Happy Birthday Joey Covington

Joey Covington, a journeyman drummer with roots back in the old-school rock days, played drums with Jefferson Airplane from 1970 to 1972, and co-wrote one of the group's last chart hits. By the time he joined the band, he was a seasoned pro whose range of involvements, versatility, and open-minded attitude were all signs of a superior player.

He began playing drums at the age of ten, listening mostly to jazz players and the drum-orgy recordings of Sandy Nelson. His professional career began soon thereafter, playing in polka bands with his mother and father as chaperones. At 14, he somehow managed to elude their company when he began playing to back up strippers, actually one of the few regular gigs available to rock musicians during the '50s and early '60s. In his high-school years he played with teenage rock bands, developing the ability to sing from behind the drum set, and also learned rudiments in the school marching band. At 20, he received an ultimatum from his father: he had one month to find a regular drum gig or he would have to get into some other sort of work. Covington headed to New York on a Greyhound bus with his drum set and a hundred bucks; schmoozed an agent reference out of none other than Joey Dee of the Starliters; then camped out in this agent's office for hours, progressing from the warm-hearted offer of a bus ticket back home to an actual tour leaving the next day courtesy of frontman Danny Apolinar, whose entire rhythm section had just run out on him. Gigs with acts such as the Supremes and the Shangri-Las followed, as well as a package tour under the direction of the slick Dick Clark. Covington became more steadily involved with the Fenways, a group that recorded many singles in the early '60s, and might have become household words if the leader hadn't decided to turn down a song that was offered to the group with the suggestive chorus "My baby wants to do the hanky panky." (This song turned out to be a giant hit for Tommy James & the Shondells.) In the summer of 1967, Covington headed for the West Coast, settling into Los Angeles, where one night he came across a violinist from the swing era named John Creach. It was the drummer who came up with the nickname Papa John Creach for this musician and introduced him to the Jefferson Airplane circle, where the violinist made a wonderful contribution. Covington himself tried out for the band several years before actually joining, finally playing a double drum set lineup with the group's original percussionist, Spencer Dryden. When Dryden left to join the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Covington became the group's sole drummer. More important, he was part of the entire circle of side projects involving various members, including the blues- and ragtime-flavored Hot Tuna and a solo effort by charismatic vocalist Grace Slick.