Haight Street Voice: We’re gonna start with way back…
Mickey Hart: Way back! (laughs)
HSV: If you think of your younger self, what was it like being here when the counterculture exploded? What did that feel like?
MH: It was great! It was lots of fun. The street was happening. It was really blooming. Everybody was creating something, doing something, trying to make a better world. It was a consciousness-raising, geo-thermal moment, I don’t know what you call it, but (laughs) it certainly lit up a whole bunch of people at the same time. Lit up, get it?
HSV: Yeah! Plenty of good weed going around, too. Did you have a sense that something was going on?
MH: Yeah, we did. You could tell. It was in the air … Electricity was in the air. A lot of things that were happening were kind of happenstance, luck was abounding. We were on the street, so we knew each other. People gravitated towards each other, and we formed little groups, finding truth. But music was the driving force. There was a spirit behind it, but music was the very center of it all … the Airplane and the Grateful Dead, Big Brother, Country Joe and the Fish. Everybody. We all knew each other. We were friends. We competed, but friendly competition. Very friendly. We loved each other, had relations with each other, often. It was a good time for the street. After ’67, something changed.
HSV: Do you think Golden Gate Park and the Panhandle, and the vibe of all those trees affected the whole magical landscape?
MH: Of course. It’s the City, you know? Trees in the city, the park, the green, everybody was smoking and trying psycho-active drugs — it was a time of great experimentation personally and in groups. So, you know, it was really thriving. People were following their muse, and that was a really important thing back then, when you could follow your muse without getting shut down for it. It didn’t cost you very much to do anything. Living was cheap. We had to pay for the instruments and so forth, so we had to charge. We’d rather have played for free. We tried many times to play for free; and we did. But it used to cost us to play free. We always played better when we played free.
HSV: How does it feel to be returning to Golden Gate Park in August? I’ll be quite frank: I know a lot of street kids and they’re like, “I can’t afford $285 a day!” It’s interesting that you just said we always played our best when we played for free.
MH: Yeah! We loved to back then! It was wonderful. We always gave it away to the Haight-Ashbury, the Free Clinic, you know, all kinds of things in the Haight that needed support. There were a lot of benefits! Almost every other gig was some kind of benefit.
HSV: HALO Haight Ashbury Legal Organization!
MH: Yeah! That was in our living room! (Laughter)
HSV: I met you all back in 1990 in New York. Jerry brought me up on stage and man, it was like being on a fuckin’ spaceship… There must be an electric feeling in your bones.
MH: It is! It’s an electric feeling. It feels like there’s a loss of gravity. The stage is like a spaceship. It certainly is. Where does it take you? That’s the idea. The idea is to be able to take you and the audience to some virtual space. To leave the planet, as it were, and go someplace that perhaps is higher in consciousness and transform the consciousness. That was always the business the Grateful Dead was in…
HSV: That is beautiful! It leads me to a quote about your upcoming show, “Mickey Hart: Art at the Edge of Magic,” at the Haight Street Art Center: “Just like the Grateful Dead’s music transcends the surface level of rock and roll, my art serves as a vessel for raising consciousness, striving to create a slightly better world.” How does it feel to have your show coming to the Haight?
MH: Really cool. Really great. I love to create no matter what form: audio, visual … you know, I have to create. And this is like a visual representation of my audio, my sonic world. That’s how you could look at it. A lot of these images were inspired by the cosmos. I’ve done a lot of work in the study of astrophysics. That’s where a lot of this comes from. Where the other comes from I have no idea! (Laughter) Nor do I care to know, but it’s there and it comes from someplace. So, you know, I don’t ask too many questions about where it comes from!
HSV: Your daughter Reya told me she was in Vietnam and said, “I’ll see you in August!”
MH: Yeah! She’s in Laos now. She writes for the Atlantic! She had two major pieces. The last one was with Mick Jagger and Clifton Chenier. She interviewed Mick Jagger! Got a 45- to 50-minute interview. It was really great! He doesn’t do interviews, so this was a biggie for her.
HSV: You said you like to create things. Well, you created this human, so good job, Mickey! (Laughter) What would you like to say to the Haight community and communities all over the world?
MH: Never give up hope — ever. And, you know, just keep on truckin.’ Keep your spirit up. Don’t give up, just don’t give up.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
HSV: This is the Haight Street Voice — hyper local with a global perspective — I’ve been doing it since 2017. I’ve interviewed everybody from Bobby Weir to Peter Coyote to … in an effort to keep the light that lit the ‘60s shining bright and moving forward and I really appreciate you being in this edition, okay! I just wanted to start there.
Talking about the Haight. I’m at ground zero. I’m at Page and Masonic right now. I’ve lived in the neighborhood 40 years. We’re gonna start with way back…
MH: Way back (laughs).
HSV: If you think of your younger self, what was it like being here when the counterculture exploded? What did that feel like? Do you have a memory?
MH: It was great. It was lots of fun. The street was happening. It was really blooming. Everybody was creating something, doing something, trying to make a better world. It was a consciousness-raising, geo-thermal moment, I don’t know what you call it, but you know (laughs). It certainly lit up a whole bunch of people at the same time. Lit up, get it?
HSV: Yeah! Did you have a sense, did you kind of know that something was going on?
MH: Yeah, we did. You could tell. It was in the air. It was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Electricity was in the air. A lot of things that were happening were kind of happenstance, luck was abounding. People were meeting people and getting to know each other.
HSV: Probably having conversations they’d never had before, I imagine.
MH: Yeah! We were on the street, so we knew each other. People gravitated towards each other and we formed little groups, finding truth. But music was the driving force. There was a spirit behind it all, but music was the very center of it all once the Airplane and the Grateful Dead, Big Brother …
HSV: Country Joe and the Fish.
MH: Yeah. Everybody — we all knew each other. We were friends. We competed, but friendly competition. Very friendly. We knew each other, we loved each other, had relations with each other, often. It was a good time for the street at that time. After ’67, something changed.
HSV: Plenty of good weed going around, too. Let me ask you this, speaking of something in the air, and the electricities. I have a great affinity and having grown up here — how do you think Golden Gate Park and the Panhandle and the vibe of those trees played a part of the whole magical landscape affected everything?
MH: Of course. It’s the City, you know? Trees in the city, the park, the green, everybody was smoking and trying psycho-active drugs — it was a time of great experimentation personally and in groups. So, you know, it was actually really thriving. People were following their muse, and that was a really important thing back then when you could follow your muse without getting shut down for it. It didn’t cost you very much back then to do anything. Living was cheap. But we all had to live, we were all living in proximity. We had to pay for the instruments and so forth, so we had to charge. We would’ve rather have played for free. We tried too many times to play for free, and we did. But it used to cost us to play free. We would have our instruments being repossessed if we didn’t play, so we charged people. We always played better when we played free.
HSV: Interesting! That’s a good segue into my next question: How does it feel to be returning to Golden Gate Park in August. I’ll be quite frank with you: I know a lot of the street kids and they’re like, “I can’t afford $285 a day!” And I say it’s not really the band’s fault. They understand it but it’s … it’s interesting that you just said we always played our best when we played for free.
MH: Yeah! We loved to back then! It was wonderful. We always gave it away to the Haight-Ashbury, the Free Clinic, you know, all kinds of things in the Haight that needed support.There were a lot of benefits! Almost every other gig was some kind of benefit.
HSV: HALO Haight Ashbury Legal Organization. Brian Rohan was a dear friend of mine …
MH: Yeah! That was in our living room! (Laughter) Yeah! The Free Clinic … there were a lot of things.
HSV: Good old Dr. Dave. I just saw him a few days ago. He did a little event here at the Counterculture Museum, about his book, Healthcare is a Right. He’s alive and well and still preaching the good stuff.
MH: Okay!
HSV: Okay, next question and this is a broad one: do you have, of all the shows you’ve ever played with this band called the Grateful Dead, do you have a show that sticks out? Egypt or San Francisco or maybe even Vegas — do you have one that’s like, “Holy shit!”?
MH: Oh boy.
HSV: I know.
MH: You know, any show that I play really well is the best show. It’s really hard to — thousands of them. (Laughs) I couldn’t really nail one! Playing Egypt was cool. But musically, the Cornell concert in 1977 they say was the best of us, at least for that era. I do remember that concert. I remember the end of it. You remember concerts for different reasons. One time the electric got pulled from us completely one time in Texas. I remember that really well! Strange things like that you can remember. We played good. We played good and those are the great memories. But to single one out, I don’t know!
HSV: I know, man, it was a broad question! But let me ask you this — I met you all guys years ago in New York even though I’m from SF. Meeting you guys and Jerry back in 1990. Jerry brought me up on stage and man, it was like being on a fuckin’ spaceship. And I would imagine — I’ve been on a lot of stages, I’ve been in the music business so I know, but it was like, “WOW!” There must be that feeling where you really know it’s taking off. There must be an electric feeling in your bones.
MH: It is! It’s an electric feeling. It feels like there’s a loss of gravity. The stage is like a spaceship. It certainly is. It’s just … where does it take you? That’s the idea. The idea is to be able to take you and the audience to some virtual space. To leave the planet, as it were, and go some place that perhaps is higher in consciousness and transform the consciousness. And that was always the business that the Grateful Dead was in.
HSV: Yeah man!
MH: And the music is still in that. That’s the way we look at the music. We don’t preach too much from the stage. We let the music do the talking.
HSV: Yeah, that’s beautiful! That leads me to a quote I have, about your show that’s coming up at the Haight Street Art Center, here’s your quote: “Just like the Grateful Dead’s music transcends the surface level or rock and roll, my art servers as a vessel for raising consciousness striving to create a slightly better world.” Let’s talk about your show, “Mickey Hart: Art at the Edge of Magic”. How does it feel to have your show coming to the Haight?
MH: Really cool. Really great. I’m really happy to be there showing it. The art — look, I love to create no matter what form: audio, visual … you know, create. I’m a creation freak I guess, some people have said! So I have to create. And this is kind of like a visual representation of my audio, my sonic world. That’s how you could look at it. A lot of these images were inspired by the cosmos. I’ve done a lot of work in the study of astro-physics, so it’s the whole enchilada here. A lot of it is cosmic oriented. That’s where a lot of this comes from. Where the other comes from I have no idea! (Laughter) Nor do I care to know, but it’s there and it comes from some place. So, you know, I don’t ask too many questions about where it comes from!
HSV: How about this: In this nutty, freakin’ surreal world, especially in America, we’re living in right now all over the planet, how do we keep that beat, how do we keep the heart beat alive? What would say to kids, what would you say to everyone? Do you have any wisdom you can share? How do we keep it going? How do we keep it alive?
MH: Well, it’s all about the rhythm of things, you know? If you’re in rhythm, whether it be in a family affair like with your children and your wife or your husband or your lover or whatever — that’s one rhythm. So it’s kind of being in rhythm with yourself: healthy, doing the best you can in this life with all these horrible forces coming to you courtesy of Washington DC, you have to have an uplifting spirit or else you die, you know? Art uplifts spirit. That’s why art is so important. That’s why I do art — all the time. I mean, when I’m not working out physically. That’s an artform in itself.
HSV: Yeah it is. Alchemy.
MH: I drum. It keeps me in rhythm. But if you’re not a drummer or you’re not a performer or anything else, just in the rhythm of your life, keeping it rhythmic, you know, keep the love in your heart, try and keep the kindness factor in these dark times. That’s the only way you can really make it without going crazy, go nuts, with all the weirdness. So you have to create good art that transcends your reality. Sometimes it creates a place that you can live with, and maybe even prosper. That’s what art in any form does. Being able to do it in a visual — I’m really happy to be able to share that. Most people don’t see the art, they hear the sound.
HSV: Right.
MH: I’ve been doing this for quite a while, kind of undercover (laughter).
HSV: Are you gonna be down here on the 31st?
MH: I’m not sure!
HSV: Okay. I won’t hold you to it. I know you got a big couple of shows after that, so …
MH: Yeah, I might be there. I’m not sure. But I’m focusing on the shows.
HSV: I know your daughter Reya through my friend in New Orleans. Reya was saying, “I’ll see you August!” I look forward to seeing her.
MH: Yeah, she’s in Laos now.
HSV: Yeah she told me she was in Vietnam. And god bless her with the article in the Atlantic Monthly!
MH: Yeah! She writes for the Atlantic! She had to major pieces. The last one was with Mick Jagger and Clifton Chenier.
HSV: Yeah! Zydeco!
MH: She interviewed Mick Jagger! Got a 45-50 minute interview. It was really great! He doesn’t do interviews, so this was kind of a biggie for her.
HSV: Well, you said you’re a creator, you like to create things. Well, you created this human, so pretty good job, Mickey! (Laughter)
MH: Yeah! She’s a great creation in herself! (Laughter)
HSV: Alright! I’ve got one more for you and then I’ll let you go, man, cuz I know you’re busy …
MH: You got it!
HSV: Okay, here you go: Haight Street Voice, it’s hyper local with a global perspective. What would you like to say to the Haight community and communities all over the world?
MH: Never give up hope — ever. And, you know, just keep on truckin’. Keep your spirit up. Don’t give up, just don’t give up.
HSV: Alright Mickey. Hey man, I appreciate your time and I look forward to hanging with you soon somewhere out there in the world.
MH: Yeah! I’ll see you around. Thank you for asking me to do this, Linda!
HSV: I’m really appreciative! I’ve met you over the years but you’ve met billions of people! Alright man, I’ll see you out there!
MH: Okay! Thank you very much!
HSV: Okay Mickey. Bye sweetheart!
