RIP. Johnny Barbata

@soix is correct, Skip Spence was The Airplane’s drummer on their first album. He took off for Mexico with a coupla chicks without telling the group, and was mia for a few scheduled shows. They fired him, and he ended up playing rhythm guitar and singing in Moby Grape.

I read somewhere that before joined MG he was briefly in the San Jose band The Chocolate Watchband, but I saw every local show they played and I never saw him onstage with them. Throughout the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s you would occasionally see Skip wandering the streets of downtown San Jose (he was living there in a halfway house), bumming cigarettes and asking for spare change. Like Syd Barrett, Brian Wilson, and Peter Green, a victim of LSD.

Oh man, Johnny was fantastic! Even Buddy Rich thought so.

His technical playing is just subtle enough to pass unnoticed, but not by drummers. Give a new listen to his playing on The Turtles’ "Happy Together", "Elenore" and "She’d Rather Be With Me". Absolutely brilliant, hip, and cool! I employ Johnny’s kick drum ideas in my own playing. His and Levon Helm’s, my models for the playing of the bass drum.