An Interview With Cathy Richardson of Jefferson Starship

Cathy Richardson has been fronting Jefferson Starship since 2008, but she still feels like the new guy "all the time."

"It always makes me roll my eyes when people are like, 'You're no Grace Slick and you never will be!'" Richardson recently told UCR. "It's like, well, okay, of course, but it doesn't mean I don't belong here."

Richardson has been building her career in rock 'n' roll since the early '90s when she got involved in the Chicago music scene with her own group, the Cathy Richardson Band, and co-wrote some songs with Jim Peterik of Survivor. In 2001, she played Janis Joplin in the original off-Broadway run of Love, Janis, a role she took after Joplin visited her in a dream. "She f***ing picked me, you know?" Richardson told UCR.

Getting to the point she is now hasn't come without its share of obstacles. Being a gay woman in rock was not, in Richardson's words, a "huge secret" as her career progressed, but she was publicly outed by the press in Chicago and chose not to talk about it much. "I was just afraid to come out because I didn't want people throwing beer bottles at me," she says.

Richardson is now married and shares two children with her wife, Rachel,  She'll also be on the road with Jefferson Starship this summer. In honor of Pride Month, UCR caught up with Richardson to chat about continuing the band's legacy as a non-original member and being a gay woman not just in rock music, but in today's America, too. 

Jefferson Starship has a bunch of gigs lined up with Kansas, .38 Special and some other bands. What are you looking forward to the most about these upcoming shows with them?
Well, it's really fun to go out with other bands, especially bands that you loved the music, grew up listening to, like all of these classic rock bands we're going out with — Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Marshall Tucker Band. ... I'm really excited just to hear those songs live, to meet the bands. It's always fun to meet people who are kind of doing what you're doing in life, because it is a unique thing being a traveling musician on the road. So I'm looking forward to making some new, great friends and getting to hear those great songs every night, and also getting to play for bigger crowds, maybe crowds who don't know — they haven't seen the band in a long time. You know, I've been in the band 17 years, but a lot of people don't even know that the band has been touring since the '90s and evolving with personnel changes and things. But I feel like we're just in a really good place right now as a band, We're playing better than ever. David Freiberg is going to turn 86, or 87, I'm sorry. He's going to turn 87 in August. He was always kind of a sideman, utility guy in all the Jefferson Starship years. But he played bass and keys and covered a lot of the harmonies, and in our band, he sings lead, a lot of the male lead vocals and a lot of the harmonies with me. His voice is just incredible. I mean, the strength and the range he has at his age, it blows the mind. It gives me hope!

You've been in the band for 17 years, which is not a short amount of time at all. I mean, that's longer than most bands stay together these days. But do you ever feel like you're still the new guy in the band?
Oh, all the time. I know that I'm not, but people don't know. It's one of these things that — you know, Grace Slick is an icon, and I understand what an honor it is to to be in the band singing her songs and everything. I've been a fan for a long time. I mean, it's like: Janis [Joplin], Grace and Nancy Wilson, for me. She's just like the queen of rock and roll, and so of course, I don't take it lightly, but I also, as a fan, I knew she never took herself that seriously to begin with. It always makes me roll my eyes when people are like, 'You're no Grace Slick and you never will be!' You know? It's like, well, okay, of course, but it doesn't mean I don't belong here. I mean she thinks I belong here. Paul Kantner, Donny Baldwin, David Freiberg, I mean, everybody in the band thinks I belong there. ... We've just built it and built it and built it, I think, by turning in great shows and playing the songs people want to hear. ... Our goal has been to get Jefferson Starship back to its former glory, and we've been doing it.

What does it means to you to be in this band that's celebrating its 50th anniversary and upholding that legacy with them?
On one hand, it's insane if I think about it too much, but on the other hand, it feels right. I feel like I'm supposed to be here. Before I ever even had an inkling of being in the band — which was never a goal of mine, trust me on that, I always was trying to be my own artist — that I was a fan, you know? When I was a kid, I would, you know: "Mom, I'm 14, can I go to this concert?" It's on a school night and she doesn't want to drive, but sure, your friend's 16-year-old sister can drive to Indiana to go see Jefferson Starship. We were probably in the last row, but the first time I saw them was 1983 and it was the version of the band that I, as a kid, loved the most, which was Paul, Grace, David, Donnie, Craig Chaquico, Pete Sears and Mickey Thomas. ... Last row, I wish I could meet them, you know? Never dreaming I'm going to be the singer one day. I mean, that's insane. [Laughs]

You wrote a song with Grace Slick in 2017 called "It's About Time." Back then you were inspired by the women's marches that were going on, etc. But a lot has happened politically and socially since then, and that was a pretty hopeful song.
I still have difficulty believing that Kamala [Harris] didn't win that election. It seemed like we had the momentum, we had the movement, we had the support, and people were psyched about it, you know, and then what? Waking up that morning was just such a harsh f***ing reality. And now I feel like we are marching backwards towards Handmaid's Tale.

And it's absolutely terrifying, you know, and as a gay person, I can say that I've been freaking out, ever since January, the day after the election, because I know what's in Project 2025 [a political initiative led by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, outlining a reshaping of the federal government and consolidation of the executive branch in favor of right-wing policies, which President Donald Trump has attempted to distance himself from despite many of his executive orders closely aligning with the plan] and I know that they're enacting it. They can deny it all they want and say, "I never read it," but other people have read it, and it's a six month plan. It takes us up to July, which is coming very quickly, and in that first six months, gay marriage is gone. That's part of the plan.

So, I'm married. I have two children. I am on their birth certificate as co-parent, because in Illinois, that's just what they do. But if somehow they decide that — okay, first they do what they do with Roe v. Wade, they throw it back to the States. Now, we're so much less safe traveling around the United States of America, which is so freaking weird. Like, we did this journey! We won! We came out on top, you know? And to have people just [make] this an issue that doesn't affect them in any way. It's really evil and a lot of this agenda is just evil. It creates suffering, needless suffering, for people who are just trying to live their lives, and life is hard enough as it is economically and everything else without having to worry about your health or your civil rights, and your status as a citizen. It's truly terrifying. And I've been making plans like — I don't know when the moment is that I go, "Okay, guys, we're going to Canada."

When you were starting your career professionally, there was Indigo Girls, Melissa Etheridge, Tracy Chapman — these artists that are now considered icons of the LGBTQ community, but at that time, not exactly the same scenario. Can you talk a little bit about entering the music business in an era where that just was not talked about as openly as it is now?
I was like, hell yeah, I'm staying in the closet. I had already lived there for a long time. I worked up the courage to tell my parents, but I wasn't ready for all that, you know? Because I did live in a very sheltered — I mean, we're in the suburbs of Chicago — but, like, that was the big city that we would sneak off to and go to the Rock and Roll McDonald's. I mean, that was the extent of our wild, crazy, go-to-the-city, you know? [Laughs] Just very white, very conservative, and so I was content to be in the closet, and I didn't really want that to be my — you know, I didn't want to be "Lesbian Singer Cathy Richardson." It was like, well, yeah, I'm gay, but I'm a singer, and I sing about all kinds of things, and I don't want to just be pegged as that. And I really, when I saw Melissa — actually, the first time I heard Melissa Etheridge, I got really depressed. I was like, oh, s***, she made my record before I could. But there was also other influences that I was picking up on. Like you said, Indigo Girls, Bonnie Raitt, Michelle Shocked, Tracy Chapman. ...

I was actually outed by the press in Chicago, and it was not like a huge secret. I had a pretty big lesbian following, but I wasn't playing necessarily gay bars. I was playing where everybody played, where all the bands played. And so it was like, there were always a lot of lesbians at my shows [Laughs], and then I was in a relationship for 12 years. And so everybody knew [she] was my wife, not married technically, but we were together a long time, and she sold my merch. It was like everybody knew, but one day — I had said something on the radio or something. Somebody said, "Why haven't you come out?" And I was like, "Oh, because people will kill you for less than being gay and that's why I've never said anything about it." That was on a radio show. And so the next month, the cover of the gay free newspaper — it was the music issue so they put it in every, like, Guitar Center and everything. "Cathy Richardson Comes Out" headline. And I was like, okay, well, I guess I'm out now.

After your 30 some years of experience in the industry, is there any advice that you would offer a young gay or lesbian artist who's trying to kind of get off the ground in 2025?
It's still an industry that boggles me, baffles me. I can give advice on how to run a band, and what to do about touring and stuff like that. I feel like, you know, just make the best music that you can, put as much as you can into making a great product as far as your recorded music, and then play live and go play those songs. Some people do it with the algorithms and stuff. I don't really know, I'm too old to tell you about that, but I can say going out and playing is how I sold records at my shows. Going out and playing even 100 times a year in your immediate vicinity is building a following, and then the media will pay attention to you. You sell tickets, you sell records, you're in business. That's all I can say.

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