Grace Barnett Wing was born October 30, 1939, in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, to Ivan W. Wing (1907-1987), of Norwegian and Swedish descent, and Virginia (nee Barnett; 1910-1984), a lineal descendant of passengers of the Mayflower. Her parents met while they were both students at the University of Washington, and later married. In 1949, her brother Chris was born. Her father, working in the investment banking sector for Weeden and Company, was transferred several times when she was a child, and in addition to Chicagoland, she lived in Los Angeles and San Francisco, before her family finally settled in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California in the early 1950s.

Slick and Tricia Nixon, former President Richard Nixon's daughter, are alumnae of Finch College. Slick was invited to a tea party for the alumnae at the White House in 1969. She invited political activist Abbie Hoffman to be her escort and planned to spike President Richard Nixon's tea with 600 micrograms of LSD. The plan was thwarted when they were prevented from entering after being recognized by White House security personnel, as Slick had been placed on an FBI blacklist. Slick later speculated that she only received the invitation because it was addressed to "Grace Wing" (the singer's maiden name), and that she never would have been invited if the Nixons had known that "Grace Wing" was the antiestablishment singer Grace Slick. In 1971, after a long recording session, Slick crashed her car into a wall near the Golden Gate Bridge while racing with Jorma Kaukonen. She suffered a concussion and later used the incident as the basis of her song "Never Argue with a German if You're Tired (or 'European Song')", which appears on the Bark album (1971). While Slick had troubles with the law while performing as a part of Jefferson Airplane, she was arrested at least four times for what she has referred to as "TUI" ("talking under the influence") and "drunk mouth". An incident occurred after an officer encountered her sitting against a tree trunk in the backwoods of Marin County drinking wine, eating bread, and reading poetry. When the officer asked what she was doing, she gave a sarcastic response, and as a result was arrested and imprisoned. The singer was also reportedly arrested in 1994 for assault with a deadly weapon after pointing an unloaded gun at a police officer. She alleged that the officer had come onto her property without explanation.

Was she ever arrested?
she was arrested at least four times for what she has referred to as "TUI" ("talking under the influence") and "drunk mouth".