to a startlingly definitive conclusion.

Cut to a half century later. After decades of being inspired by that guitar player, I was studying with Jorma Kaukonen at his Fur Peace Ranch guitar ranch, learning from the master himself (consider this my disclaimer that this review is being written by one of his students). During a break in the action, Jorma told us that he made a mistake during that solo, and then had to re-create that mistake forevermore (he told us Eric Clapton told him of his won mistake in Cream's recording of Crossroads).

Over the five years I've been going to FPR as a "repeat offender" (as they call us), I've heard many of Jorma's tales, some of which can be found in Been So Long, his candid autobiography, some of which (like the STL solo mistake) do not. But that's not what Been So Long is about. It's not Jorma's compendium of war stories. It is a true autobiography in which the author examines his own life for answers (and questions) about how he became who he is, how he got where he is, why he is the person that he grew to be, why he is the artist that he grew to be.

I don't know how he did it. Put it all out there, I mean. As a fan for half a century, as a guitarist who has been inspired by him for nearly that long, as a student for the past few years who, thanks to Jorma's personal style, has gotten to know him a bit, I was floored by the depth of his self-examination and revelation. But not surprised -- Jorma is a true authentic when it comes to his music, putting everything of himself into his guitar and songwriting, so why would he approach his memoirs any differently? His shows are never a mailed-in set of greatest hits, so why would his book be a throwaway collection of anecdotes, name-dropping, and the like? It is (most emphatically) not.

His early life turns out to be far more colorful that one would have imagined, a significant part of his youth spent in Pakistan, The Philippines, Sweden, and his father's other international postings. But what Jorma is more interested in exploring in recalling his childhood is the family dysfunction that later morphed in part into his emotionally fraught first marriage, his walking away without explanation first from the Airplane and later from Hot Tuna, and most importantly his addiction issues -- all of which he ultimately overcame, with his vibrant second marriage, the enduring power of Hot Tuna, and getting sober.

The next act, his young adulthood, has been well documented -- we do learn more about he came to play fingerstyle while at Antioch College in Ohio and that he spent some time in New York City during the folk scare, but we already know that landed in the Bay Area in the early 60s, becoming part of a legendary community of musicians. Recordings have recently surfaced of Jorma backing Janis Joplin in 1965, and of his solo performances that anticipate his acoustic guitar mastery in his post-Airplane incarnations as co-founder of Hot Tuna and as solo artist. In this part of the book, Jorma does focus on the music and career of the Airplane, including his own growth as an electric guitarist, and the momentous events they took part in, like Monterrey Pop, Woodstock, and Altamont.

But he also delves into his personal journey, particularly his first marriage, which lasted twenty years but was a disaster right from the start. Music was more than a career and an art form for him -- it was his refuge and release. All of this was magnified over his next two decades, through his most intense creative period with Hot Tuna, his split from Tuna, and the turbulent years that ensued.

I learned how to play fingerstyle because of Hot Tuna, watching Jorma live and listening to his recordings. Then I lost it for about fifteen years. The main reasons for that were raising children and growing a business. Whenever I did try to pick up the guitar, I found myself (this is the terminology I used at the time) without inspiration. Now I learn that my primary source of inspiration was also quite lost during that period of time, writing very little new material, meandering in his live act, and fully down the rabbit hole of addiction.

Jorma came out of it, as he recounts. It was never easy -- this was not a neatly wrapped Hollywood ending -- but he found love with Vanessa, he found sobriety, he found a renaissance in his music, going back to his roots in Blue Country Heart (which re-inspired my own guitar playing), he found himself as a parent, he discovered himself as a teacher and mentor at the Ranch. The final act in his life so far is positive for all of those reasons. Coinciding with the time in which I have come to know him, that left me more comfortable in the end, as a reader, than I felt during the earlier sections of the book.

I have read many music and entertainment biographies and autobiographies. This is the first time I've read about someone I know. The difficult passages were difficult to read, doubly so due to knowing the man. But even setting that aside, I have never read a biography as frank and openly spiritual in the depth and breadth of its self-exploration as Jorma's.

Thanks for NetGalley for providing an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review. I literally couldn't wait for the official publication date, even though I've already ordered my signed hard copy. As an avid listener of audiobooks, I will come back to this book and re-read it in that format -- I could already hear Jorma's voice in reading the print edition, and am thrilled that he is narrating the audio edition.

PS For all you gearheads, both musical and automotive, Jorma provides all the details of all his guitars, amps, cars, motorcycles, etc. A recurring theme in this book brings these two things together, since music has led Jorma to life on the road, where he always seems most at ease.

Jorma has written a very honest account of his incredible music career. He has led a very interesting life. My only complaint would be that I wish there were more about the Jefferson Airplane years. He and Jack Cassidy have had a great impact on music over the last fifty years. It was great to be given a back door pass to those years. Highly recommended!