David Nelson (New Riders of the Purple Sage) celebrated his 83rd birthday recently up at Hopmonk Tavern in Novato. It was a stellar afternoon of music. The icing on the cake? I got to hang out with my old pal, drummer extraordinaire Wally Ingram (Jackson Brown, David Lindley, Sheryl Crow + more) and the incomparable Jay Lane (Wolf Bros, Dead & Co, Primus + more) who’ve been the beat behind David for a few years now..
HSV: Tell me about the beginnings of your drumming.
Wally Ingram: I was lucky enough that my mother was a drummer and her older brother was a drummer. So she grew up in a household of music. When I was about 5, I started hitting stuff, pots and pans and shit. She was like, “Stop hitting my furniture. Here!” She gave me a board and her drumsticks and showed me a traditional grip and a couple cadences. That’s what got me going.
HSV: Jay, when’s the first time you banged a drum?
Jay Lane: I had the pots and pans thing going too, and my mom saw that I needed something else to hit. The parent that has the tolerance for the drums, man! My mom was a professor of early childhood education, so she was really good when I was little. But when I got too big for that and she didn’t know what to do, she said, “Get that boy a drum set!” And thank god she did!
HSV: Fast forward. Here we are in 2026. Clearly the world is a little nuts right now. Bobby’s passed on to the great beyond. When you’re playing the drums now, it’s gotta have even more relevance, like we really gotta keep things going.
JL: For me, I felt like I had to question if I even wanted to play music any more. So much of my identity was wrapped up in my man there. It took me a minute. I’m coming around now. Yes, I totally agree with you. I feel the need to continue this, the music.
WI: The tribes want to gather. When you get together and you hear real musicians playing, there’s something really therapeutic about it. It really wants — and needs — to keep going.
HSV: Wally, you have a daughter, Lydia. Is she into the Dead?
WI: Every once in a while I hear her playlist and some Dead tune will pop up. I’m like, “You really like Althea!” We have some new chickens and one of them is named Althea!
HSV: Jay, do you have a kid?
JL: I have two daughters. They’re both artists.
HSV: Shoutout to the kids. We’re not getting any younger. Wavy Gravy’s gettin’ older. Everybody’s getting older.
WI: He’s my hero! My “hippie mom” Lisa Law, a photographer, helped run Woodstock, she’d tell Lydia about Camp Winnarainbow and for years Lydia was like, “When can I go to Camp Winnarainbow?” She ended up getting into circus arts and aerials. Camp WInnarainbow is a fertile environment for creative, alternative — every kind of kid.
HSV: What was your first Dead show?
WI: Madison, Wisconsin. I must’ve been 19. A bunch of my roommates said, “We’re going to the Dead!” We did acid. I was the designated driver in my pickup truck with 8 or 10 guys. It was a cold night at the Dane County Coliseum, where I saw so many shows in my life. We come out of the show and there’s these big, big puffy snowflakes. There was no snow earlier but everything was now covered in snow. It was a magical night.
JL: I didn’t go see th eDead until after I got the gig with Bob Weir. I grew up in SF, all my friends were into Earth Wind & Fire, Parliament, Tower of Power. The only Deadheads I ever saw were the scraggly lookin’ bastards winding up for the Warfield shows to see the Jerry Band. It just wasn’t my scene. Then when I got the gig with Bob I was like, “Man, get me some tickets!” So I went with my one buddy who knew all about it: “First thing we’re gonna do is take the tickets and trade ‘em for weed in the lot. Then we’ll use the passes to get into the show.” We did that, but we didn’t have any seats. We were just walking around and finally left. Bobby invited me again: “Hey we’re playing Shoreline on Sunday.” My friend and I got there 7pm and the shit was over, man! I didn’t know Sunday shows started early!
HSV: What would you like to say to the Haight community?
JL: Pick up your trash.
WI: Respect your street. Respect life and live life to its fullest.
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FULL (unedited) TRANSCRIPT OF OUR SUPER-FUN HANG:
HSV: Okay! Today is June 12, 2026 …
WI: June 12 and you know what that means? David Nelson’s birthday!
HSV: David Nelson’s birthday!
Jay Lane: That’s right!
HSV: And he’s turning 83?
JL & WI: 83!
HSV: Woooo!
JL: Wow!
HSV: And we’re at the Hopmonk Tavern up here in Novato.
WI: Which is where we’ve been doing that few of these.
HSV: And they’re so fun, dude! It’s really magical
WI: It’s great to honor and celebrate with him.
HSV: And seeing y’all backing him up — the beat boys: Mr. Jay Lane and Wally Ingram, ladies and gentlemen!
Maybe if just for a second if you could, Wally — both of y’all — talk about the beginnings of your drumming thing, when you were a kid?
WI: Beginnings of my drumming? I was lucky enough that my mother was actually a drummer. And her older brother who was actually 10 years older than her was a drummer. So she grew up in a household of music.
JL: Wow!
WI: Did you know that Jay?
JL: I did not!
HSV: (to both): Yeah, have a conversation!
WI: He (his uncle) was a big band drummer, like a dance band, like a Dorsey band, the coolest thing you could do in those times.
JL: Your grandfather?
WI: My uncle.
JL: Her brother.
WI: Yeah, her brother.
So she was a young girl, her family owned a supermarket, so he would babysit her, and she grew up with the band rehearsing in the house. So one of her first memories was the samples of the drum finishes, the laminate, like Black Oyster — she played with those.
JL: Wow.
WI: Anyway, she had a good tolerance for drumming and music.
JL: Yeah!
WI: And then she ended up being a snare drummer in the Iowa City Scottish Highlanders.
HSV: What!?
WI: Like she wore a kilt, had snares, drums, and bagpipes with Iowa City Scottish Highlanders.
JL: Wow.
WI: So when I think I was about 5, I just started hitting stuff, pots and pans and shit. She was like, “Stop hitting my furniture. Here!” She gave me a board and her drumsticks and showed me a traditional grip and a couple cadences and stuff. That’s kind of what got me going.
JL: Wow. I did not know that.
WI: At 5! So you’re Scottish?
WI: I’m kind of English crossover, yeah.
JL: And Jay, when’s the first time you banged a drum?
HSV: I had the pots and pans thing going too, and my mom saw that I needed something else to hit. But yeah, right? The parent that has the tolerance for the drums man!
WI: It’s key!
JL: I mean, my mom was not a musician, she was an educator, professor of early childhood education. So she was really good when I was little. But when I got too big for that and she didn’t know what to do and said, “Get that boy a drum set!” And thank god she did, right?
WI: How many great drummers were squashed because their parents wouldn’t give them the opportunity to play, right?
JL: Yeah!
WI: And the space to do it, because it’s no fun being around a drummer just learning how to do it.
JL: Right!
HSV: Now fast forwarding, I mean you guys banged your way into some pretty amazing folks — I mean Jackson Brown, Bonnie Raitt, Bobby Weir, David Nelson … I mean the list goes on and on.
WI: And I’m still playing pots and pans! (Laughter)
HSV: On the stage, really?
JL: He is. He has pots, I have pot (holds up pipe) Ha!
(Laughter)
HSV: So you’re gonna hold the Jerry thing (mockup of HSV cover) because the first question I’m gonna ask you is …
JL: What would Jerry do?
HSV: Well, that’s a good question, but … here we are. It’s 2026. The world is kind of nutty nuts, and I got the Further bus in this edition and Bobby’s passed on to the great beyond and all that stuff. What are the drums — when you’re playing them now, it’s even got more relevance I would imagine. How do we keep … how do you feel when you’re playing now? It’s almost like, maybe I’m projecting, but there must be sort of like more UMPHH underneath it, like we really gotta keep this going.
Do you have that?
JL: I feel like for you guys, like yeah, for everybody else. For me, I felt like I had to question if I even wanted to play music any more. So much of my identity was wrapped up in my man there, you know? So it took me a minute. I’m coming around now.
HSV: We’re very happy you did.
WI: Yeah, well Jay, I talked to him and we decided not to do New Orleans, one of the shows we’ve done a lot — a celebration of the Grateful Dead. And he pushed pause on it and I totally respect that.
JL: I just needed a break, you know?
WI: Yeah, it makes sense.
HSV: Of course.
WI: Playing it really WITH Bobby and with these guys for a long time — it didn’t feel right to just go out there and …
JL: But yes (pointing to me) I totally agree. I feel the need to continue this, the music, you know?
HSV: The Further bus as I mentioned earlier is gonna be in this edition, with George Walker who was one of the original Merry Pranksters, he drove the bus in 1964, he was friends with Ken Kesey, he lived with Neal Cassady …
JL: I found out some interesting thing about — you know I was adopted, right? My birth mother who I didn’t know anything about was actually connected with the Merry Pranksters back in the day. You know Mary MicroGram, Denise Kaufman from the Ace of Cups?
WI: Yeah, bass player! Lives in Kauai, she’s awesome.
JL: We were hanging out and she brought up this guy my mom was dating, this bass player — not my father but the guy my mom was dating. And said the Merry Pranksters used to go and check him out teaching flute classes at the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.
HSV: Wow!
JL: That was the dude my mom was dating.
And then from another weird coincidence, my Mom who adopted me was one of the founders of HeadStart in the Bay Area, and she started a nursery school at the First Unitarian Church on Franklin, you know that ugly cement building on Franklin and Geary where O’Farrell has to go (hand gestures zig-zag) wah-wah …
HSV: Yeah I know exactly where that is …
JL: She started a nursery school there. But Denise Kaufman goes: Oh yeah! The daughter of the pastor … the church was separate, same building but the nursery school had nothing to do with the church — or so I thought! — the daughter of the pastor was the girlfriend of the guy my Mom was dating after my Mom. It was like, “Whoa! Okay! Weird coincidence again.” So yeah!
WI: So she knew your Mom and all that …
JL: So yeah. I guess the progressive community back then was smaller than you might think. Right now, everybody’s so progressive. But yeah, back then it was probably small groups in churches …
HSV: That’s a good segue cuz I don’t wanna keep you guys too long cuz you’re gonna go on in about an hour. It’s a good segue into what my vision is with the FURTHER bus. Like, what does “further” mean? “Further” means taking the light that lit the ‘60s, the impetus of what all those folks — Jerry, Bobby at, what, 17 — they were just expressing themselves and carrying that further for the younger generation is, to me, so incredibly important.
So the through line is passing this on to the kids. That, to me … through my magazine, through your music, it’s really important.
WI: Well, the tribes want to gather. Everyone’s got their face in their screen and … it’s like, when you get together playing music and you hear real musicians playing music — of course there’s DJ stuff and whatnot which is a whole other chapter of community that … there’s nobody playing an instrument!
But this kind of music is very organic and when you get people together …
HSV: It’s tribal!
WI: Yeah! I think that there is something reallyy therapeutic about it. It really wants — and needs — to keep going. I mean people are probably wondering like, without the Grateful Dead, how’s that gonna keep going? But it just keeps going! There’s a lot of ambassadors of it out there still …
JL: Yes …
HSV: I think the lyrics are still really important, personally.
JL: Yes!
HSV: There’s a lot of cover bands, not to diminish their reality, but it’s the lyrics that have me hang out, and hopefully the band is pretty good. But when I hear that line, whatever it is .. I can’t recite one right now …
JL: (loudly) “High on cocaine …!” Whoohooo! (Laughter) No! No! That’s not the meaning! That’s not what that means! (Laughter)
HSV: Oh Jay!
(to Wally) Now you have a kid … Stella? Is that her name?
WI: Lydia!
HSV: Lydia! Is she into the Dead?
WI: Every once in awhile I hear her playlist going and some Dead tunes will pop up. “Althea” comes up a lot and I’m like, “You really like Althea!” And she’s like, “Yeah I like it!” So we named — we have some new chickens and one of ‘em is named Althea.
HSV: Wow, alright! What’s Lydia studying?
WI: She is a fiber artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She’s an artist.
HSV: Jay, do you have a kid?
JL: I have two daughters. They’re both artists.
HSV: Okay, cool. So passing it on, passing the torch … “ride the wave” — Merry Prankster George Hunter when I saw him last week he said there’s not a new counterculture coming in. He said (paraphrasing) “Back in the day, Ken Kesey and I, we just rode this wave. There was a war … we were all on that bus and we just drove it further. We were — not running away from but going into something else. I like that whole idea of taking it FURTHER … I think it’s really important
And you guys are the beat! You’re the beat of the thing! I mean you’ve played with some amazing cats, you know?
JL: You know, it’s funny cuz, yeah, I’ve seen hippies and painted buses and tie-dye shirts for days or years and I’m like, “Yeah, okay, I’ve seen it all.” But you see pictures of that FURTHUR bus, the original pictures, and it’s almost like they’re in color and everybody else is in black and white. You see all these black-rimmed glasses and ties …
HSV: That was the Beats …
JL: The Beat Generation. And they (Merry Pranksters) are like the only ones with the painted bus and all painted up! It was like, “WHOA!”
WI: VERY extreme!
JL: NOBODY was doing that! I’m sure a lot of people were, but … You know what’s interesting? I found out about the George Clinton Funkadelic Parliament world. It was like they were acidheads on the street. They were fuckin … just look at their first album cover … they’re all sittin’ in the park (animates slumped on his seat; laughter)
WI: Totally! Maggot Brain …
HSV: Maggot Brain, I was gonna say!
HSV: Alright. So kids. Shoutout to the kids, you know what I mean. I don’t have any kids, I have a cat but I do care about, you know, we’re not getting any younger. Wavy Gravy’s gettin’ old. I mean, everybody’s getting older, you know?
WI: Wavy Gravy’s getting older? (Laughter) It’s amazing.
HSV: We love you Wavy! And little wave to Wavy, yay!
WI: I mean, he’s my hero! My daughter somehow heard from — I call her my “hippie mom” Lisa Law, a photographer, helped run Woodstock .. anyway, she would tell Lydia when she was young about Camp Winnarainbow, and she was not old enough to go yet. And she would … for a few years she was like, “When can I go to Camp Winnarainbow? When can I go to Camp Winnarainbow?”
Finally, I think you have to be 6 or 7? I mean it wasn’t that old, but she had been asking since she was 3 or 4! “When can go to Camp Winnarainbow?!?” And then she ended up getting into circus arts and aerials — a very cool environment at Camp WInnarainbow! A fertile environment for creative, alternative … every kind of kid.
HSV: And for kids to let their freak flag fly, right?
JL: Right, yeah!
WI: Absolutely!
HSV: I mean that’s kind of the whole thing about the Haight Ashbury. It was a place that’s very inclusive, and it’s not just the hippies, it’s the gay rights now, the civil rights … it’s about inclusion, it’s about acceptance no matter what or who you are, it’s like, “Hey man! Whatever floats your boat — as long as you’re bing kind, right?
HSV: It’s not that hard.
WI: Yeah! That message doesn’t always come down from the top …
HSV: Yeah. The “top”. We don’t even know what that is anymore …
WI: Nope. (Hand gestures top and sinks down to bottom …)
HSV: Alright. So “Forever Grateful” starts on June 26 at the Haight Street Art Center, which im helping promote, which they don’t even need. Dennis McNally and Susana Millman are helping curate it and everything …
Both: Cool …
JL: That’s the art center at the bottom of Haight Street?
HSV: Yes, exactly. Haight Street Art Center.
JL: Almost to Market Street …
HSV: Exactamundo. But it’s not just pictures of the Dead. It’s the whole lineage. It’s almost like an archeological dig, like, where did it start and then what happened? The year lineage. It’s beautiful. So I just want to do a shoutout for Forever Grateful.
WI: Cool!
HSV: Cuz we are forever grateful!
Both: Yes!
WI: Do they have any music events happening during all this?
HSV: Yes …
WI: There will be during this time?
HSV: They’re closing it down on July 4 for Grahame Lesh I think is gonna be playing out front.
JL: Out front of …
HSV: Of Haight Street Art Center.
Both: Okay!
JL: Oh, they’re not on Masonic? Cus usually they’re on Masonic.
HSV: No, in front of the Haight Street Art Center, which they’ve never done.
JL: Where? Cuz it’s a hill!
HSV: I have no idea how they’re gonna do it! It’s fresh and they’re trying.
JL: (motions slanting position, both laughing)
HSV: So let’s ask you this: What was your first Dead show, y’all? How old were you and where was it?
WI: Mine was in Madison, Wisconsin. I was not that young, I must’ve been 19.
HSV: That’s pretty young.
WI: We’d just moved into our own house, bunch of my roommates were like, “We’re going to the Dead!” We did acid. I was the designated driver in my pickup truck, 8 or 10 guys. And we went in, it was a cold night at the Dane County Coliseum which is where I saw so many shows in my life — everyone! Tons of different bands. And we come out of the show and there’s lights in the parking lot and there’s these big, big puffy snowflakes (looks at Jay, laughing) and everything was … there was no snow earlier … but everything was covered with snow. It was a very magical, great night.
HSV: Can you tell me the year? I’m bad at math …
WI: 1981.
HSV: Okay, perfect.
Jay?
JL: I didn’t go see the Dead until after I got the gig with Bob Weir.
HSV: I thought they sucked. I was into punk rock actually.
JL: Well I grew up in San Francisco, so I didn’t — all my friends were into, like, Earth Wind & Fire and Parliament and Tower of Power and shit like that. More urban, from the urban scene. The only Deadheads I ever saw were like, you know, the scraggly lookin’ bastards who were winding up for the Warfield to go see the Jerry band. It just wasn’t my scene, you know, in the ‘80s at least.
And then when I got the gig with Bob and I saw the Grateful Dead were coming to the Oakland Coliseum, I was like, “Dude, man, get me some tickets!” So I went with my one buddy that knew all about it goes, “Dude, just come with me. Here’s what we’re gonna do …” We had tickets and passes. “First thing we’re gonna do is we’re gonna take the tickets and trade ‘em for weed in the lot. Then we’ll use the passes to get into the show.” I was like, “Okay! Cool! Alright!”
WI: Wow.
HSV: Hustlin’.
JL: So we did it but we didn’t have any seats. And I was like, ugh. We were just kind of walking around and finally left. I thought I was gonna get another chance, and then I did. So Bobby invited me, “Hey we’re playing Shoreline on Sunday ..” I was like, “Okay, cool.”
We got there 7pm and the shit was over, man! I didn’t know Sunday shows started early.
WI: Oh no!
HSV: And what year is this? I’m bad at math again.
JL: ’94.
HSV: Alright. And? Did you both have … (to Wally): you had a great experience because of the snowflakes apparently …
WI: Pretty great. Except one of my buddies used a beer bottle to clean off my windshield, so for years … it scratched like (windshield wiper motion and sound effects) …
JL: A beer bottle? Wow.
WI: Oh yeah, good idea. The bottom of it is serrated. So I drove all the way to Las — I drove that truck over a 100,000 miles looking through this scratched windshield …
JL: Wow.
HSV: Like an etching …
WI: So that wasn’t the best part of the memory but .. it was a great experience!
HSV: Alright. I’ll leave you with this and then you can take a nap or whatever you’re doing.
WI: A nap. We’ll see if that happens ..
HSV: This is Haight Street Voice magazine, I do have a little radio show, it’s a podcast I just don’t like that word. What would you like to say to the Haight community, Haight Ashbury, and pretty much communities everywhere? About the state of the world. We all know it’s pretty whackadoodle out there, but what would you like to say to everybody?
JL: Pick up your trash.
HSV: That’s true. Bobby said, when I asked him that he said, “You found your home, now keep it clean and make it pretty.”
JL: Yeah. That’s a good one.
HSV: That’s exactly what he said. So you’re on the same wavelength.
WI: That’s true. Respect your street, you know? You live on the street, you know, just respect life and live life to its fullest.
HSV: And as Jerry would say, “Have fun!” And Wavy Gravy said, “When you lose your sense of humor it’s just not funny anymore.”
WI: And in Spinal Tap, “Have a good time all of the time — but not too much!”
HSV: I love you people! Thank you so much!
JL: Thank you, Linda!
WI: Yay!
HSV: That’s it! Peace!
