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Alexander Lee "Skip" Spence (April 18, 1946 ? April 16, 1999) was a
musician and singer-songwriter. He was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Spence was a guitarist in an early line-up of Quicksilver Messenger
Service before Marty Balin got him to be the drummer for Jefferson
Airplane. After one album with Jefferson Airplane, their debut Jefferson
Airplane Takes Off, he left to co-found Moby Grape, once again as a
guitarist.
Spence suffered from schizophrenia. During the 1968 recording of the
group's second album, Wow, Spence allegedly attempted to break down a
bandmate's hotel room door with a fire axe while on LSD, and was committed
for six months to the criminal ward at New York's Bellevue Hospital. Upon
his release, he recorded his only solo album, the now-classic
psychedelic/folk album Oar (1969, Columbia Records). However, mental
illness and alcoholism prevented him from sustaining a career in the music
industry, a
