After a mindblowingly weird year-plus of strange realities, we’re overjoyed to share with you the following transcript born from a video interview we had the pleasure of experiencing in April with our dear friend Bob Weir (yep, the Grateful Dead). He shares his thoughts about the Haight-Ashbury — then and now — and a few other sweet gems of wisdom as well. Grateful indeed.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Haight Street Voice: Hey ya’ll. Here we are with the Haight Street Voice and we’re talking to this guy named Bob Weir …
Bob Weir: Hi ya.
HSV: Behind me over here – always hard to point in the right direction when you’re doing this zoom crap – over here, I’m sticking my hand in Ken Kesey’s ear. It’s Brian Rohan and Ken Kesey, and Brian Rohan, god rest his soul, and I just wanted you, Bobby, if you would, tell me what Rohan meant to you.
BW: Well, he was a lawyer. He’d been through school, he’d been through the bar and all that kind of stuff and he could do that kind of thing, and he was the first of those guys I ever ran into. When I first met him I was I think 18, and I was runnin’ with the Pranksters, and Rohan was Kesey’s lawyer I guess and god knows we needed one every now and again. He wasn’t exactly a criminal lawyer, but he knew where to go to get criminal lawyers cuz we needed them from time to time to get us off our pot busts and stuff like that – or to deal with them. And I don’t know for sure but my guess is he had something to do with Kesey selling his screen rights to his books and stuff like that. I don’t know where he actually came into the picture.
HSV: Tell me what’s going on here! You waving, you are adulating him, you are like, “Hey!!!” Do you see that?
BW: (squints at camera) Ah, let’s see …
HSV: What are you doin’ there?! You’re like, “Hey!!!” How old are you there, motherfucker? Look at you, you are a kid!
BW: Yeah, I was 18 or 19.
HSV: And there’s Rock Scully next to you, and Pigpen of course. I don’t know who the guy is in the striped shirt – looks like Phil but it’s not – and then of course, Brian Rohan.
BW: Who is the guy … oh, the blonde guy is Bob Matthews, I’m pretty sure.
HSV: And then, of course, Brian Rohan, who you’re pointing to like, “Hello! Take care of us!”
BW: Right, well I think he was looking for a record deal for us and I think he had – I don’t remember for sure.
HSV: It’s alright.
BW: But I’m pretty sure he’s the guy who got us our first record deal. That was the kind of thing he did. I think he came into the picture with Kesey and I think he got, you know, he signed the film rights to Kesey’s books
HSV: For One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, that little ditty, that small little ditty.
BW: And Sometimes a Great Notion as well.
HSV: Okay, so, we love Brian Rohanand I justwanted to start there with you.
BW: He was a great guy.
HSV: Yeah, he was … Hey, can I say this about my magazine (laugh) … I met him in the 2nd edition and he said, “Hey, I dig this magazine!” And I said, “Hey, you’re a newcomer, I’ll give [an ad] to you for a hundred bucks.” He said, “How much are they?” I said, “$350”. He said, “You are the worst business woman ever!” And he wrote me a check right there on a dime because he believed in my trying to take care of the community – no matter where it is.
BW: Right.
HSV: Rohan, he was a lawyer for the people. There was an article written about him post-humous, that said, “The dope lawyer” but he wasn’t a dope lawyer.
BW: Nah.
HSV: He was a person that took care of people, right?
BW: I think he hung with Michael Stepanian …
HSV: Yeah, yes.
BW: And Michael Stepanian got us off our pot busts cuz he was a criminal lawyer.
HSV: Yeah.
BW: But I don’t think Brian actually handled that kind of stuff.
HSV: Now let’s talk about this woman. Remember this lady? She’s still around … Peggy Caserta.
BW: Alright, Peggy! Peggy had a great little shop down there. I blew all my cash down there …
HSV: No you didn’t! She gave you free clothing!
BW: Well, she did, but I also bought stuff down there.
HSV: Okay (laughing) well … when you guys were broke, she was like, “You can’t wear that to the photo shoot. You guys look like crap.”
BW: Well, I think she was pretty smart about that. She figured if we were wearing that stuff, all the kids would buy it, you know. So that was good thinkin’.
HSV: Yeah.
BW: You know, she didn’t … she gave … she was real good about it. I don’t think she gave us everything we saw in that shop – or walked out of that shop with but she, you know, she took care of us for sure.
HSV: Yeah …
BW: And also a fun hang!
HSV: Oh yeah, I bet! [looking for photo] There’s this one photo where you guys are in her shop, and this guy’s scratching his head … let me see if I can find it. Dammit. I’m lookin’ I’m lookin’ …
BW: That’s okay …[kindly, like there’s no rush]
HSV: Well, anyway, there’s this picture …
BW: Oh, that one!
HSV: Well, that’s not [the one with the guy] scratchin’ his head but … how old are you there, Bobby?
BW: Uhhh … 18 or 19.
HSV: And so this is on the corner in front of Ben & Jerry’s these days?
BW: I mean, Ben & Jerry’s wasn’t there then but …
HSV: Well, yeah. That was the … what was it called then? It was the what, Free Shop?
BW: I don’t remember what was there. I don’t remember all the stuff that, uh …
HSV: I guess my question is, to you, you were 17-18 when you were here, man.
BW: Right.
HSV: It was … you know, there’s a lot of people – and I live a block away so I see everything. And I’ve been here 30 years now …
BW: [raises eyebrows] Wow!
HSV: And everybody’s like, “Oh, that’s over. Those days are over.” But there’s a magic still here.
BW: Yeah.
HSV: And it lingers.
BW: Well, you know, the rents are still pretty reasonable compared to the rest of the city at least. But the whole thing about the Haight-Ashbury, the reason that the Haight-Ashbury – or the reason that San Francisco in general all those folks is because the rents were cheap. San Francisco had cheap rents back in that day. And the artistcommunity took advantage of that. They all fell together. And it was a UCSF students’ ghetto and an artists’ ghetto. You know, a struggling artists’ ghetto. And it was a lot of fun!
HSV: I was listening to your interview – not interview but your hang with your neighbor Sammy Hagar, and you were saying that it was just –everywhere you went there was an artist, somebody was painting … there was a lot of creativity in ’66, ’67. And I would like to say, the next edition of my magazine, everybody, is: A Renaissance is Rumbling”. Just because the Grateful Dead aren’t here, I do believe that we can’t recapture,but I do believe there’s a lot of young people who really want to express themselves, they have things to say … I’m almost starting to cry because I think there’s a space here in the Haight where people want to express themselves. And I’m so excited about that.And I wanted you to speak to that. And thank youfor being with me, Bobby. I really thank you.
BW: [waves] You bet. A pleasure.
HSV: Like you were 17-18 when you came here …
BW: I was 18, yeah.
HSV: 18, oh, an old man.
BW: [laughs] I’d just turned 18. Well, yeah, I was well into my 18th year. I was quite a few months in.
HSV: And you came from Palo Alto, we know that … right?
BW: Well, Atherton, but yeah.
HSV: Atherton, you know, down there.
BW: [laughs]
HSV: And then the third thing I wanted to speak to was this man … although, there is THIS man … which, you were probably too young to know, right? That was Jerry stuff?
BW: I think Jerry might’ve met him but …
HSV: The Beatniks and all that … you were too young.
BW: That was before us.
HSV: Alright, well, the other guy I was looking for in my little search for cool people …
BW: He [Ferlinghetti] was revered, I’ll say that.
HSV: Did you read the Beatniks? Was that part of your thing? What were you reading those days?
BW: I wasn’t reading.
HSV: [laugh] You were busy playing guitar and fucking, right? Sorry! [laugh]
BW: Right, all that kind of stuff. And one of them was living with me, was my roommate: Neal Cassady. He was my roommate.
HSV: He was your roommate?!
BW: At 710 Ashbury, yeah.
HSV: How’d that go? Can you tell me a story about that?
BW: Well, he kept me up at night. I didn’t get a whole helluva lotta sleep. I was probably still in my growing years, and I probably didn’t grow as tall as I could have.
HSV: What would you say was the takeaway from Cassady? What did he give you?
BW: Well he …
HSV: Fearlessness? Was he fearless?
BW: He was absolutely fearless.
HSV: Yeah.
BW: But I think the reason was because he could see through time. He could drive – and this is not an exaggeration – I was in a car with him when he was doing this, he could drive through rush-hour traffic at 5 o’clock. The guys would send us on an errand, Cassady and me. The band would be, “You go out, go to this store across town and get this …” at 5 o’clock rush hour. And we’d drive at 50 miles an hour, never stop for a red light or a stop sign …
HSV: Just going …
BW: Just going, you know, on the wrong side of the street, on the side road …
HSV: McNally told me it was the scariest drive he’s ever had, so yeah [laugh]
BW: At the same time, you know, there were three of us, he had his girlfriend, and so he had one hand on the wheel, one hand feeling her up, and one hand playing with the buttons on the radio … and he was getting … the radio was having a conversation with my own voice …
HSV: Were there drugs involved, Bob?
BW: No! I was on a trip – I was macrobiotic at the time.
HSV: Oh, okay. Well that’s trippy.
BW: I was eating rice and veggies, and I was living with Neal.
HSV: Wow …
BW: You know, it was an education.
HSV: [big laugh]
BW: I’m not sure that I can see through time, but he could. He could – the reason he could drive there was because he could be in the right place at the right time — no matter what he did.
HSV: Wow.
BW: I don’t know how to better explain it, but I’m gonna have to. I’m writing a book …
HSV: [Prayer pose … like blessings]
BW: …and I’m gonna have to figure out how to explain Neal as best I can to a lot of people that tried to do that in their books. But I’m gonna take a swing at it.
HSV: Alright, so here’s our last … what was my final thing … Oh! Doctor Dave. Oh shit, hang on … Oh I had released … hang on …
BW: I’m waitin’ … hangin’ on … I’m in no hurry.
HSV: (laughing) It was me listening to you and Sammy Hagar. That’s hilarious. You’re like, “That’s not what it was about. I wasn’t the drugs that was makin’ everything, it was the fact that everybody was creative.
BW: Yeah!
HSV: And the drugs enhanced the fact that everybody was still being creative.
BW: Until the bad drugs started coming in.
HSV: Well, yeah.
BW: And bad folks. Because the problem with the Haight-Ashbury that was unsolvable was that it was infested with people who wanted to get in on the free love and the drugs. And the drug dealers came and, you know, the criminal element came and all that kind of stuff and it, overnight, turned from an artist’s ghetto to just a shit stew.
HSV: Will you do me a favor and uh, thank you for speaking with us but I have a lot of … I’ve lived here a long time and I know a lot of the street kids and a lot of them are fucked up. There’s been a fentanyl epidemic where they think they’re doing cocaine. Even – Dr. Dave was telling me – even marijuana is laced with fentanyl these days. Why is that?! I don’t know. The point is, what would like to say to all the kids that are still coming into the Haight-Ashbury, Bobby, as an artist … It’s making me cry because they’ll be so happy if you just say hi to them and at least give them a little guidance or something …
BW: Well, I’ll tell you what: what you’ve got when you wake up in the morning is what you have to work with. And, uh, go with that. Don’t goout and get fucked up and think that you can work – that that’s gonna enhance what you do. What you wake up with in the morning – especially if you’re not hungover – is what you need, is what you have, it’s what you were born with. And that’s what you have to offer, it’s what you have to say. And the drugs aren’t gonna help you. I’ve been there, I’ve done that. I had to pull myself out of it. All my friends did. They’re all straight now.
HSV: Well you lost one of your best friends Jerry Garcia to drugs.
BW: Yeah. That happens too. I mean, if you get far enough into drugs they’ll kill you. If you get just a little ways into drugs, they’ll just slow you down, way down. They’re not gonna help your creativity at all. You know, what you were born with is what you have to work with, and it’s what you’re here to be. And just go with it. That’s what you have to do.
HSV: I’ve been doing a lot of Kundalini yoga. I think it’s a lot about listening …
BW: Mmhmm…
HSV: … and not trying to fill it up, but just listening.
BW: Yeah.
HSV: I just turned 59, and I tend to go, go, go, and horseback riding and go, I’m an Aries, and go, go, go. But as I get older, it’s like maybe I should just sit back and listen a little bit. And it gets more beautiful as you sit back and listen and you realize, “Hey! I don’t want to be mean to my body anymore. That’s dumb.” Right?
BW: Yeah. What you were born with is all you need, really. And what you wake up with is what you have to work with. Go for it with that.
HSV: Say again? Go for it with thought?
BW: With that. With what you woke up with.
HSV: Isn’t that the Barlow line, “Sure don’t know what I’m goin’ for …
BW: (laughs) Right.
HSV: but I’m gonna go for it for sure.”?
BW: Right.
HSV: God rest his soul. Miss that man, I’m sure you miss him too.
BW: Yeah.
HSV: Although sometimes, you know … shut up! Timothy Leary, one time I was hanging out with Timothy Leary and Barlow, and Timothy Leary was like, “Oh, shut up, Barlow!”
BW: [big laugh] I had to on occasion do that several times nightly.
HSV: [big laugh]
BW: By the way,that “sure don’t know what I’m goin’ for but I’m gonna go for it for sure” that’s my line. [big laugh!]
HSV: Okay!
BW: But, you know, he had a lot of good lines …
HSV: I love that line, that’s actually a very fucking great line, Bob. Thank you for that line. Where’d it come from?
BW: Uh, interesting …
HSV: Besides your brain.
BW: Well, okay, here’s the story. I was out on Barlow’s ranch once and we were puttin’ up hay but we were rained out as often happened out there. And uh, and so I think actually I was maybe a partner in that ranch by that time.
HSV: The Bar Cross. Was Ramblin’ Jack there?
BW: Ramblin’ Jack was in and out of there. I don’t know if he was there at this particular time, but he mighta been.
HSV: Just a little shoutout to Ramblin’ Jack, all the Haight Street Voice people.
BW: Ah, he’s a dear friend of mine and lives up in Marshall and I see him often.
HSV: Good.
BW: Anyway, so I had to write a tune, and it was coming to me, and I was working with Barlow on it, and I had the music written but I didn’t know what the fuck it was about. And so I figured okay well I’m gonna go for a trot because I did that daily, a few miles a day. And I put on my shorts and my running shoes and I headed up a dirt road that goes up towards the foothills into the Wind River Mountains. And, you know, I never ran all the way to the Wind River cuz that was like 5 or 6 miles and …
HSV: I thought you were on a horse … I thought you were trotting on a horse.
BW: No, it was me running. And I get a couple miles up there and I’m just wondering, “What the fuck is this all about?” It was frustrating! And I get 2 or 3 miles up the road and, you know, it was way up, probably about 8,500 feet in elevation.
HSV: That’s big.
BW: And uh, I just … frustration, I ran into it. Like a brick wall of frustration. I just couldn’t figure out what this song was about. And I stopped and I turned around what I saw when I turned around was the road was long and straight going up into the Wind River, and I turned around and what had been following me up that road was the biggest, purple-est, rogue elephant thunderstorm I’d ever seen! It was walking on legs of lightning and spitting stuff here and there and I was the tallest thing around, just a bunch of sagebrush. And uh [laughs] I got rid of my watch real quick.
HSV: [big laugh]. Did you just throw it off?
BW: Yeah, I just took it off and tossed it.
HSV: It’s probably still there! You think it’s still there?
BW: Nah, I probably went back and got it, I think. And then I think, “Well no, I’m not gonna hide in a ditch, I’m just not gonna do that.” I should have. But I didn’t get hit. I just turned around and there was lightning everywhere around me but it didn’t hit me for some reason. But at that moment when I turned around and I saw that bit purple storm, that line came to me: “I sure don’t know what I’m goin’ for but I’m gonna go for it for sure.”
HSV: Keep goin, sorry I interrupted.
BW: That’s it. That’s the story.
HSV: Well, the story is that Blair Jackson and Regan McMahon dragged me to my first Dead show cuz I thought you guys sucked. I was into the Sex Pistols and all of that stuff. Anyway they dragged me to my first Dead show in ’85 and I don’t wanna go down that road right now, but anyway that was the song that … my mom had just died and I was ready to do something and I moved to New York like a couple months later, I needed to go for something. It spoke to me. So I appreciate you gettin’ hit by lightning or whatever happened there. [laughs] Thank you for takin’ one for the team there, Bob!
BW: [big laugh] Right.
HSV: And here’s our last guest, and then I will bid you adieu cuz I know you’re a busy man. But this guy …
BW: [squinches eyes to see]
HSV: It’s Dr. Dave and the Free Clinic.
BW: Oh right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
HSV: Now tell me, did you ever go there?
BW: No I never did make it to the Free Clinic. I never saw a doctor … Back then as long as all systems were running there was no need to fuck with it.
HSV: Yeah. But you never stepped on a piece of glass or … Vallie Brown tells the story of getting a bad splinter and needing help.
BW: No. The other thing about it is basically I can say one thing about me that I can say is that I’m tough and I can take my lumps and it just doesn’t bother me. I don’t go and see a doctor if I get hit with something.
HSV: I tell you what. My grandma lived to be 95 and she was from El Paso, Texas, she smoked 2 packs of Tarrynton 100s, didn’t drink a lot but a little bit and lived to be 98. My mom never smoked, never drank and died at 48. So you just don’t know, right? You just don’t know.
BW: Yeah.
HSV: But I mean, considering … I will bring this up, you definitely were with a lot of women but I mean, knock on wood, you should’ve been getting all those tests, you know?
BW: I should’ve been tested and stuff like that but the fact is I was with, you know, there were groupies around and I’m not gonna sit here and tell you that I didn’t indulge.
HSV: No, of course.
BW: But, you know, I got a couple of, you know, venereal diseases [laughs]
HSV: Well, yeah [laughs].
BW: Back in the old days, back in the pioneer days, that stuff was going around and they called it a cold in your pants.
HSV: [big laugh]
BW: And that was basically what it is. [laughs] I’d wrap my johnson up with a bunch of tissue paper …
HSV: [laugh] Well, I think the note to everybody is, you know, use rubbers. Let’s be good, people. Young people out there.
BW: Yeah.
HSV: You’ve got 2 daughters I’m sure you’ve given them the story.
BW: Oh yeah. [Rubbers] weren’t as readily available back then as they are now and it would’ve been a real good idea.
HSV: Okay, and then finally, Bobbo, I love you a lot, man.
BW: You bet, and you.
HSV: Thank you for doing this. What would like to say to the kind people of the Haight-Ashbury. There is a renaissance rumbling, Peggy Caserta’s still involved, and Dr. Dave’s still involved. And Dr. Dave, I have a quote from him, I did a video interview like this with him and he says, “God, I hope the Haight comes back really badly.” And he didn’t mean … it can’t be what it was in ’66 or anything, but there’s a space of hope in this area. It’s a place … you’ve traveled the world, so have I – not as much as you, but the Haight-Ashbury is magical. Can you speak to that …
BW: There is something about it. I think the rents are coming down in San Francisco.
HSV: Very much.
BW: I think that’s gonna make the place more attractive to folks. And I have a feeling the Haight will come back. The Haight is the land of renaissance. It’s got some sort of magnetism about it. I think its proximity to San Francisco State and USF. And the fact that it just has that history, there’s just a vibe about the place. I think … my daughter, for instance, my younger daughter she’s going to school down in Southern California now, she wanted … she LOVES the Haight-Ashbury. She’s 19 …
HSV: And gorgeous!
BW: She considers the Haight her spiritual home. She’s got that kind of sensibility. She knows good music, she knows good art when she sees and hears it. And higher thought. She’s into that kind of stuff and that’s what you find in the Haight. It has its hot eras and then it takes a breather and then it comes back strong.
BW: [smiles] Ahhhh!
HSV: Steve Brown, you remember Steve Brown?
BW: Oh sure.
HSV: He took that photo of Jerry. That’s 1968, and he calls it, “Goin’ to work”. Brian Rohan said, “That’s …” Actually Dr. Dave and Rohan said, “That’s what I remember. That’s what the Haight looked like.”
BW: Yeah.
HSV: And Jerry’s just havin’ fun, man, just going to work. [laugh]
BW: Right.
HSV: That’s a lot of people right there.
BW: Right.
HSV: Can I read this opening line, not to bring it back to me, but I will: “There is often a feeling of belonging somehow as you walk down the streets here in the Haight-Ashbury, a sense of connection, an energy still lingering from the light that lit the sixties, much of which has slipped away over to the dark side for a spell but now here in 2017, economic and political uncertainties and a radical need to take care of our planet has inspired a newfound rumbling of community, and awakening with people, a pressing need for everyone to truly embrace our freedom of individuality in today’s divided world.” That’s why I am so grateful you are doing this interview with me, that’s all I’m trying to do with this magazine and man, really appreciate you, Bobby.
BW: I appreciate your efforts, believe me. If I read … well, do you have an online presence?
HSV: Yeah.
BW: Okay, I don’t know much about your magazine – but I will.
HSV: Chime in?
BW: Alright, yeah.
HSV: Alright, Bobby. One last word to the good people of the Haight Street area? Oh, here’s the tagline, you’ll appreciate this: “Haight Street Voice, hyper local with a global perspective”. Take care of community, first.
BW: Well, my last words to the Haight Street folks: You found your home, keep it clean and make it pretty.
HSV: Love you.
BW: Alright, and you.
HSV: Thank you, peace man. I love ya. And happy new moon tomorrow. New beginnings.
BW: Yeah!
HSV: Alright man, thank you, Bobby.
BW: Thank you.
HSV: Ciao.
BW: Ciao.
