The guitarist had a string of health problems in recent years, including a heart attack in March of last year. Guitarist Marty Balin co-founded Jefferson Airplane with Kanter in San Francisco in 1965. The group released their debut, "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off", in the summer of 1966 to little fanfare.

The addition of singer Grace Slick in 1966 and their second album, 1967's "Surrealistic Pillow", helped pioneer the Bay Area counterculture psychedelic rock scene referred to as the "San Francisco sound" during the "Summer Of Love."