Spencer Dryden, 66; Drummer for Jefferson Airplane, Other Bands

Spencer Dryden, a drummer for the legendary rock band the Jefferson Airplane, has died of cancer. He was 66.

Dryden, who died Monday at his home in Petaluma, Calif., had retired from performing 10 years ago, although he hadn’t been working much before that.

“I’m gone,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle last May. “I’m out of it. I’ve left the building.”

A benefit concert last year featuring Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule raised $36,000 for Dryden, who was facing hip replacement and heart surgeries. His home and possessions had been destroyed in a fire in September 2003. He also had been diagnosed with stomach cancer.

Dryden was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 for his work with the Jefferson Airplane during the band’s glory years from the breakthrough 1967 “Surrealistic Pillow” album through historic rock festivals such as Woodstock and Altamont.

Dryden was born in New York City and moved with his parents when he was an infant to Los Angeles. He attended Glendale High School and graduated from the Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad in 1955.

He was working as a drummer at a Hollywood strip club, the Pink Pussycat, when session drummer Earl Palmer recommended him to the Airplane’s manager. He replaced Skip Spence, who went on to start another San Francisco rock group, Moby Grape.

While with the Airplane, Dryden had an affair with the band’s female vocalist, Grace Slick. He left the band in 1970.

Dryden replaced Mickey Hart in the Grateful Dead sideline country-rock band, New Riders of the Purple Sage, in February 1971 and stayed with that group until 1978. In the ‘80s, he joined a group of psychedelic rock veterans called the Dinosaurs that played informally around the Bay Area.

He last appeared in public in November at a release party for a DVD of Jefferson Airplane video clips.

Dryden, who was married three times, is survived by sons Jeffrey, Jes and Jackson. Plans for a memorial concert are pending.