Alum Marty Balin, of Jefferson Airplane, Still Flying High

PACIFIC SUN (SAN RAFAEL) -- A short half-century ago in San Francisco, a handsome young San Francisco State University Art student with an angelic but powerful tenor voice gathered a few musician friends to form a band that, before long, was named the Jefferson Airplane. And the rest, as they say, is musical history. To this day, Marty Balin has never stopped singing and writing songs—especially the romantic kind. In fact his very first recorded song was titled “I Specialize in Love” released in 1962. “I love a good love song, you know?” he reflects today. “I guess I’m just one of the those wimpy romantic singers.”