Tribute Concert Set For Former Jefferson Airplane Drummer

Former Marin rock drummer Joey Covington, who played with the Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship and co-founded the spinoff band Hot Tuna, will be remembered at a tribute concert Aug. 31 in Palm Springs, where he had been living for the past three years.

Mr. Covington died June 4 in a car crash in Palm Springs. He was 67.

A prominent member of the Marin music scene during much of the 1970’s and 80’s, he lived at various times in San Anselmo, Stinson Beach, Mill Valley and Sausalito, where he docked his cabin cruiser and drove an amphibious car. He also had a rehearsal and recording studio on Shoreline Highway in Tamalpais Junction.

A self-taught drummer, he played on the Jefferson Airplane’s 1969 “Volunteers” album. That same year, he helped found Hot Tuna with Jefferson Airplane members Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady.

He was hired as the Jefferson Airplane’s full-time drummer in 1970 after the original member, Spencer Dryden, left the group. For the 1971 Jefferson Airplane album “Bark,” Mr. Covington co-wrote, played drums and sang the lead vocal on “Pretty as You Feel,” the last of the band’s singles to make a U.S. chart, peaking at number 60. He left the band in 1972, but four years later co-wrote the Jefferson Starship hit “With Your Love,” a single that charted at number 12.

In the mid ’80’s, he led a touring band, the San Francisco AllStars, that included Merl Saunders, Papa John Creach and John and Mario Cipollina.

Three days before he died, he played his last gig, an 87th-birthday celebration for Marilyn Monroe in Palm Springs.

Mr. Covington is survived by a son, Nicholas Covington White of Mill Valley, a Sausalito police officer.