10 Best Frontwomen In Rock Music History

Why She's Here: Grace Slick is one of the original female rock legends, an inspiration for Stevie Nicks and a canonical figure in the psychedelic movement of the late 1960s. She exhibited none of the kinetic energy that dominated other areas of rock at the time, instead opting to stand more or less still and either close her dark eyes in bliss or use them to stare directly into an audience's soul. Her sexy contralto voice possessed the smoothness and clarity of acid-spiked honey, bearing an invitation into the wild recesses of the mind.

Off stage, Slick lived the quintessential rock lifestyle, indulging in alcohol and drugs to great excess and once crashing her car into the side of the Golden Gate Bridge during a drag race with Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen.

Highlight: It has to be "White Rabbit," right? It speaks volumes about 1967 that Jefferson Airplane got Slick's obvious drug-centric song to chart, but her perfect vocal performance deserves most of the credit for its success. She beckons to listeners to accompany her down the musical rabbit hole, and the strange creatures and experiences Alice meets there seem oddly comforting when Slick confidently explains their presence. This song epitomizes psychedelia, and therefore Grace Slick becomes the mouthpiece for the entire genre.