1973. Jeannette Sears around the time we fell in love. She was (is) extremely smart, beautiful, great sense of humor, and possesses a strong sense of right and wrong. We were just friends at first because I was with my English girlfriend (and still close friend of ours) Lucy Daniel at the time, and Jeannette was with Jim Murray of the original Quicksilver Messenger Service. We were all good friends. I met her at John Cipollina’s house in Mill Valley in 1971 and we later wrote a song about it called “Brother John” which was released on my album “The Long Haul”. I broke up with Lucy after a love affair that had lasted several years…she has been happily married to TV lighting director Peter Raby for many years now, and writes for BBC TV and is a published author.
Jeannette broke up with her later partner, Don Hyde. I went through a pretty crazy period in Mill Valley in 1972 when I was living in the house on Melrose that Nicky Hopkins was renting me while he was off with the Stones, and later when I lived on Morning Sun opposite Kathy McDonald. Jeannette and I had been flashing on each other for a while then, but only as friends. We did get together once during the time I lived on Melrose in ’72, when she came over to write songs, and we ended up making mad passionate love. We weren’t seeing each other on a regular basis yet though. Some crazy times for me went by.
In early 1973 Jeannette and I got together for real and moved to England to live in a little cottage in the country while I recorded “Smiler” with Rod Stewart. We moved back to the USA in 1974 and I joined Jefferson Starship, got married in 1975 and have been happily married for thirty-six years. We have two wonderful children, Dylan and Natalie. Both recently happily married…Dylan to Danielle Bertoni, and Natalie to Jeff Sullivan. Natalie Sullivan…sounds good. Now we have two amazing grandchildren…Ophelia Sears, and Silas Sullivan.
After I stopped writing with Grace, Jeannette wrote lyrics for my Jefferson Starship songs, including “Stranger”, “Save Your Love”, “Awakening”, “Winds of Change”, several of which went into heavy rotation on M.T.V.
Jeannette has just finished her first novel and signed with a literary agency who is about to begin shopping it around. Grace Slick read the book in two days and gave Jeannette a wonderful quote she can use…the book is a novel about a fictional rock singer and her journey through life.