“We used to say Bill Graham Presents (BGP) was a family, and it was true: a crazy mash-up, a kaleidoscopically dysfunctional family full of characters and personalities, black hats and white hats, and some of the best people I’ve ever known, led by the master, Mr. Bill Graham.”
– Rita Gentry, BGP employee for 20 years
Haight Street Voice: Who’s more of a pioneering spirit than Bill Graham? Excited to talk about your new book, Before I Forget.
Rita Gentry: I really appreciate you giving me a voice to let people know about Mr. Bill Graham who was my guru, my everything. It’s almost like Bill was guiding me this whole project. Never in my wildest dreams would I think Rita Gentry would be putting out a freakin’ book to the world! When I stuck the book in an envelope and mailed it off to the Library of Congress, I said, “Oh my god, Bill! You are in the Library of Congress now!” It was just “Whoa!” I wanted to party down! [laughter]
All these stories have been floating around forever. I hope that this is a book that people can time travel a little bit. Most people reading it were at the shows, they experienced those things through a Bill Graham show. If you’ve ever gone to any other places where it wasn’t a Bill Graham show, it’s not the same, it really isn’t!
Bill catered to the audience. That was the first thing. The artists were second. I mean, he’d the one that brought medical to a rock and roll show”
HSV: Rock Med! Shoutout to Dr. Dave!
RG: Bill also wanted to expand the minds of concert goers through the music. The headliner would be whatever everybody wanted to see, but he would throw in Miles Davis or whoever to expand the universe of music to the people.
HSV: You worked for Bill for 20 years. Who’s ever worked for Bill Graham that hasn’t been yelled at? [laughter]
RG: I never really was. One time he did yell at me and then he brought me a gift the next day. I opened it up and it was a sewing kit saying, “Can we mend things? Sorry.” He was a very giving, kind man. It was the best place to work.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Haight Street Voice: Okay, I’m recording! Alright y’all, hey, welcome to Haight Street Voice. Rita Gentry is here! I’m so excited. Rita — hi Rita!
Rita Gentry: Hi!
HSV: Rita worked with Bill Graham from ’79 to ’99 and Carlos Santana, and varied and sun-dried, and she’s just come out with a book called Before I Forget — before I forget — and it’s a fantastic read. We’ll get to that later.
The theme, I wanted to tell you Rita, the theme for this edition, #15 of the Haight Street Voice is “pioneering spirits”. And I didn’t even know that I was gonna meet you or have this interview, but I mean, what more of a pioneering spirit than Mr. Bill Graham, and yourself as well, coming from San Francisco itself, and the trajectory that you’ve had in your life.
And it’s funny that when I sort of solidified that that’s going to be the theme of this edition, now all of sudden that energy … the pioneering spirits are sort of coming out of the woodwork! [laughter].
Reading the book — which is unbelievably … I was telling you that my first concert was in ’78 at Winterland. I saw the Sex Pistols. It changed my life forever. And your book starts basically in 1979. It goes back to your growing up here, but has far as working with Bill. So this full circle theme I sorted wanted to tap into during this interview of sort of having lived in the Haight Ashbury, I was there in ’81 and moved to New York cuz I was so tired of the hippie crap and became a music journalist out there in New York, and coming back full circle and now being back in the Haight Ashbury, and here I am revisiting Bill Graham, the music scene in SF, the beauty of that, and being immersed in your book for this past week, the magic of the music scene and the scene itself in San Francisco.
Welcome Rita!
RG: Thank you very much! I really appreciate it. Actually I really appreciate you giving me a voice to let people know about Mr. Bill Graham who was my guru, my everything.
HSV: Yeah! We should start with … I love the story of you hanging out with your Dad, growing up on 10th Avenue and Clement Street, and hanging out at O’Shea’s Bar with your papa, which is in the book. If you want to just tap into that a little bit …
RG: Well, I was very blessed to be born into — that I got the 2 parents that I did!
My mom was a professional dancer and ended up, when I was young, opening a studio on 10th Avenue in the bottom of my grandmother’s house.
HSV: Vivian — I remember!
RG: Yes! Vivian, she was a good Portuguese woman. And my father always worked in garages and he was a blue-color worker, and my mother was in the arts. So my mom would be teaching all the time, and in those days you could take a kid to a bar and I just can’t believe — I mean now, my dad would be arrested, you know!? [laughter] But I learned a lot from the characters that were there. One of my crazy stories is that, I must’ve been under 5. There was a guy who always sat at the end of the bar, and in those days they had cigarette machines. You know, you’d go put the coins in and cigarettes dropped out. And he was teaching me how to read by memorizing cigarette packs! [laughter] it’s like, “Oh my god!” It’s like a no-no!
HSV: It’s kind of funny cuz parallel to that, I grew up with my grandma in Orinda, my grandfather passed away so I grew up with my grandmother in the house as well, and she had Tarryton 100s, and Tarryton is a hard word to spell if you think about it [laughter]
Anyways …
RG: The thing was they also had a great jukebox there and people would give me a nickel or a dime back in those days, and I could play great music. But my forte with music was my mom being a dancing teacher and having a studio in our house. She turned me on to every kind of music and dance imaginable. And that was my love. It was just a natural thing, you know, I just thought everybody danced, but they didn’t! And so that was my awakening to music, and awakening to many different types of people. You know, gay, straight — everything, colored — you name it. And so I thank my mother for that. And I thank my parents for being raised in San Francisco back in those days.
Downtown was a big, different thing than what it is now. Downtown you got your stuff, you went shopping, and I always tell the story of another form of music I got was that they had a record shop on Market Street, and there they had these booths, they were all glass, supposedly soundproof. You could go in there, pull any record out, and my mom was always searching for music, so we’d spend hours in this place, you know, in these glass booths.
Unfortunately they don’t have those kind of things anymore, now they have, you know, headphones. [laughter] But it was very thriving.
HSV: I’m thinking of downtown having grown up in the Bay Area as well … I. Magnins, do you remember I.Magnins?
RG: Oh my god! I. Magnins, Joseph Magnins …
HSV: Britex Fabrics!
RG: Britex, yes! Downtown was just so great, and I think being a child there, you know, you had your muni bus, so you had your school bus pass, you could just hop on a bus and go anywhere. It was totally fun. I could be by myself. And then in the neighborhood there was the Coliseum Theater on Clement, I think around 4th or 5th Avenue, and so you could go in there for a quarter and watch all these great movies and musicals, but then musicals were a big thing back in that day.
So the bottom line is that music is my thing.
HSV: What was your actually real first concert? I don’t think that’s in the book.
RG: Oh geez. No. Because I’m so ancient! I think it might’ve been Canned Heat or something like that.
HSV: Wow!
RG: But it was like an outdoor thing with Hell’s Angels and all that kind of stuff, and I think I was about 17 or 18 years old.
HSV: Wow. So that would’ve been in the mid-‘60s?
RG: Yeah, my father would’ve had a heart attack!
And then from there … in that day and age, you couldn’t even have a credit card unless you were married to somebody.
HSV: Wow.
RG: You had to be a missus so and so. So I ended up back in San Francisco as soon as I could after I graduated in Fremont, California where my parents moved to when I was in high school and I wanted to kill myself. And I left and I came back to the City.
HSV: Sorry people from Fremont! It’s okay.
RG: Yeah, I know. My brother still lives there, but whatever!
I’ve lived in so many places in the City — from the Avenues to Noe Valley to the Mission …
HSV: Were you hanging out in the Haight Ashbury in the heyday?
RG: I would go there but I didn’t hang there per se. But during the time of the heyday of Haight Ashbury I’m pretty sure I had a — I had a weird flat on Church Street and I rented out rooms to people so that my rent was like $25 a month. The people that owned it, they would’ve had a heart attack! But I came across 2 young guys. They were in the Haight and they ended up in my place. They were 15, 16 years old. They ran away from home, and so I sort of took them under my wing for a little time, and then I ended up paying — I don’t know why! — for their tickets to go back home because I couldn’t stand it anymore. Like, get out! [laughter] And their parents were very happy.
It was a very … that time period was just so fantastic.
HSV: Vibrant and blossoming. It was a raw power that had never happened before.
RG: And I’m waiting for it to happen again.
HSV: Well, I would like to say, I have it in my notes here that I personally feel like there’s this full circle thing happening. Ben Fong-Torres is a dear friend of mine, and the picture of Bill behind me that has the hieroglyphs that Herb Greene had, and Herb Greene now has an exhibit down at the Haight Street Art Center that I went to last week as you well know, and to be standing in front of those hieroglyphs and get photographs taken in front of those hieroglyphs, and having had this picture of Bill, I mean I’ve had this postcard taped to my wall, my various walls, I had this is New York! And then to be in front of it, and to have lived on the corner of Haight and Ashbury and then moving to New York cuz I was sick of the hippie crap and coming back and living a couple blocks from where I lived in 1982.
RG: Full circle [smiles]
HSV: Full circle, and the energy. Dr. David E. Smith, who I’ve learned is a friend of yours.
RG: I love him!
HSV: The whole Rock Med thing. And now we’re working on the Haight Ashbury Psychedelic Center which I’ll get to with you. But now the old guard is so excited about the fact that psychedelics are being decriminalized now!
RG: That’s unbelievable! [laughter]
HSV: I know! Just a few months back, San Francisco decrim’d. And then the psychedelic art and then Stanley Mouse just had an exhibit here that I worked at with Peter McQuaid down here at 1506 Haight — thank you SF Heritage.
So there’s this realization — shoutout to Covid I like to say even though that sounds weird — I think there’s this realization of we can’t let the magic be forgotten, we can’t let the kindness of people and the magic of music go away or be forgotten. And then just learning, after I found out I was gonna meet you — shoutout to Stefan Gowsiekowski for turning me on to you and your book — there’s this renaissance happening and it’s electric! I want to make it clear that the whole Rock Med thing, the whole psychedelic thing — it’s an honor that we’re here and that we be a torch for keeping this stuff alive. And then Santana announced his summer tour — and I know this! — to the day that you got hired: February 26, 1979 and you retired February 26, 1999, and here it is 3 days after that date. So I think it’s just this beautiful synergy that’s going on.
RG: Yeah, I have been so fortunate, and I think a lot has to do with karma, of being at the right place at the right time. Being a woman in this industry was not the easiest thing in the world. And that’s why I give thanks to growing up in San Francisco is that I got streetwise. And you have to be streetwise in order to — because rock n roll was like the Wild West. I mean it was crazy, kind of Babylon-ish. It was crazy.
HSV: Those were the days of barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen …
RG: Oh my god, yes.
HSV: I mean compared to now. I mean I’ll just throw it out there. I’m going to be 61, as a music journalist, a woman backstage, there are the stereotypes that happen, to me as well. And I can’t even imagine how much more accelerated that was back 20, 30 years ago.
RG: [laughs] I mean I started with bands in the early ‘70s and there was maybe a room backstage. There was nothing! And Bill changed it all. He was just a master. And I think — you were talking about covid … covid really made me sit down and put this book together. I mean I’ve been working on it for 4 or 5 years goin, “Oh my god.” And then I sat down one day and I said, “You know what? I’m just gonna sit here, start transcribing, calling people …” And 2 years later, you know, there you go!
HSV: Yes! That story collecting! It’s like a native tradition, the telling of stories, sitting around the fire and sharing each other’s stories. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. It’s a beautiful book. Go ahead, sorry!
RG: No, it’s okay!
There was one story I really wanted, and that was there was an incident that happened with Led Zeppelin at a Day on the Green, and this gentleman by the name of Jim Matzorkis, he was the one who took the wrath, the beating, of what happened. And I asked him for the story many years ago, and he said, “No, I just can’t write this story.” And I said, “Oh come on, Jim!” But he sent me a beautiful story, I said okay, I accept it, and I let it go.
And then a couple years ago, he called me up and he said, “You know what? I think I’m gonna do the story if you help me transcribe and put it all together.” I said, “No problem.” I write the story, we correct it, we make it into a beautiful story, which is a heavy-duty story. And 3 months later he dies of covid. And I was like, “Oh my god!” But at the same time, it’s almost like these messengers would come to me at different times. It’s almost like to me Bill was guiding this whole project! And never in my wildest dreams would I think Rita Gentry would be puttin’ out a freakin’ book, you know, to the world! And when I stuck the book in an envelope and I mailed it off to the Library of Congress, I said, “Oh my god, Bill! You are in the Library of Congress now with my book!” And it was just WHOA! I wanted to party down! [laughter]
HSV: I’m gonna pull up the cover of the book …
RG: Okay!
HSV: It’s a little cut off cuz of Zoom, but there it is!
RG: That’s okay!
Thanks to Pat Johnson. He was gracious enough to give me that photo. And the reason why I chose that photo is because all the other photos he’s flippin’ the bird or he’s got the hat on, or him back in Winterland days. This photo was taken very close to the time of his death. And I wanted it to look like how he looked, you know, towards the end.
And the title, Before I Forget, is so, you know … all these stories have been floating around forever. I don’t know if you know Lionel B but he is a promoter and he and I would talk and tell stories all the time, and that’s when we came up with this whole storytelling thing.
Being a woman too, people have told me, “Rita, you gotta write the story about your escapades, look at all the men you worked for …” And I said, “You know? I can’t do that.” It’s kind of like there’s an almerta, and I learned that from Bill. You don’t talk about peoples’ personal stuff if you have a personal working relationship with that person. And so, oh yeah, I could write an outrageous book, but I’ve seen those personal assistant rock n roll books, and I’ve read them, and they just like, you know, it’s just not for me because that’s one personal opinion of that person.
HSV: Exactly! Maybe the person was in a bad mood, maybe that person was being an asshole …
RG: Exactly! Or they were drunk and they did something, you know, whatever. The whole METOO thing. And I understand that. There’s no one — I have to say, at my age, I’m gonna be 76 this month …
HSV: Lookin’ good, Rita!
RG: I try, you know, I really try! But I also think it’s the genes and the DNA and all that stuff.
HSV: And all the dancing! And all the music!
RG: Dancing! Hey, young people out there, exercise when you’re young!
So it’s really amazing. It’s really weird cuz I was checking you out and I was looking at one of your videos with Peter Coyote …
HSV: Yeah!
RG: I’ve even worked for Peter Coyote!
HSV: I know! I have it written down!
RG: I’ve worked for Walter J Haas of Levi’s, Peter Coyote, Carlos Santana … the list goes on!
HSV: Ramblin’ Jack, a dear friend.
RG: Yeah I worked for their booking agency. It’s like, oh my god! The men that have blown through my life, you know? The great part is that I just hope that this is a book that people can time travel a little bit. And most of the people buying my book — and I’ve sold a lot of books and I’m very happy — it’s your age bracket, my age bracket, and they were at those shows or they experienced those things through a Bill Graham show.
I don’t know if you’ve ever gone to any other places where I wasn’t a Bill Graham show, and to this day and age, it’s not the same! It really isn’t. Bill catered to the audience. That was his first thing: the audience. The artists were second. And the price … just the way things happened. I mean he’s the one that brought medical to a rock and roll show!
HSV: Rock Med! I know! Shoutout to Dr. Dave!
RG: Yeah! Where someone would not get arrested for OD’ing or having a bad trip or whatever it may be. And then the forming of lines, the security — our security was just college kids, adults, whatever, that learned how to treat people with respect. As opposed to before when there was before when there was police with guns.
So it’s really … he started the whole real format of the great rock n roll shows. That’s all I can say.
HSV: Yeah, I mean I used to go to the Kabuki Theater when it was there …
RG: Oh yeah!
HSV: I used to go to Wolfgang’s — the Old Waldorf before it burned down.
RG: Oh yeah!
HSV: Yes! I used to go there! I saw so many shows there. The iBeam — he had nothing to do with the iBeam did he?
RG: No.
HSV: But the Kabuki, like I said Winterland, I saw Tom Petty that last run. I mean that blew my mind.
RG: You know that was an ice-skating rink!
HSV: Yeah! I mean it was very steep! I was 15 years old, I remember it being very steep. Especially at the Sex Pistols show I remember looking around and going, “What the heck?!” It was mind-blowing! It really changed my life. I don’t know how I got in, I mean obviously I wasn’t partying, I was with my sister and I guess I looked older than I was but man, talk about different times!
I would like to say, you know, we were saying, “oh, the old days” and all of that, and having a magazine called the Haight Street Voice … it’s not just the looking back at the ‘60s and all of that. Of course it’s the light that lit the ‘60s but also it’s looking forward. And I feel like your book is coming out at time that is so important for, like I said, that tribal thing of listening to the stories from the people who were there.
RG: Yeah!
HSV: And I think this book is really going to inspire younger people to understand, if and when they go to another concert, like, “Oh why was that security guard being such a poo” or whatever, you know, they gotta keep it safe. If you’ll be cool they’ll be cool kind of thing. Bill definitely … I was watching a video of Bill, it was on YouTube, I was doing my homework last night until 2am just getting the Bill juice, the Bill vibe, and he said something that I thought was so … “The search for inner happiness” his search for his own inner happiness.
And I guess that was a big thing in producing these shows, was his way of — obviously he found great pleasure in producing a beautiful show to the people.
RG: Well, he also wanted to expand the minds of concert-goers in regards to music. You know, the headliner would be whatever everybody wanted to see, but he would throw in there a Gabara Zobo or Miles Davis .. whatever! It was all these things in order to expand the universe of music to the people.
HSV: Wild Tchopotulas at the Henry J. Kaiser opening for the Grateful Dead. That changed my life I know. That was in the early ‘80s.
RG: Yeah!
HSV: That mix that he would bring! And that of course I think it was Ken Kesey, yelling into the microphone, “There’s giant heads down there!!!!” The goofiness of it all. And at the time, I mean it’s not about me, but I was going through my mother was dying, she was sick, and going to these shows — Blair Jackson and his wife Regan took me to my first Dead show, dragged me there, I thought oh screw the Dead …
RG: [laughs]
HSV: The realization that there’s this laughter, this joy that can be found via the music, via the scene, via the whole journey of walking into the show, finding your section, just that whole rhythm that he set up at concerts was just unbelievably awesome.
RG: Yes. I saw on FB the other day, Susana Millman …
HSV: Ah yeah, I love her! [wave]
RG: She posted a photo of myself and Susy Barsotti and Colleen Kennedy, and we’re on a float, it’s Mardi Gras Grateful Dead. And that was the other thing that we were able to get dressed up in costumes and do all this wild and crazy stuff!
I mean, do you go to a show now where there’s floats going through the audience?! I mean it’s like, Come on! You know, things comin’ down from the sky, Bill riding in on a joint, I mean come on! It’s just not happening!
HSV: I mean, Burning Man might be similar to that, but … [looking at computer] Oh? My free meeting will end in 10 minutes? Oh, wow, that’s a whole new thing … [laughter] That’s a whole new thing for me! That’s how long it’s been since I’ve done a zoom, Rita! We only have 10 minutes left, Jesus zoom!
Um, do I upgrade? I’m gonna upgrade, bitches! Are you still there?
RG: Yeah, I’m still here.
HSV: Look at that, they’re making me upgrade in real time! [laughter]
RG: [laughing]
HSV: Oh well I’m just gonna get out of this and come back to you. We’re gonna give it 10 more minutes I guess? I mean that’s so quick!
RG: Well we could talk forever, okay?!?
HSV: Okay, because this is the Haight Street Voice, it’s hyper-local with a global perspective. As I mentioned, this edition #15, the Spring 2023 edition is about pioneering spirits. And of course, this man behind me here and yourself, pioneering spirits, all the way. And Ben Fong-Torres, and like I said the Herb Greene show and the essence of really being who you are and really finding happiness in what you do in your life and that feeling that you get. The Tribe Vibe was the last edition and how the tribe is still here.
But bringing it back to the Haight, did you spend much time in the Haight?
RG: You know I would go there, I liked to buy hippie stuff [laughs], but I didn’t really hang because I wasn’t per se with the Grateful Dead then. That was before my time. And then I started working with them.
But you know, it was just so magical, the Haight, the whole thing, going to Golden Gate Park, there were hippies everywhere, you shared everything, everything was beautiful. You know, there were weird things that happened too. But I sort of — like I said, back to my street smartness I could avoid those kind of bad things. But I have to say that being a pioneer per se in the music industry [I pull up photo of Santana and Bill] … and there’s my 2 bosses right there. It really, like I said, I’m so fortunate. I’m happy to still be alive to carry on Bill’s legacy. I’m vice president of the Bill Graham Foundation. I have been on the Foundation for many, many years. Bonnie Simmons, as you know, from KPFA and KSAN back in the day, she’s our executive director, we still give out grants to people who really need it, you know? In mostly the Bay Area, sometimes we go farther out doing things, but we have helped Rock Med, we have helped so many people.
HSV: I might have to hit you up for Haight Street Voice!
RG: That’s alright.
HSV: I’ll throw it out there! It would help! [laugher]
RG: [laughs]
HSV: You know, I am, as you said I think in your interview with Carmen Milagro, I think you said, “I am the woman behind the curtain.” Well, I am the woman behind the curtain. But anyway! So the Bill Graham Foundation, go ahead!
RG: So I’m still stuck the Bill Graham way. The best way that I can. And yeah, you know, he was a pioneer, I don’t consider myself a pioneer. I consider myself an individualist, which is I almost had to create my everything myself. Because also in my day you were supposed to go to college, my dad didn’t believe in that, he said take secretarial skills, which I said, it really helped me! And also I believe in pretty strict work ethics. I’d be working at some crazy places where people were totally wasted and I just said, you know, I can’t work like this! I have to be straight.
So I think that helped me along the way of trust from people that I’ve worked with, that I was dependable, and that if they asked me to do something, I did it, you know? Kind of like no questions asked, or figured out how to do it — even to this day!
HSV: Yeah. You worked for Bill for 20 years, having to stand up for yourself. Who’s worked for Bill that hasn’t been yelled at? That’s the story.
RG: And I really never was.
HSV: Wow!
RG: Yeah. I mean one time he did yell at me, and then he brought me a gift the next day and I opened it up and it was a sewing kit and it said, “Can we mend things? Sorry.”
HSV: Awww.
RG: With the women, whenever he’d go out on tour or whatever, he’d bring us all back gifts — every single woman in the office!
HSV: Wow.
RG: He was a very giving, kind man.
HSV: And he brought Santana in. I mean Santana has Bill to thank in so many ways, right?
RG: Santana — Carlos loves Bill, and to this day, we still talk about Bill. Yeah, he was his godsend that made him who he is today.
HSV: Shoutout to Santana, by the way! He’s going on tour this summer. I think it starts in May? May through August.
RG: Yeah!
HSV: That’s exciting!
RG: And he always has his House of Blues thing in Vegas. He lives there. And that’s kind of great place to go see him cuz it’s very intimate. It’s a cool venue.
HSV: Yeah. I’m so happy that man is still out and about and sharing the love and spreading the love.
God, I can’t believe I have to upgrade …
RG: [laughs]
HSV: I just feel so embarrassed!
RG: Does it cost you?
HSV: I think it does, I just have to fill out this shit … I mean I can edit this part out, so hang on a second. It’s really ridiculous!
RG: [laughs]
HSV: Hang on, Rita! Keep talking! Tell me a story! What’s one of your favorites?
RG: Let’s see … I think all my favorites are the stories from the women because the women were really incredible writers and had these great perspectives of Bill. From calling him a prophet to … I have to say, the women within Bill Graham Presents, the camaraderie was incredible. There was no jealousy, there was no weirdness, you know how you work with women and it just doesn’t …
HSV: Oh yeah, I know!
RG: I like working with men myself.
HSV: Oh yeah.
RG: But there, there was nothing weird. And Bill would send out a memo saying, “Okay ladies, bring your best clothes, be dressed and ready to go at 6 o’clock when we close the office. I have a surprise.” And he would take us on fantasy trips. Cuz he was a very — his favorite thing was Latin dancing. He was a great Latin dancer.
HSV: And you were a dancer, wow!
RG: And I’m a dancer. So one night we all got dressed up, the bus came, picked us up, we first went to a studio where we got Latin dancing classes, and then he took us to dinner, and then we went and saw Tito Puente at the Fillmore. And we all danced with him.
So it was those kind of things. Or he’d do things like, for the whole office, “tell your family you’re not gonna be home til late tonight” a bus would drive up, all of us would get on the bus, and then he’d rent out the whole Japantown bowling alley. And then they had special bowling shirts made for us. And then we’d bowl. Party down! [laughter]
It was the best place to work.
[stupid zoom subscription shit]
HSV: Okay now it’s making me fill out all this shit. We’re probably gonna have to glue this … I can’t believe this is happening! I’ve got the — it’s giving me the countdown and everything! [laughter] “Less than a minute” it says! I’m so sorry! This is horrific! Um …
RG: [laughs hard!]
PART 2:
HSV: Hey ya’ll! Welcome to the Haight Street Voice. I’m here with awesomeness: Rita Gentry, who I’m reading from the back of her book cover, what you see behind me. And it says:
Rita Gentry, author, a Bill Graham Presents employee from 2.26.1979 to 2.26.1999. (2.26 was literally 3 days ago, y’all! Today is the first of March).
And here’s a quote: “We used to say Bill Graham Presents was a family, and it was true: a crazy mash-up, a kaleidoscopically dysfunctional family full of characters and personalities, black hats and white hats, and some of the best people I’ve ever known, led by the master, Mr. Bill Graham.”
Welcome Rita!
RG: Thank you! Well, I really appreciate this. I have to say how the back of that cover came up is because of the people. Bill would always say too that he would not have what he had, show-wise, without all the other people within Bill Graham Presents. Everyone had their jobs, but at the same time, and most people were from the Bay Area, San Francisco, different neighborhoods, whatever — they were all frustrated singers, dancers, actors, college people going to be dentists and doctors. It was, as I said, a kaleidoscope of some crazy people!
HSV: I love that!
RG: And so we all blended and worked together and everyone was just so creative. And, like you said, going to certain shows where they had themes — especially the Grateful Dead shows — they always had some kind of theatrical thing going on, which the audience absolutely loved. Or it could be simply the dropping of balloons on the audience. A very simply thing, but fun for the audience.
HSV: Yeah!
RG: So there was that, and at the same time what we would do is, every holiday around Christmas, Bill would put a holiday party on. So all the people within Bill Graham Presents were frustrated singers, actors, and dancers. We would put on this whole theatrical show [laughter] which was caarazy! And after a few drinks, ecstasy — whatever! — it got … actually? It could’ve been a broadway show! We had costumes, we had lights, we had bands, we had everything! So there were no holds barred on our parties.
HSV: Would that just be the staff or would they have bands and all that?
RG: It would be the staff, and all the employees from throughout the year. You had 100s of bluecoat security, ushers, ticket takers — you name it. And then, you know, Bill would invite guests too. And that could be anything from a celebrity from Robin Williams to, you know, you name it.
HSV: Wow.
RG: So it was quite an event. So all of us who were behind the stage got to be on the frickin’ stage doing whatever we wanted to do!
HSV: And was Bill a ham or did he continue to hang back?
RG: Yes, yes, and more yes! [laughter]. One time he showed up in a full white tuxedo, white top hat, saying with a French accent, “Thank heaven for little girls …”
HSV: Oh my god, wow!
RG: You know, from Maurice Chevalier.
HSV: Oh yeah, I was gonna say.
RG: And it was really just so much fun. I mean you were working but I mean, I don’t know where … I got to be with Bill I think 15 out of those 20 because after he passed I ended up staying, you know, trying to carry on the legacy. But when big business started stepping in, the Wall Street Boys buying up all the promoters, I just said, “Sayonora. Good riddance.”
HSV: So the offices burnt down … this is in the book, forgive me.
RG: That was where we were at before, our offices on 5th Street, before 201 11th Street. And we had done a rally at Union Square protesting President Reagan going to Bitburg, to the Nazi cemetery. And Bill had put out a full-page ad saying it’s a protest. And that night is when a bunch of molotov cocktails were thrown within our building and it caught on fire and pretty much all of the memorabilia, everything, was burnt to a crisp.
HSV: Wow.
RG: And the FBI didn’t really do anything. So then we ended up — we were in a brief stay in an arena [the Marina?], and then Bill bought the building on 5th Street, at 260 5th Street.
HSV: Okay.
RG: And that’s where we remained.
HSV: That’s where I was — I don’t know why. It was on an alley, yes?
RG: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you walked up some stairs and we were way up above.
HSV: And so Rita what do you think Bill Graham would say about the state of things today? Not only here in the Haight, again this is the Haight Street Voice to sort of bring it back to that, but I mean, “hyper-local with a global perspective” … I mean I like to think that magic is still here, for the music, the people, for the hope that’s in the world. But what do you think if Bill were able to zap into this realm, what do you think his take would be?
RG: Well first of all I think he’d be not very happy. But I think if he were to reappear I another form per se, that I think that there could be someone that could bring about a change. But there has to be a special person to do that. I mean I’m always hoping that these young promoters, they have such a hard time cuz they’re fighting against the big beasts, you know, the Live Nations of the world.
And so, you know, it’s very very hard. I think we have to start at the bottom here and go back to more clubs.
HSV: Mmmhmm!
RG: So that the young bands can get their start and can get their following. And so we have to go back to the roots, to the beginning, and I think that’s what he would’ve done.
HSV: Well I like that! There are a lot of people in the Haight Ashbury that are saying we need another IBEAM, we need another Nightbreak.
RG: Yes, you do.
HSV: We have the Club Deluxe, thank god, but that’s jazz — and that’s fantastic, and they’re reopening at the end of March I believe with a whole remodel and all of that. But I agree with you. Like I said, I grew up with — the Independent was the Kennel Club, you know?
RG: Yeah, and then you had Keystone Corners, you had Keystone Berkeley, where all the Green Day kind of bands started.
HSV: We do have the Ivy Room. Have you made it to the Ivy Room?
RG: No I haven’t been there yet.
HSV: It’s badass! It’s owned by a woman who used to work at the Independent, I think she still works there. She and her wife bought the Ivy Room. It was gonna close down I believe. But it is one of the cool, old-school, you feel like you’re in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s.
RG: Well, what’s hard for these promoters that are trying is from insurance policies and everything like that. You know, before it was just a free for all.
It’s just a … I mean I hope in my day before I depart this earth that I do see — I just wanna see a resurgence of hippies!
HSV: Yeah!
RG: I mean, I still wear a peace sign! It’s like I — I just believe in that whole, even the Carlos thing, you know: peace, light, love and joy. And it’s very hard. Covid put us on this spin that we’re just sort of starting to come out of. And I’m hoping that it’s a rebirth.
HSV: I think you need to get your ass down here! When’s the last time you were in the Haight Ashbury, Rita?
RG: Not for a while …
HSV: Cuz I work, just for a little extra money I work at the corner shop, it’s called Welcome Haight & Ashbury. It’s actually a welcome center slash gift store, Haight Ashbury centric. And I’m out there Friday, Saturday, Sunday 12-5 and there really is a beautiful vibe. We have the Psychedelic SF Gallery now, which is where Dr. Dave is going to hold psychedelic meetings with this amazing art — Alex Gray, Stanley Mouse artwork. And of course Love on Haight which is of course Sunshine, I’m sure you’ve heard of her with the tie-dye emporium.
RG: Oh yeah.
HSV: And the Healthright360 that Ben Fong-Torres is going to host. So there is this community tribe thing and of course Amoeba Records — we love you — they’re still there
RG: I have a question.
HSV: Yeah!
RG: Is the Haight Ashbury Clinic still there?
HSV: It is, the building is still there but it’s not the Free Clinic. It’s a needle exchange and it’s also a place where they give food out I believe. I don’t know the whole story but they do give out food weekly there. I’m not quite sure what it is, but it’s there. And I know it’s a needle exchange.
RG: Because I was very sad when I heard that sort of shut down. I mean that was sort of there forever.
HSV: Yeah, I know. It helped a lot of people.
RG: Yes.
HSV: Yes, but I do like the idea of bringing music back — it is a big missing part of what happened in the ‘60s and the explosion and all that music that was going on. So let’s hope for that! And I think when people read your book, I’d like to think they’re going to be inspired to remember that essence that Bill had, his love of music, and his love of community, and his love of people.
RG: And of giving. You know, he was the first one to start benefit concerts. I mean …
HSV: The Haight Ashbury Free Clinic actually — Dr. Dave is always very grateful for Bill.
RG: The first one was with the Mime Troupe. Then it was SNACK [Students Need Athletics, Culture and Kicks] at Kezar Stadium, right in your neighborhood.
HSV: Yep.
RG: And then it just went on. Whenever there was a problem, from the earthquake to Nelson Mandela coming here — I mean he did all these things. And I don’t see anybody doing these things anymore.
HSV: Again, is it because of insurance, is it because it’s too expensive, is it the red tape.
RG: I just don’t feel that that frame of mind is there.
HSV: There is a gentleman named Adam Swig who’s doing this thing called Value Culture, so he’s trying, I think.
RG: Is that Rick Swig’s son?
HSV: I think so.
RG: Good.
HSV: The Swig family is one of the …
RG: Yeah, Rick Swig is on the Bill Graham Foundation board.
HSV: Oh yeah, another shout out to the Bill Graham Foundation. That’s awesome that that’s going on.
RG: We are in the background but we do great baby steps for people.
HSV: Anything you would like to say in honor of Bill or speaking for Bill or …
RG: Oh my god … [laughter]. Only that I — there’s no education that could’ve taught me what he taught me in regards to giving back — that’s for one thing. Or just like I said, there are certain things that … I wanted to say that it’s weird for me to do an interview because we didn’t ever speak about what was going on or … you know what I mean? It was total silence. Bill was the speaker. Or like everyone says why don’t you have more pictures of you with celebrities? Well, you didn’t do that! Oh, can I have a picture with whoever, you know? No, that’s just not my style.
So I was thinking of a way, too, of trying to … I’ve been to certain functions with women in rock n roll — whatever — meetings …
HSV: BAWIM and all of that?
RG: Yeah, yeah. And young women will come up to me and the first thing they ask me is, “Where’d you get your education?” Well, try the streets of San Francisco, okay? That’s my education.” I have a high school degree, that’s it baby. But? Common sense and due diligence and really figuring out at a young age what it is exactly what you want to do, and then go for it. You’re gonna be hit down a couple times but if you really want something? That’s how I feel about a lot of musicians. They just keep going going going til finally they get that hit or whatever. There is a lot of luck to everything …
HSV: Timing …
RG: And timing. That’s always been my thing: always being in the right place at the right time. But also making choices. And going with your gut instinct.
HSV: And delivering the goods when you need to. Being able to step up and hit a home run. Rather than “I don’t know what I’m doing ….” Really ready to go.
RG: And I learned the ???: You don’t rob. You don’t cheat. You don’t steal. Do not lie. You know? And you’ll be good.
HSV: And I’m trying to remember who wrote the quote in your book. I believe it was Queenie Taylor saying, “When I met Bill I was a different person. He gave you room to fail, but if he believed in you, he would bring you there and …”
RG: He nurtured you.
HSV: Yeah!
RG: And he saw … if you didn’t have what it takes to survive within that environment, you were gone! You know, he was, bye bye baby!
HSV: Right.
RG: And it too a certain —that’s what I’m saying — a certain cluster of people was so amazing. And there were every creed, everything different, you know, and yeah.
HSV: It kind of reminds me of the East Coast versus the West Coast because he came obviously from the East Coast and then further back …
RG: Yeah …
HSV: I feel like he came here, hit the ground running. Having moved myself to the East Coast for 9 years hand having back come from here, it IS a lot easier because people move a lot more slowly out here, you know …
RG: [laughs]
HSV: And I feel like Bill Graham, you know, Zippy the Wonderslug out here, “whatever man” “You want a fuckin’ sandwich or what?!” But I feel like the people that came together, that Bill put together really at BGP were the people that were really ready to play ball.
RG: And they stayed there forever! And most of those people have gone on to other realms of … you know, Another Planet Entertainment is run by 3 people from Bill Graham Presents. And there’s people in New York.
The thing is that all of us are still bonded. We still stay in touch. It’s so incredible.
HSV: Billy Cohen and Colleen Kennedy, I’m dear friends with them.
RG: Well Colleen was there way before Billy was there!
HSV: Oh yeah.
RG: She was our receptionist and ended up being the box office queen.
Yeah. It’s just so … like I say, it’s just a great group of people.
HSV: So thank you Bill!
RG: Yes.
HSV: So people! Go out and buy Rita’s book! Which is the best way to do that? Should they just go to Amazon, yuk.
RG: Yes, It’s over on Amazon. I’m just a lowly author there.
HSV: No.
RG: It’s funny because someone said to me the other day, “You know I just got your book at Barnes and Noble in Walnut Creek.” And said, “what?” And I don’t know what happened but maybe somebody ordered it and they didn’t pick it up and they put it on the shelf and whatever.
HSV: Wow.
RG: No, so Amazon. And no way. I’m not doing a Kindle version. I’m old school. If you look at my book, it’s for old eyes, it’s big print …
HSV: It is big print and I love it …
RG: Big print and it’s just easy to read. And the great part is you go from front to back, you don’t’ have to go through the whole reading through the book. You go to the back and you pick a story.
HSV: That’s so funny cuz I wrote a book on the Dead and it’s nothing but a bunch of stories with people like Timothy Leary and whoever and I say it’s great bathroom reading because you just open it up and there’s a story, and I think that’s beautiful. From the horse’s mouth, you know?
RG: Yeah! Where are those Timothy Leary’s and Ozzy’s and where are those people? Come on young people!
HSV: Yes! We need some new ones comin’ through!
So thank you so much for being here with Haight Street Voice and again, shout out to Carlos Santana comin up! Go see Carlos y’all, and like I said, I do believe the renaissance is rumbling. People like Dr. David E. Smith and Bob Weir, god bless him for being on the cover and the Psychedelic SF Gallery … there’s a rumbling of the old cool groove. And we need the music, people! Let’s get the music going!
RG: And you can do it if you just go on YouTube. I mean just a little 3 piece you could be Jimi Hendrix of the future!
HSV: Exactly.
RG: So please!
HSV: Oh and one last thing … I do remember in your other interview with … I always forget her first name …
RG: Carmen!
HSV: Carmen Milagro, sorry Carmen!
RG: She’s fantastic!
HSV: Mrs. Milagro! She asks you, “what’s next, Rita?” And you said that you were maybe thinking about doing a book about the items …
RG: You know that just came about in that interview? I’ve taken so many pictures too. But then I’m sitting’ here I’m thinking’ about it. Another 5 years that means I’ll be 80 something years old. I need to party down before then, you know? I don’t know if I can still — it’s in the back of my mind and the great thing is that over my years I’ve collected many many things. I’m a saver, with memorabilia.
HSV: I bet. That’s good stuff to save.
RG: And so there are some things in the works that I can’t talk about but I do have things that I want to do on my bucket list, you know, before I check on.
HSV: And also, I wanted to throw this out lastly, and then I’ll let you go now that I’ve upgraded my Zoom! [laughter] … we are going to start having these meeting with these Haight Ashbury Psychedelic Center, this Dr. Dave thing that we’re creating … I’m his Creative Content Director — we’re gonna start having meetings in the next month or so at the Psychedelic SF Gallery and they have live bands there. So I want you to come down I’ll give you a week’s notice or whatever it is …
RG: Please …
HSV: Git yer butt down here to the Haight Ashbury. And I’m kind of the ambassador. I’ve lived in the neighborhood 45 years now, minus 9 in New York, but come on down! Let me show you the renaissance has arrived. I’m sure Dr. Dave would love to see you!
RG: I would love to do that.
HSV: Cool. Thanks for the invite. Thank you for taking the time for promoting my book. It’s funny because there’s been a few people who’ve written to my publisher that they don’t own computers. They’re hippies from the old days, so they’d write letters. But they do have a phone so I got to call them on their landline. Because they wanted to get the book but they couldn’t do it because they didn’t have a computer to Amazon. So I’ve been reaching out to these old hippies, mailing my book to them, and I’ve been getting these wonderful letters of “Thank you for letting me time travel back in time.”
HSV: Wow.
RG: And they’re all from the Bay Area. And from the Haight!
HSV: Wow! I want to read those letters! You could take a picture of them [laughter] That would actually be a really beautiful thing if you think about it: A handwritten letter — if they’re open to it. But yeah.
RG: It’s just incredible to me that even in this day and time that there are original hippies that don’t do any of the stuff that we do.
HSV: Thank god.
RG: And my other mantra is “Be Here Now.” That’s been my thing, from that book in the ‘60s.
HSV: It’s actually in my Tribe Vibe edition of Haight Street Voice! I have a picture of the cover. And it’s funny because my girlfriend likes to say … Let me turn off my background — you’re gonna see my kitchen now! [laughter; show cover on camera]. Be Here Now.
RG: That’s the book, man, with the brown pages!
HSV: There it is!
RG: And you know, not that long ago, what’s the author?
HSV: Ram Dass.
RG: Ram Dass. I got to meet Ram Dass. I was at a wedding in Hawaii of a very dear friend many years ago, and that was towards the end. He was in a wheelchair. But it was very — there was something very sacred about him, you know, his aura and stuff. And it’s just amazing to me — like I said, like you, meeting people, you have to be willing to get yourself out there.
HSV: Oh a hundred percent. Like I said, losing my mom when I was young sucked balls but it made me really courageous. And that is it: you have be willing to fall flat on your face. It’s not that bad.
RG: That’s what I’m saying. But if you look around, there aren’t that many strong women.
HSV: Yeah … I know.
RG: It makes me sad because I want to say, “Get the fuck up and go do something, dammit!” It’s funny because my persona at Bill Graham Presents was … so many women were afraid of me. Wait a minute! I’m 5’3”, I weigh 115 pounds, and they all thought that I was from the East Coast, from New York, how I talk.
HSV: You do! I lived there. You do seem New York.
RG: And so, it’s really weird cuz when — every other word was “fuck”. But when you’re around Bill, you couldn’t talk that way as a woman.
HSV: Wow.
RG: You couldn’t say “fuck” or he’d get pissed off. So then I went from hardcore truck driver mouth to Santana, right? And when I went for my interview, Deborah Santana, his wife at the time, interviewed me. But she said, “I don’t know if we’re going to hire her because of her vocabulary.” And so I changed my vocabulary and then I had to change my whole persona, you know, peace, light, love, joy — all that shit, you know? And I could play along with it really great, but at the same time, me and Carlos one on one, it’s all oh man, come on! I don’t need this talk, I don’t need this stuff, just talk to me like regular, okay? It’s funny. And as I was saying, I can’t really put down the real deal of people, you know?
HSV: Well the older I get I don’t have time to apologize or explain myself to anybody. If somebody doesn’t like — “oh your videos could do this or you should’ve done that” —
RG: Oh my god! [laughter] That’s what happened to me! When the book came out, this woman who I’ve known forever, right, has been in the industry, and she didn’t give me a story, and yet she had the nerve to say, “Well, you should’ve done this …” And I’m like are you fucking kidding me? But she’s my friend so I said, “Yeah, I could’ve done that but I didn’t.”
It never ceases to amaze me. I personally — like I said, I hope in my lifetime, I like music now where a woman or a man, whatever, can just walk up to a fuckin’ microphone, maybe have 2- or 3-piece behind him, and just sing that song like Otis Redding or whatever, you know what I mean? I even love Adele, even though she’s a weird chick, she can just stand up there and sing. All the bumping and grinding, I love theatrics but to me now it’s a little over the top. I don’t need T&A, okay? I don’t need a ho.
I did shows with Tupac and shit and I know what it’s like, and I like hip-hop and I like rap and I like all kinds of music. But there’s just got to be something. I watched — I’m very good friends with Danny Solesco who’s a promoter in the Southwest. He’s independent. He did the Grateful Dead with Bill in Las Vegas, he did all those first shows there, and we’ve remained friends. And I go there too because he does a lot of smaller shows
[off subject of music biz; I’m reading Chrissie Hynde’s Reckless; She talks about … she was shy but you just gotta have balls, get out there and just do it. I do agree with you that there are far and few between women like that.
I’d like to think I’m one of them and ultimately …
RG: Oh I know you’re one of them! I’m one of them. I know that I can walk into a room — I’ve always had this great thing that I know I like somebody or I don’t like somebody and it’s like, “What the fuck is your story?” You know?! [laughter]
HSV: Who died and made you queen?
RG: Yeah! And sometimes somewhere along the line there will be one out of hundreds that I go okay, I was wrong. But then they always fuck me! It’s like oh my god I should’ve just gone with the thing and not try to give this person a chance, they fucked me!
HSV: Yep. Instincts don’t lie. I agree with you about the whole working with men thing. I used to waitress and bartend in Manhattan …
RG: I love men.
HSV: It’s just easier. Too many women on the floor when you’re waitressing? “Fuckin’ shuttup!” [laughter] Everybody’s on their period, get me outta here! [laughter] I love being alone too. I had a horse for 10 years in the East Bay and I loved being with my horse when I was 10 years old by myself. I loved being alone. And men were just easier to be around. I love women as I get older I’m realizing some good stuff. But I don’t like going out with more than 1 or 2 women — the whole flock thing.
RG: It’s so weird, for years it would always be me and 4 guys for dinner. It would be me, Jorge, Santana, Bruce Coleman (sp?), this artist guy. I have all these pictures. And then when Jorge passed a couple years ago, we just couldn’t do it anymore without him.
Yeah, these people around me are dropping like flies. I’m in my platinum years now, that’s what I call them. Not my golden years.
HSV: Did you know Jerry, of course you did, yes?
RG: Yeah. But I was — let’s say I’d be backstage with them, but I never really hungout with them outside of business. When I ended up in Marin from the City, that’s when I went to work with Out of Town Tours, and Sam Cutler was the boss.
HSV: Ooh, he must’ve been scary to work with. I’ve heard stories.
RG: You know, the men that I worked for … but Sam didn’t scare me. What did scare me being there was the Hell’s Angels. They sort of had a little thing for me and tried to dose me all the time. It’s like, “oh my god” I could never leave my coke can out. I never got dosed, knock on wood. I am sad because he made me one of those skull and lightning bolt belt buckles, like number 7, and my house got robbed and they took my safe. And a few possessions from that time period. Very sad.
HSV: Do you remember the very first moment you met Bill?
RG: The very first second was when I worked for bands and he was the promoter. But when I had to go in for the interview, he was the last one I had to go see. And it was on 11th Street and I went to his office and they closed the door and there I am going, “Holy shit. What’s gonna happen?” He had this — he’s very intense. And at that time I was married to a musician and I was getting divorced and he was worried that — cuz he know that the band and yadda yadda, would it screw up everything. I said no no, we’re finished, I have my son and all of that. And then he saw my record and all the people I’d work for and all the people that he knew, so it was fine. But at the moment that I left — and this is when he had that big BG gold ring that he was famous for.
HSV: Yeah, I noticed it on the doc I watched last night and I was thinking that says BG cuz he was playing with it.
RG: After he died it disappeared.
And I said, kind of like the Pope, “should I kiss your ring before I leave this room?” And he started laughing, and that’s when I knew I got him.
HSV: Yeah, I read that in the book this morning!
