HSV: What does counterculture mean to you?
Wavy Gravy: Putting my good where it will do the most. The counterculture, the collective consciousness — or unconsciousness!
HSV: We’re really far removed today in this crazy world. How do we keep the faith?
WG: “Duz does everything.” Ralph Edwards said that. It was a soap commercial but it worked for a life commercial. Put your good where it will do the most.
HSV: I feel like back then at least you had the Grateful Dead … there was more of a troop that was coming together.
Jah: (Wavy’s lovely wife of 45 years)
Yes. There was a whole bunch of us at that time. Now we’re getting old but I see that the people I would call the counterculture, that spirit lives today in many of the young people who would never ever call themselves hippies or relate to the term counterculture. But they have the heartful spirit and it gives me hope and happiness.
WG: Nostalgia for the future! We are the same person trying to shake hands with ourself. Which is an acrobatic feat … or a foot! Neal Cassady once said to me, “Boy are my feet tired! It’s a good thing I’m not afoot!”
HSV: What was your childhood like?
WG: That was 80 years ago … I remember nothing! AMNESIA! No, no, no, I remember some things …
Jah: You had an interesting walk around the block when you were a child.
WG: Yes! I lived in Princeton, New Jersey, and I was on Albert Einstein’s flight path, the same walking path as he. He would go walking from campus and I would join him on his jaunts. He enjoyed my company as a 7 or 8 year old. I remember a shock of white hair, pre-dating Don King by half a century. I remember he had a beautiful smile. And a laugh! He was not without humor. I was honored to share time and space with Albert Einstein, let me tell ya. It really floated my boat.
HSV: You’ve so many different, incredible spirits who are woven into the fabric of who you are as a human being — from Albert Einstein to Neal Cassady …
WG: Bob Dylan, Ken Kesey, Jackson Browne.
“Toward the fun!” That’s my motto! Laughter is the valve on a pressure cooker of life. If you don’t laugh at stuff, you end up with your brains or your beans on the ceiling. So dare to struggle, dare to grin, and keep on laughin’.
What is that you have tattooed on your arm?
HSV: A black panther.
WG: I was a clown for the Black Panthers in the ‘60s. It was Camp Winnarainbow on the road. They invited me to be a clown with the children of the Black Panthers while they were at their big Black Panther meeting. I was delighted to do clownage!
