HSV: You and I met through the whole Blues Traveler / Spin Doctors scene in New York in the late ‘80s.
DG: I happened to be going to Columbia at the same time that they were all starting out. We were all young misfits on the streets of New York. Blues Traveler, the Spin Doctors, and many of those bands from that scene found success, and it’s amazing for bands to find success, period! But before that success was found, they really built their strength in New York.
My dad really liked Blues Traveler. I recall we were in Paris, must’ve been in 1990. They had this well-known cassette and I have this very specific memory of my dad listening on a Walkman with two headphones, and we were just jamming in his penthouse suite on top of some crazy cool building in Paris. We’re rocking out to Blues Traveler. He was really tuned into them.
HSV: That NY jam band scene parallels SF and the Grateful Dead thing back in the day. Hanging out, playing music, and all these bands started popping out of the scene. Your dad was a big part of why folks like Jerry Garcia found an avenue to do their thing.
DG: My father would often say he was “born” in 1965 along with the Dead, the Airplane, the Fillmore, all that. HSV: [pull up photo of Bill in front of Winterland]
DG: That’s an epic photograph. It was an amazing night. I was only 10, and it’s just a testament to how cool a show it was because I’ve seen a lot of rock & roll shows, spent a lot of time at Winterland back in the day. That singular event remains the best show I’ve ever been to.
Bill knew SF. He knew where to put a band. He knew what people wanted. He knew the people literally! I think by catering to the local people and having a connection makes you do some of the things that Bill did, do things that are nice for the fans They were what he’d call a “hit” for the fans. He proudly monopolized the rock and roll scene here and did just about every rock concert. Dad gave back. He stood up for his community. He recognized the needs of the community and society in general. Towards the end of his career I think BGP was up to doing 300 benefits a year. Dad brought a lot of flavor to a concert: serving breakfast at dawn, giving posters away, having good sound and lights, having a security force that was 60 percent female because their energy works better in terms of handling people.
A mystical thing happens in public congregation. You can connect with people without even talking to them. You’re like-minded in some way. You’re there because you like the band, you want to be there, and there’s a certain amount of positive energy that’s gonna happen.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
HSV: Hey y’all! Haight Street Voice here with David Graham …
David Graham: Hello!
HSV: It’s the day before Thanksgiving. David, welcome, thanks for being here. So stoked to see you! It’s been, like we just said, 30-frickin’ years or something, dude!
DG: Long time. Thanks for having me. Good to be here.
HSV: Welcome! We met again because of the Bill Graham mural unveiling last week. But I wanted to start with how we met 30 odd years ago, and it wasn’t San Francisco.
DG: Nope.
HSV: We met each other via the whole Blues Traveler / Spin Doctors thing. So you want to tell me a little bit about that?
DG: Yeah, we met in the scene, which I like to draw a parallel between New York as sort of the birth of the jam band scene, kind of equivalent to the Seattle thing where had all of Blues Traveler and I believe Chris Gross who is better known as Chris Barron and I believe Trey all come from Princeton, New Jersey. So all those guys, at least the Traveler guys and Spin Doctor guys, at least Chris, made their way to New York. I happened to be going to Columbia at the same time that they were all starting out, we were all young misfits on the streets of New York, and all of Blues Traveler, some of the Spin Doctors, and many of those bands from that scene found success, which is amazing, for bands to find success period. And then for all of them who were friends to find success. But before that success was found, they really built their strength in New York, both Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler.
I went on to manage Blues Traveler for a while, love those guys, love the Spin Doctors. I think those bands as well as I feel a kinship with all the other bands that were happening — you know, Phish and … I guess locally it was more like God Street Wine and … it don’t even want to go down that road trying to remember all the bands!
HSV: Let’s go down the road of how all of that jam band stuff is parallel to the guy behind me here (Jerry Garcia) cuz those were just a bunch of kids goofing around, playing music, and everybody knew everybody and all these little bands started popping out of the thing. And obviously your dad is Bill Graham and he was a big part of why these kids like this guy (Jerry) found an avenue to do their thing. God bless your dad!
DG: Aww, thank you. I’m with that. Yeah, obviously the stuff he did with the Dead was — I mean actually in a weird way, I mean I’m not drawing parallels between me or him or the New York scene or the Dead, but there are parallels in that he would often say he was “born” in 1965 along with the Dead and the Airplane and the Fillmore and all that. And you know, I went to New York at a time when I was very young, so it was — not a rebirth, it was a change in life for me to happen upon the New York scene. I mean I believe the Spin Doctors played their first gig ever in the basement of the fraternity … I’m sure I was president of the fraternity but I was a member of the fraternity where I believe the Spin Doctors played their first gig.
HSV: That was ’89, right? ’88?
DG: Yeah, exactly! So we’re more than 30 years ago!
Many of the bands from that scene had some piece of the Grateful Dead, and it might not be overt, it might not be totally musically, but a lot of those bands — clearly Traveler, clearly Phish, Spin Doctors a little bit, had a feel, if not musically, at least part of their fan base were Grateful Dead fans.
HSV: Let’s fast forward into now and how I just ran into — not ran into … I’m changing the background, I was stoked to see when they unveiled the beautiful mural [digging through for image] sorry!
BG: Take your time … It is an awesome mural. We were … it made a lot of easier cuz if it was a bad mural it would’ve been a lot harder [laughter].
HSV: [laughing] What if it had sucked, dude!
BG: Yeah, it could’ve gone any way but thankfully the artist was incredible.
HSV: [find mural image]
BG: There ya go! Yeah that really does pop off the screen.
HSV: It’s beautiful!
BG: Yeah, it’s gorgeous. One has to remember that that’s spray paint, that’s graffiti. That’s a mind blower that he could be so fine with it. But yeah, this woman named Lisa Brewer came to us, us meaning the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation of which my brother and I are on the board. My brother and I worked mainly with Bonnie Simmons and Rita Gentry from the Foundation and we worked with Lisa, who came to us because she got some money from the City of San Francisco and she does murals in general around the City, and she came to us wanting to immortalize our father Bill, and we were thrilled at the prospect of doing that. We started meeting via Zoom for about a year. She brought on this fellow name Wes Marks, who is incredible, as evidenced by what you’re looking at. It’s an amazing result from … [laughs] Of course, we discussed this a lot, we discussed the concept, we discussed the content of it, and we would like to think that we participated in the concept, but for the most part it seems as though Wes sort of led us down a road that we felt we were forging, so it was great! [laughter] His spirit, his sort of unconditional vision and just how deep he went in terms of what he needed to do this. I mean he gave us a questionnaire that was very deep questions, and I’m just enamored with him and his results.
HSV: Yes, it’s beautiful. And we should let everybody know it’s a half a block from BoomBoom Room and literally just down the street from the Fillmore, which is so cool. It’s just so wonderful.
DG: Yes. And what’s really interesting too if you can see down on the lower right-hand corner the little blue ball it says “Fillmore” and below it says “Winterland” and what’s interesting is that this mural sort of creates a triangulation between the Fillmore which is [pointing, laughing] THAT way and the Winterland is just a block THAT way [pointing, laughter].
It’s funny because I spent a lot of time at the Winterland back in the day but I was very young, so I thought Winterland was like 5 blocks away, and it was really funny to get through to the fact that it’s just right there.
HSV: You know what’s weird is that my first concert at 16 years old was the Sex Pistols at Winterland.
DG: You were there, wow!
HSV: I was there, yes!
DG: That is a very famous concert, actually.
HSV: Yeah! And the name Bill Graham since the age of 15, 14 — I mean I grew up in the Bay Area, so Bill’s always sort of been — I’ve been around the music scene since I was 15: The Mabuhay Gardens and the Stone and the Keystone … and I’m just so grateful that I’m speaking to you at this moment, and this whole … I got teary-eyed at the unveiling and the whole thing on survival and getting through things and this cycle that’s coming around where I’m looking around and I’m hanging out with Ben Fong-Torres again and he was my teacher SF State in 19 frickiin’ ’80 or whatever it was.
DG: Wow. He’s got that new Rolling Stone film that came out.
HSV: And Joel Selvin I just saw on Sunday at Amoeba. I just love the fact that — I almost feel like it’s all Bill’s children! I mean you for reals!
DG: Bill, you know, he was always 5 to 10 years older than even the oldest of the people he was generally working with, so there was always an older brother, mostly paternal vibe between him and — well certainly everyone at BGP and anyone in the music scene in San Francisco! [laughter]
HSV: So tell me [looking at notes] … your connection with San Francisco. Did you … I’m not really sure where you grew up. [pull up photo of Bill in front of Winterland]
DG: Oh that’s an awesome photograph. My favorite.
HSV: This is by Michael Zagaris.
DG: Yes, Michael Zagaris.
HSV: This is going to be the cover of the Winter edition I think.
DG: Oh really!? That’s an epic photograph. That actually to this day remains my favorite rock and roll concert ever. I won’t get into the whole story, it was an amazing, amazing night. I was only 10, and it’s just a testament to how cool a show it was if it’s my favorite show because I’ve seen a lot of rock and roll shows and been on tours and all of that kind of stuff — but that singular event remains the best show I’ve ever been to.
I have a curious relationship with the Bay Area because I did not go to school here. I went to all my schooling on the East Coast, and it’s just a result of my folks’ divorce settlement. There was sort of very regimented time I spent. So I spent less than half my time out here. But I do consider it home. I have lived most of my life on the East Coast but I do consider San Francisco, because I was born in San Francisco and I’ve had enough experiences here where I feel very interwoven into its scene. But yet I consider myself an East Coaster.
HSV: Where you now? You don’t have to give me all the details, but you’re on the East Coast now? Sorry I dropped my notes …
BG: Yeah, I’m in Pennsylvania right now.
HSV: Ah, Pennsylvania! You must see John Popper a lot.
BG: I see John Popper with some frequency. Well John lived for awhile in Quakertown. He’s now back up West I believe. John remains a good friend of mine and obviously I love Blues Traveler a lot.
HSV: Hey John!
BG: Hi John! John is just one of the more unique individual I’ve ever known and is a gas!
I’m one of those people and I’m sure there are many of them who are town between the East West thing. I really love the culture, the speed, the way things GO on the East Coast but there are elements of the West Coast — first of all the geographic and physical beauty of this area is on a different level. So it’s great to be currently in California.
HSV: Yeah, well, we’re glad to have you! For me it was the opposite, where I grew up here, went to SF State, lived on the corner of Haight and Ashbury, said screw the hippie shit and moved to New York in 1987, you know, but I came back! So, yeah, that speed, you know, “You wanna fuckin’ sandwich or what?” It’s good for the soul.
DG: Yeah. It’s also well-oiled. I always think that the East Coast has been around I don’t know,100, 200 years more, so everything from the way people operate to the amounts of roads to get from Point A to Point B, 13 different ways, not just the one way. That kind of stuff.
HSV: Alright. Well that’s a good shoutout to New York— West Coast / East Coast! [laughter] Okay, music in your life then, what about music in your life now?
DG: Ah! It’s funny. I’m one of those people who think that Pearl Jam is new, you know? [laughter] So I’m the wrong person to ask!
HSV: I was JUST listening to them dude, literally, before this conversation.
DG: Really? Yeah. I’m a real rock n roll junkie, and also probably snob to a certain degree because I need guitar, I need piano, I need bass. And a lot of the music that I hear in today’s world doesn’t have that exactly, so there’s a bit of a disconnect for me. But I just like good music, I like good songs. There are certain songs today, there are So Sure Weeknd song???? that new Olivia Rodrigo song is really good, it’s really upbeat.
But I’m no … I’m 30 years ago in my brain musically.
HSV: Are you involved with management like you were with Blues Traveler or whatever you were? What was your title?
BG: I was their manager, for awhile. I mean in the beginning of things we were — clearly when I say I managed them, clearly Dad should take a lot of credit for backing us and doing a lot of things that needed to be done, probably behind the scenes.
I remember [laughs] stuff like Traveler at one point decided it would be wise to buy their own sound system and lo and behold I think they got it and it got stolen the next night.
HSV: [laughs] Oh fuck!
DG: Something crazy. And I recall calling A&M Records, their record label, and saying, “You know, we need [laughs] some ungodly amount of money to replace what was gone.” And they did it. And I’m pretty much 100 percent sure they didn’t do it because I asked. I’m sure someone there called Bill and said, “Listen …” And he was probably like, “Just do it.”
So I think there were probably a lot of instances in which he stepped in that most people don’t even realize. But he really liked Blues Traveler. I recall we were in Paris oddly enough, and I don’t think the album had come out yet — this must be in 1990. And they had this very well-known cassette that had 4 songs on it: “But Anyway” and I believe there’s a song called “Out of My Hands” which has a flute solo in it. And I have just this very specific memory of my Dad listening on a Walkman with 2 headphones, and we were just jamming in his hotel suite, and this is on top of some crazy cool building in Paris in some penthouse suite. And we’re rocking out to Blues Traveler. So he was really tuned into them actually.
HSV: Wow. That’s beautiful. Thanks for sharing that. That made my heart go pitter-patter. That’s really beautiful.
DG: But after he died I kind of, I just immediately felt that the music industry was going to be a different animal for me.
HSV: It was a different animal for everybody, dude.
There’s a beautiful picture of Jerry and Popper when your Dad passed …
DG: Oh really?
HSV: … and they’re onstage playing in Golden Gate Park. You’ve seen it. I think Eichner took it.
DG: Interesting, I’d like to see it. What was funny about that show was that — well [rolls eyes and sighs for sadness]. I mean the fact that BGP did their biggest show ever 5 days after he was gone is pretty unique.
But I do remember — this is kind of classic for me — is that I just remember wanting John to go up there and kick their ass because John is obviously an incredible harmonica player. And I was kind of in a totally “not getting the moment”. I was like, “Okay! Just go up there and fuckin’ shred!” [laughter] And John’s better angels spoke and said, “No! I don’t think that’s gonna happen today!” It was really funny.
But it was really sweet. It was very nice of Jerry cuz I remember going and asking Jerry if John could sit in and he was very sweet. Jerry was particularly very numb because Jerry was such a smart and nice person, and he was so effusive in his emotional response to things that I do remember his general state that day, which was kind of torn up. He was such a kind person. I just remember him on that day and I just remember the opposite of that of me being like, “Alright John! Go fuckin’ shred!” [laughter] So I’m glad he didn’t and it was very nice seeing John with the band [Grateful Dead] for sure.
HSV: So that’s a beautiful area to sort of segue into the music scene did change when your dad passed in my personal opinion — well, it has changed no matter why, but I think your Dad passing and then of course technology and all of that … that’s one of my questions to you, I know you don’t live here, you not here all year, but the music scene here, I don’t know if you try to go to any shows while you’re here but it’s changed! I mean god bless the Fillmore is still there and we’ve got the Independent, but Haight Street? The Deluxe closed, there’s nothing going on. And because this is the Haight Street Voice, it’s really sad that we don’t have some sort of music scene or vibrance here.
I guess what I’m asking is just in general, your take on where music is like even in New York or Pennsylvania where you live. Where are we? Is there hope that we can — we can’t go backwards like your Dad here that I’m pointing at right now. But is there an area where we can gather — like we used to do in New York at Nitengales for chrissakes.
DG: It does seem like the level of congregation below the Fillmore, the smaller, smaller places, I don’t feel a lot of them having great quality bands. I mean I think there are a lot of reasons for it. A) Back in the day, again, there were just a lot of instrumental bands and I think the way people “make” it now is different. You could have a YouTube video, you could have a thing — one person could be on their computer and sound like there are a 100 pieces in whatever they’re doing. So I think there’s a lot of — it’s not as sort of narrow as it used to be back in the day.
As far as relatively bigger concerts go, it’s just become homogenized, it’s become the same thing over and over. And I’ve experienced this on some different types of projects but it’s led me to the same conclusion which is people don’t like to play with each other the way they used to. I don’t mean literally play, but that was part of it, but just like people don’t necessarily like … managers and promoters back in the day there was sort of a sense of brotherhood and sort of connectivity between everybody. But I think now there’s no individualism to each city. I think that’s a big thing. While I think it’s cool that outfits like Live Nation are there to support live music, I think the downside of that is that by collecting all those markets into one thing, you lose the specific connection that the promoter has to his or her specific city. Like Bill knew San Francisco. He knew where to put a band. He knew what people wanted. He knew the people literally! And so I think that’s a big thing, or how to advertise a show. I think by catering to the local people and having a connection to the people makes you do some of the things that Bill did, which was do things that are nice for the fans [laughs at the obviousness]. And so they were what he’d call a “hit” for the fans.
So you don’t see unique stuff anymore.
HSV: I have a fantasy, a secret fantasy of, once a month — Billy Cohen and I talk about this every once in a while — Milk Bar is not the venue. I don’t want to poo-poo any venues cuz if people see this … god bless Milk Bar, they’re trying. But have a thing once a month where people like Billy Cohen and Eric McFadden and all the people I know who are sort of my age, between 40 and 60, in that wheelhouse, they’re really hungry for what I’m freakin’ talking about.
DG: Right.
HSV: It could be, you know, from 6 to 10pm, it doesn’t have to be the late-night concert bar thing. I mean it could be a speakeasy kind of vibe, in the Haight area or something close. I don’t know why I’m telling your or sharing this with you …
DG: No, no! I think there’s a good point to that. I think that generally speaking, the people who can do that easily, meaning the bigger promoting outfits in the country and/or cities could have places like that but because I think in their minds it’s short dollars, it’s not going to be something that’s [a moneymaker]. But in MY mind — and this is something that was very true back in the day, Bill had clubs. We had Wolfgang’s in the mid-80s and that was seen as, “Okay, if a band comes to Wolfgang’s, then he’s gonna come back and play the Fillmore and then they play the Fillmore, then they’ll play the Warfield then the Greek then the Coliseum then Day on the Green or whatever. [laughter] There was an actual literal business reason to have a club because you will — and I think even what you’re talking about going on a lower — not lower in terms of not as good but in terms of smaller level — which is if I was a local promoter I personally would definitely have a couple small rooms because it’s a great way to … again, assuming you had a big enough staff and all that good stuff … but I kind of don’t understand why — and I think that’s part of what happens when you have a LiveNation collecting all the promoters into one thing. And, you know, the bandwidth for anyone to do the small business in a specific city becomes a lot less possible. But we’ll see how things pan out. There’s more competition now. I know in the Bay Area there are many — I shouldn’t say many but several, whereas back in the day Bill proudly monopolized the rock and roll scene here and did just about every rock concert, most rock concerts. Now you’ll see Another Planet do a show or you’ll see LiveNation or AEG — I think AEG runs the Warfield, correct? And now I think there are other people doing smaller rooms, so I think it might come full circle where people will realize, you know, I can open a smaller room and I’m not necessarily coming up against a behemoth because you’re not competing. Unless I’m missing something and LiveNation has all kinds of little venues all over the City that I don’t know about! [laughter]
HSV: [laughing] I don’t know about them either and I live here!
DG: My guess is that the cost effectiveness for them to do that is probably not as great as having U2 on the road for 3 years. [laughter]
HSV: Way to bring that home.
Have you heard of Music City San Francisco? Do you know this guy Rudy?
DG: I have.
HSV: In fact I got a picture of you two [at the BG mural unveiling]. I think that’s a great effort that he’s making but I’m still trying to get my head around it. I interviewed him on Sunday, he gave me a tour of the place. I don’t know if you’ve seen it?
DG: I have, but I saw it in a much more embryonic state.
HSV: It’s massive! I mean it’s a hotel, he’s gonna have a restaurant and couple bars and rehearsal studios and so much more. I commend him, it’s brilliant — I mean it’s hard to get my head around it but at least …
DG: It’s a lot. The cool thing is he has an alleyway behind it.
HSV: Yes. Fern Alley.
DG: Outdoor sort of stuff. Yeah, the facility is amazing, it’s ambitious.
HSV: Yes, it’s ambitious. And we love ya Rudy, we wish you — I wish you well, good luck and all that.
DG: Me too. I mean his heart’s in the right place. I think that … I just don’t have my finger on the pulse of having that many elements in one place and whether or not some of those elements are actually attended the way — I mean last time … it is really cool that he’s doing that, he’s just trying to service a lot of different people, and I think his heart is in the right place in that regard.
HSV: I do too.
DG: Last time I was there it was rehearsal spaces and recording spaces and performance pleases — all of which were really cool. And I think if he can that pull it off then mazeltov! That would be awesome because it’s a great concept. I have no finger on whether or not, say, there are that many people who will fill the rooms, you know?
HSV: I’m going to interview Michael Zagaris who took this fantastic photo behind me as well. He lives around the corner. He’s lived in the Haight for 40 or 50 years I think.
DG: I did not know that.
HSV: I see him all the time. What a guy, man. Football — all that.
DG: Mike is awesome. Yeah, he took this photograph. He also took another I think world class — I mean most of his photographs are world class. He’s been — I was this big [kid size] back in the day and I recall him doing a photo shoot of me and the Philadelphia Phillies at a New York Giants game. And for me, because I grew up near Philadelphia, I was just beyond! I have a picture with Greg Luzinski, who was a famous Philly. They called him The Bull. And he’s like 10 feet taller than I am! [laughter]. It’s great.
I think Michael has one of the great — other great rock and roll photographs, I think that’s a great rock and roll photograph — photographs where I think he was in the top somehow of Winterland shooting down on The Who and I think Townsend threw up his guitar and all the fans are reaching up for the guitar but it looks like they’re reaching towards him, but the guitar is coming towards him also! It’s just like this next-level rock and roll photograph. I love Michael. It seems he shoots — everything I’ve seen him shoot of rock and roll has been black and white. And to me, that’s just such a classy way to present it. Because, I don’t know, somehow it makes me feel like there’s more in the content. There’s something about a black and white photograph.
HSV: I’m the same.
DG: Yeah.
HSV: I completely concur.
Alright, I know we’ve got a little bit of a time limit here, it’s been a half hour.
DG: It’s all good.
HSV: I wanted to mention this whole thing about, you know, talking about how is music going to survive? How can we keep that sort of, you know, roux, the mojo, of old-school souls like the one behind me in San Francisco — let alone communities everywhere? And it’s about survival, which leads me to the apple and the story of the apple with your Dad. That whole idea is such a beautiful sharing. We don’t have to go into the root of that other story, but the fact that they’re there every time you go to the Fillmore.
DG: Yeah. The mural, the concept of the mural is … around the border of the mural are apples that are growing, and inside the apples are all of the benefits that he did that are very well-known. So the concept was that, you know, Dad gave back. He stood up for his community, he recognized the needs of the community and society in general and he participated in some pretty next-level benefits, and that’s who he became.
I mean towards the end of his career I think BGP was up to doing 300 benefits a year cuz Bill had a sort of policy that if you had the talent or you had the band that he would produce your show for free. And I’m sure in many, many cases he ended up booking the shows or at least participating.
One of my favorite stories is the guys who ran a peace walk from Leningrad to Moscow in ’87, called him in like the middle of the march, in a few weeks they were gonna be in Moscow and they were like, “Hey, can we do a concert in Moscow?” And of course Bill’s like, “Sure!” And he got the Doobie Brothers and Santana and Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor in what seemed to me like the blink of an eye. So he would do these things. And inside the apples are the benefits.
The thing with the apples that struck me was that it was a tradition at the Fillmore that he would have this barrel of apples at the top of the steps and that they were free. You can come in and you can take an apple. But none of knew why. None of knew why it was apples or knew why it was that specifically. And in the course of doing a museum tour of his career that we did at the end of the 2010s, Bob Barsotti and Bonnie Simmons from the Foundation, but mostly Bob I think, tracked down this fellow who — I won’t get into too much detail — but someone who was with our father during this trip escaping Nazi Germany and going to America vis-a-vis marching through France to Lisbon. At one point they were in an orphanage in France. There were a lot of kids, some younger some older, and everyone was hungry. These were kids who were escaping Nazi Germany. It’s not like there’s food abundantly everywhere, and it’s a very gnarly and nasty experience. So Bill would at night go out into apple orchards. He would go and he would fill his shirt up with apples and bring them back to the kids and the kids would scarf them down and Ralph Moras, this fellow’s name, said they were absolutely red apples. We all heard that and we were like [look of disbelief] our jaws hit the floor because a few decades later when Bill comes into rock and roll, which is a very curious thing for him to do given his background, he was like, “Yeah, I’m gonna give apples away.” He had a built-in empathy for the people because of what he’d experienced. [pauses; laughs] And I’m sure he looked at some of the hippies crawling into the Fillmore and was like, “Oh god, that guy needs an apple!” So I think he took it upon himself to try and take care of everyone.
HSV: And probably yelled at the guy for putting the pit on the floor. “Hey! Pick up your trash!”
DG: Yes! If you didn’t get yelled at by Bill then somehow you haven’t met Bill. Everyone seems to have the one time — it’s almost like a badge of honor, that you were really there.
HSV: Rita Gentry really did a great job at collecting some of those stories in her book.
DG: Yes! Her book is great. “Before I Forget” by Rita Gentry.
HSV: It’s brilliant, it’s wonderful.
Okay, David. [looking at notes] Survival. The apple. What’s next for you in 2024? Do you have any sort of thing, what’s coming up for you?
DG: Um, not really [laughs] which is …
HSV: Which is great!
DG: What’s remarkable is that our — the awareness of Bill has grown since his death, and that has been very pleasurable because, I mean obviously he’s my and Alex’s father, and we love to see that. Meaning that it’s incredible that I do spend my time still representing him and doing things on his behalf or with the Foundation. And it’s really cool because — and in part this relates to what we were talking about because I think the museum tour … aww [reacting to hieroglyphics photo by Herb Green] Herb Green’s picture!
HSV: Yeah!
DG: I think the museum tour raised awareness but I also think that because concerts have become homogenized and people have sort of, you know, not necessarily the greatest experiences anymore because there’s no … Dad just brought a lot of flavor to a concert, he brought a lot of care for people. A lot of people have negative experiences at concerts. That wasn’t the case at a Bill Graham concert. And I think that — so you’ll hear, I think I recall like James from Metallica going on Howard Stern and being like, “Ah! Bill would never accept this!” The price of tickets, for example. This whole ticketing kerfuffle that’s been going on. And for all the old-school guys it brings Bill to mind as someone who would’ve dealt with that. So I think there’s a lot of that energy. So there’s an energy that kind of bubbles around a bit as being what he was which was, not only did he run concerts with an incredible compassion for the fans and would give back to them in terms of whatever it was: serving breakfast at dawn, giving posters away, or just having good sound and lights, having a security force that was like 60 percent female because their energy works a lot better in terms of handling people. So there were all of these things that he did that people might not articulate in their minds or intellectualize that he did, you know? So I think a lot of that’s missing. And a lot of people bring him up in that regard.
HSV: That’s beautiful. Eloquently spoken. And lastly, and this is it, and then you’re off to your holiday and whatever you’re doing.
DG: Thank you! Happy Holidays [waving]
HSV: Happy Thanksgiving to you, man. This is truly giving thanks! I mean this full circle thing really is …
DG: Yeah, it is wild talking to you because it’s been 30 years and you know the New York scene as well as I do. And what’s amazing is that a lot of those bands are still able to do their thing! It’s really mazel tov to all those guys!
HSV: Okay and lastly, what would you like to say .. this is … Haight Street Voice is hyper local with a global perspective. What would you like to say to the Haight community, let alone communities all over the world?
DG: Oh, well, you know, duh: Be nice to each other. Take care of each other. Look out for each other. Be aware of each other. Try to be giving. Take care of yourself, you know, first of all, and then like they say in airplanes, you know, put your mask on first so you can take of yourself and then take care of others. I just wish that everyone takes care of themselves and their brothers the best way they can, and bring niceness to the world because there seems to be a lot of acrimony in general between the … all the stuff that I won’t mention because I don’t want to politicize anything. Just take it down — notch down the aggressiveness and notch up the awareness.
HSV: Dance and have fun?
DG: Yeah, positivity. But also take things seriously when they need to be. Be happy go free and frivolous when you can be but also be responsible all the time for making sure nobody is having trauma or difficulty. But I also think taking care of one’s self is a big one. People say, “Be kind” or say this or that. Be kind to yourself. If everyone was kind to themselves, it’d be a lot easier to be kind to everybody else! [laughs]
HSV: And also I think music is the thru line.
DG: Yeah.
HSV: Like I said, I saw the Sex Pistols at Winterland when I was 15. My mom was dying of cancer and that show really — music all my life has been this healing thing. It takes you out of your damn pain for 2 hours or whatever it is, and you just — the band takes care of it for whatever length of time.
DG: Right.
HSV: Harkening back to your Pops, and to you.
DG: And also you’re allowed — there’s something about giving yourself over to music but also experiencing that communally with a bunch of people, there’s something, a mystical thing happens in public congregation that when you have a shared experience that’s just … you can connect and make friends with people without even talking to them. First of all the fact that you’re there means that you are like-minded in some way, shape, or form — you’re at the same concert, so you automatically are weeding out people that you might not groove with, so … [laughs]
HSV: And you’re ready for the thing to happen no matter what that is, whether it’s your Dad coming down on joint on New Year’s Eve or whatever!
DG: Right. It allows you to have connectivity without talking about the president or the government, or something we all know but it isn’t an amazing, positive experience. Music for the most part, you’re there because you like the band, you want to be there and there’s a certain amount of positive energy that’s gonna happen, so to share that it’s great because you’re skipping a lot of intermediate points [laughs].
HSV: Yes. Well thank you so much. Love ya so much.
DG: I love you too. Thank you for having me! Alright, good to see you all. Now that I’m out here a bit more so we’ll run into each other.
HSV: Yeah, let’s stay in touch. Let’s get some music going, dude.
DG: Yeah, there you go! Haight Street rocks. You know I haven’t hung out there a lot but Haight Street is sure survive and drive.
HSV: Next time you come out come to the Haight, I’m like the — I mean I’ve lived here forever.
DG: I’ll do that. We’ll walk the streets!
HSV: That’d be great man, that’d been awesome. I love ya, David, thanks so much. Happy Holidays.
DG: Thanks!
HSV: Peace!
