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Home , At the Edge, Bill Kreutzmann, Box of Rain, Deadhead, Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia

Dead Hart Live Beat by Amy Brown

Born in the war year of 1943 in New York, Mickey bearded guitar player who had a voice that finger touched your Hart's parents were drummers. soul and kissed your neck. Jerry stepped up when R & B genius Although he didn't stay around to enjoy Mickey's birth, Pigpen McKernan forgot there were closing times and his dad was a 'rudimental' drummer, a master of establishing checked out of the and life too early. was there, tempo through percussion and acting as the backbone of an too, the cute one with an edge, who alternated vocals with ensemble. Mickey was raised by his mother, who was what Jerry, and and hey…they all had their following, but Mickey calls an 'intramural' player, a musician with a true love for this article at least and a sense of Rock history, it is of rhythm and its many artistic expressions. impossible to ignore the impact that has had on Whether it was in his blood or an imprint of early the world of rhythm and percussion beginning with his days memory, Hart embarked on a lifetime of exploration into the with “The Dead” and continuing with the groups he has either artistry and healing powers of drumming. In 1967, with the joined or founded since 's challenged heart gave in full blossom, Mickey fell in with a group out in 1995. of musicians from Northern . They were a free- “ My teacher took me aside when I was in spirited and experimental group of high school and asked, “Do you want to guys who would become his lifelong play for the rest of your life?” companions. They were initially, but by the time Mickey met them Sad that he's gone, but only Jerry died in 1995. Since they'd made up an increasingly popular local band, The Garcia's death, and the dissolution of the initial incantation of . the Grateful Dead, Hart has grown even more interesting. There is no doubt that The Dead became a seminal group California Conversations sat down with Mickey and his of the Rock era. Their followers, the group of travelers known wife, Caryl Orbach Hart, at their 50-acre rolling hills ranch in as , were part and part post-atomic age the Sonoma foothills. searchers. There is no other band ever that could turn a major Mickey's YoungLife into such a family affair that men and women who CC: What grabbed you at an early age to play have gone on to become successful in their own right still drums? remember dancing to the Dead as assembling around the MH: Actually, the first thing that captured me wasn't hearth. necessarily the drums. Rather, I was fascinated by the sounds Whether you consider yourself a true or one of of the City. It was the rhythm and noise, those loud things that those folks who happened to catch some of the Dead's more typically attract young kids. I felt myself being pulled into this mainstream tunes such as 'Trucking' or the unforgettable vibratory world. I loved to go out in the rain as a young child 'Casey Jones', you could not have lived in California during the and just put my hands out and touch it. I guess you could say last three decades of the twentieth century and not be touched that this was my first sacred, spiritual connection to rhythm. I by a band that bought whole-heartedly, if imperfectly, into the was always fascinated with the rhythm of things, how they notion that a good riff changes the cosmic motion. Through moved, how they sounded. It was very sonic and tactile. thirty years of relentless touring the Grateful Dead captured a CC: How did your parents influence your time and place on the drifting stage of a California where you involvement in the percussionist world? could live cheap, and hospitality was extended under the tent MH: My father was an exceptional drummer, as was my of good weather and a smoky sky. mother. She drummed to attract my father and once she got Mickey was not the most famous of the Dead. That him, she quit. You see, that's the power of the . And that's distinction goes to their second front man, Jerry Garcia, a fat, what it's really all about: attracting your mate, calling for them,

SPRING 2006 CALIFORNIA CONVERSATIONS 17 bringing them closer. It's about getting it on and making more as some surprise to folks, but when Jerry Garcia and I of the species. That's what music and certainly rhythm and disappeared for a couple of weeks, and no one could find us, truth be told we were at Langley. They used to pull us off the “ and no one knew I was a CIA agent. I know this may where we were. Those long trips come as some surprise to folks...” got the best of me, that's why I quit the CIA. Jerry, however, never wanted to stop with the drumming is all about. CIA work. We would talk of music around the table growing up. CC: (laughs) Tell us about and other During those discussions, I discovered who my dad was and influences on your music? knew what my mother did. So, I thought drumming was the MH: Tito Puente. Now, he was serious. When I was in best thing you could do, and then second in line to that would be New York City in the '50s Tito, Chito Rodriguez, Machito and President and then maybe a fireman. all of these great Latin musicians that had come up from Cuba CC: When did you realize you had this gift for and the Caribbean were exploding on the streets of New York drumming? and there I was, just a young white kid caught up in this MH: It wasn't like I had this moment where I discovered amazing weave of city sounds. What I was experiencing was that drumming was what I wanted to do with my life. I was one of the greatest fusions of rhythm that this planet has ever coded for it - it was part of my DNA. I never thought about known. All the rhythms that came over from Africa and the doing anything else. There really wasn't any other option for slave trades had come to South America and worked their way me. The drum chose me. I never really had a career problem. up to Central America.After the free slave revolution in the late Caryl Hart, Mickey's wife, clarifies, teasing, saying, 1700's, they went to to a place called Congo “You mean you didn't want to be a politician or a lobbyist Square and that's where the music and a new powerful groove back then?” was born. You couldn't help but dance. It was so syncopated, so MH: Oh yeah, a lobbyist. Hmm, good point, but really it hot! As a kid, I was excited. I was focused on the soundscape wasn't about that... Okay, I guess this interview is going to around me; I was a part of a birthing process of this new music. officially “out” me. I was a CIA agent. I know this may come The predominant groove back then besides was the clave. Mickey claps his hands together in a very recognizable rhythm. Clave is one of the most powerful rhythms in the world, and the clave grabbed my attention because it's two and three, yin and yang. I felt I was reconnecting to some archaic tradition, and it felt old, but new. CC: Did your peers find themselves being captured by this merging of music cultures the way you did? MH: I was on my own. I didn't run with any pack. Back then there weren't a whole lot of drummers, or kids who were interested in drumming, so my peer group was a little older than me. It made me high. I saw everything differently, my priorities were rearranged, and my peers at school, well they weren't really captured in the same way that I was. CC: How were you as a student? MH: School was a way for me to grow older and get out safely. I was a solid C student at best. And when I got to high school, I spent most of my time cutting class and heading to Mickey and Caryl Hart room.

18 CALIFORNIA CONVERSATIONS SPRING 2006 CC: Did you ever think you might want to do was this certain kind of synchrony that we can get to that's something else with your life? bigger than the both of us. There are probably a lot of reasons MH: No, not at all. I couldn't go against my inner voice. It why that happened: maybe our brainwave functions were was screaming at me. If you turn your back on your inner voice, sympathetic toward each other. We certainly loved playing with you're a fool. You're not listening. There's no better job than each other that was for sure. We have experienced the groove of music, that is, if you need it. But if you're a casual musician, and life and music together.Youdo give up a lot of yourself in it.You you think you're going to get into music, get a hit record and can't totally be who you are, you have to compromise and ask, become a millionaire, and go on tour and have the girls waiting was that compromise worth it? for you back stage and having autograph hunters and body CC: No other band has the fan base of the Dead. guards, it's fleeting. It's not the reason. Now, that's not to say that MH: You know, we recruited them one Deadhead at a time some of these are very good reasons. (Laughs) (laughs). Seriously, there were more of them than us and we CC: We read somewhere that you said that to be in the figured that if we wanted an army of people standing with us, music business you have who loved our music as to have an obsession for much as we do, then we it? had to go out there and MH: If you get into play, so we went on the music for the wrong road for years and played reasons, it won't be and played and we played sustainable. You have to be long and loud and hard for a desperate human being in hours and sometimes for order to do this and I am days. desperate. I'll do anything CC: The Dead were for music. notorious for incredibly Mickey's Dead Life long shows. Mickey joined the MH: Two things we Grateful Dead in 1967. He never did very well: start collaborated with the and stop. Starts were bad Dead's current drummer at and stops were worse. I the time, . remember we received They were known as the this rather critical review Dead's . that said, “The Grateful CC: Tell us about Dead tuned up in between your relationship with for 10 minutes!” Bill Kreutzmann? You know, so what? Our MH: Billy! I met him songs went on for hours. when I was hanging out This guy didn't even with and comment about how our Sonny Paine. Kreutzmann music sounded. and I were in the audience CC: Did you ever watching Sonny and some have any joint or person introduced the two ligament problems after of us. He said, “Hey, playing for so long? Mickey, you gotta meet MH: Not really. My Bill.” About 2 months ago, teacher took me aside I asked Billy, “Hey man, when I was in high school Mickey testifies before Congress who was that guy?” and he and asked, “Do you want said, “I thought he was your to play drums for the rest friend”. (laughs) 40 years of your life?” Frankly, I later, we have no idea who introduced us. He disappeared like a thought it was a silly question, and I said of course and he just mystical creature. It was like he served his purpose and then looked at me and said, “Then warm up. At the end of your career floated away. when you are pain free, I hope you remember this CC: There are not a lot of bands out there that had the conversation.”And sure enough, as a 62-year-old I have no pain, success of the Dead and have two drummers. Were there so Charles Perry, thank you very much. egos involved between the two of you? CC: The band was committed to the environment and MH: Sure. If there weren't egos involved, you couldn't preservation of the rainforests. become a powerful force. The question is, do you have your ego MH: It was the first serious issue we addressed under control? Do you love the guy more than you want to collectively as a band. It was the one thing, aside from the music “best” him? Do you want to make one amazing rhythm machine that we could all agree on. In fact, Bobby (Bob Weir), Jerry or do what you want to outplay him? Bill and I realized that there (Garcia) and I went before Congress to testify about the

SPRING 2006 CALIFORNIA CONVERSATIONS 19 destruction of the rainforests. rain harder. It was one of those lighthearted moments that CC: What were the Dead exposed to that got you on that everyone remembered. track? The Grateful Dead was notorious for its shows, MH: We would fly up the coast on tour and see these where they would play until the rhythm was exhausted. checkerboard patches in the forest and ask, 'What the hell is that?' CC: What about the “jam band” scene today? What We learned that foresters were clear-cutting our own kind of vibe do you have? forests…we thought our Band might have an impact here, as MH: The jam bands pick up the notion that it is okay to be well as and New Guinea. So, we started putting on benefit more in the jazz vein as opposed to the rock vein. The jam thing shows and giving our voice and money to preserving these didn't come from us. The jazz guys had that. We just plugged it in forests. and extended the form. I'm not really into the jam band CC: Was it a fruitful effort? MH: We're getting there. The Cal Expo shows in Sacramento were “The universe started as a tone.” epic. Deadheads who couldn't camp out booked every available room within amplified distance. The generated disputes over noise problems, which scene so much today, but one of the great bands that just stopped later prompted the closing of Cal Expo as a concert venue. playing is . In August, 2000, Mickey lent his collection “A Journey Into the Spirit of Percussion” to the Airport Museum. His elaborate collection of bongos, congas, , rain sticks, and other percussion instruments is one of the most elaborate in the world. Mickey calls it his connection to the sacred dimension. Mickey now houses the collection in his home studio. California Conversations had a rare chance to take a peek. Bongos were stacked to the ceiling; rare gongs from Bali were displayed next to his endless supply of drumsticks. CC: When did you start this elaborate collection? MH: It started in the '60s. I traveled a lot, scoping out percussion instruments. The first exotic instrument I picked up was a . You see, in , they didn't use gongs. I viewed this and other unique percussion instruments as an opportunity. And then I picked up a and then it got pretty much out of hand after that. There are drums in every culture, so there was no shortage. My friends got involved too. When they were out in the world, they bought drums for John Casey, Deadhead and legislative Chief of Staff me, or I would pick them up during my travels. Most of my free time was spent CC: Why were the Cal Expo shows so successful? finding drums, or, more aptly, they would MH: was our promoter, but those shows were find me. mostly benefits shows. That's how we gave back to the Mickey's life after the Dead community. CC: What was your favorite line-up after Jerry CC: There was one Cal Expo show in the early '90s Garcia's death? when the heat was over 100 degrees and people were MH: Hmm, good question. I don't know. Hey, Caryl, what miserable. Then all of a sudden, it started raining and the do you think? band started playing all of their rain songs. “”, Caryl: I don't know, there were so many different “Looks like Rain”… permutations of the Grateful Dead and of Mickey's music. I MH: ..”Cold Rain,” “Mission in the Rain” (laughs). Yeah, loved it when Mickey played with . I loved I remember that. That was the only time I remember that having a woman singer. . I don't think we did that at any other show. We were MH: Yes, I liked playing with Joan. And I liked playing asking for the rain spirits to come down on us, bring down the with Steve Kimoch. When we went out we played

20 CALIFORNIA CONVERSATIONS SPRING 2006 second sets with , and Steve Winwood control. and I thought some amazing stuff came out of that. CC: Then you made a CD of each one. CC: What's in your IPOD? MH: won a Grammy and for 26 weeks. We MH: My own music right now. I just finished a CD with combined drummers from Africa, India, Brazil and Latin Zakir Hussein. I am also starting to work with Kitaro, a Japanese artist. When I am deep in a project, I “For instance, taking music out of usually focus on what I am doing and try not to listen to any other schools is draconian. To take the arts music. When I am out of the project mode, I prefer listening to out of schools is barbaric.” indigenous music. I'm not into the radio. I listen to Native American America. We decided to record it live and it only took a week to chants, Eskimo throat singing, Aboriginal and Balainese music. I record. Interestingly, the Grammies didn't know what to call it, guess you could say that my IPOD is like no other. so they came up with as a category. It really put CC: You played at the Olympics in '96. How did that drums and drumming professionals on the map. It made the drum happen? a legitimate player in the orchestra. MH: I was asked to compose Back in the day, we were always at the opening ceremony. It was to be the back of the bus, back of the about 13 or 14 minutes long and we band. We had the reputation of had over 100 percussionists. They being brutes or idiots, drooling wouldn't let me do it live. The Cyclops. Not anymore. producer sat me down and said, CC: The Dead was “Mickey, this is T.V. You have notorious for allowing people to 80,000 people here and there's 3.2 tape and swap their shows. Is billion people out there watching. access to file sharing and What if something went wrong? downloaded free music helpful or What if the equipment failed? damaging to the industry? What if it rained? What if there was MH: Information sharing and some radio interference?” So I downloading is a great thing. We said, okay I get it. are there. It's our reality. But We wanted the 100th everyone should honor copyrights Olympics to be this coming and personal property. You should together in the rhythm of all the pay for what you download. Access cultures and make a “planet drum” the music in a legitimate way. out of it. So we got a bunch of That's the moral thing to do. drums that didn't have much sound CC: Why did you allow fans but looked good on field. Kids to tape your shows? were drumming while swinging on MH: Let me give some bungee cords and drumming on historical perspective: Our fans catapults. It was a spectacular were bringing in these tape moment that showed everyone machines, and the law was clear, together in the rhythm, one huge you couldn't do that. So, the folks pulsing mass. working at the gate said we are CC: Let's talk about your Kitaro and Mickey going to have to hire more people. books, 'Planet Drum,' and We have to confiscate their 'Drumming of equipment at the gate, stash their Magic.' gear, give them a ticket, and give it back to them after the show. MH: Drumming at the Edge of Magic started off in the We thought about it and decided we were faced with two . I was wondering where all of this came from; why were options: either take away their machines or just let them in with we doing all of these things to make rhythm and noise? And why them. We came to the conclusion that we weren't cops. We is music so powerful? It became my personal investigation into weren't enforcers. That's not what the Dead is about. So we the spirit of percussion. I went on this mission for about 16 years, collectively decided to let them tape our shows. We wanted our researching the archives of the world and compiling the story on audience to be who they wanted to be and gravitate to a place our fascinations with the vibratory world. Drumming at the Edge where they would have a full experience. Look, our fans went to of Magic and Planet Drum really started off as one book. It was a lot of trouble to pay for the ticket, bring in the equipment, and just too massive. It was ridiculously large as two books; we change and label the tapes. That's a hell of a lot of work. We could have written an encyclopedia of 25 volumes. It was out of

SPRING 2006 CALIFORNIA CONVERSATIONS 21 wanted them to walk away with something more than just the the frontier - the most exciting thing that's happened to music show's “fumes”. We saw our audiences multiply by the millions music as lifestyle, music as medicine. because these people were sharing CC: Whom in the aging the tapes with their friends who population is this music medicine would then come to our shows. going to help most? Let me be clear about MH: Alzheimer's and dementia something. We gave our fans patients are the folks I work with permission to use our music. We specifically how the motor impaired gave it to them. This is very different are affected by rhythmic stimuli. I than taking music without facilitate drum circles at Beth permission. That is completely Abraham. Studies have found that different and something I don't certain frequencies are missing support. universally in the motor impaired. CC: You are an advocate for Rhythm instruments can deliver the “Save Our Sounds” program. that sonic payload and reconnect MH: Then Majority leader those people. When I do the drum Senator Daschle appointed me as a circles, they sing, they play, they're trustee of the American Folk Life Mickey Hart with Bill Kreutzmann energetic, they are present for 45 Center at the 10 minutes and when it's over, they sort years ago. My experience was in the of drift back. While the rhythms are digitization process and cleaning up of old recordings dating going, they seem to focus and reconnect and that's the grail. Once back to the 1890s that were collected all over the world. The US we crack this code, music therapy will be taken seriously, where has the largest repository of sonic information and indigenous HMOs and insurance companies will be paying for this type of music in the world. They weren't treatment. being preserved; they were But we take these huge steps disintegrating before they were backwards. For instance, taking music transferred into a permanent out of schools is draconian. To take the medium. Through Hillary Clinton's arts out of schools is barbaric. It makes help, through Save America's me mad. Music is sacred. It's a part of Treasures campaign, we were able our original makeup. Think about this: to secure $750,000 of federal sound began this universe. Take the funding and obtained matching Big Bang for example: we know now funds. We still have a long way to that its vibration is 52 octaves below go, but the staff at the Library of middle C. It's a b flat so the b flat is the Congress is valiant, and we're cosmic bottom of the universe. The getting there. universe started as a tone. When two CC: Talk about your objects are sympathetic to each other, advocacy on drumming and and in proximity, they will be together. rhythm and its effects on the aging Love good rhythm. Hate bad rhythm. population. Health good rhythm. Disease bad MH: Harry Reid, the Chair of rhythm. the Subcommittee on Aging, read CC: Your life - good rhythm or 'Drumming at the Edge of Magic' bad rhythm? and wanted me to testify on the Don Wilcox and Mickey Hart, backstage MH:As you would expect, how I healing powers of drumming. I at the Democratic National Convention relate to my wife, friends, and fellow lobbied for more awareness, and human beings. I try to be in constant with Reid's leadership, the Federal rhythm by being balanced. I am Government appropriated $1 million to rhythm therapy and looking at life more philosophically now. I used to run into the music therapists. Music therapy is now a business and studies night and no matter what, I was ready for it. Now, I have more look at brain wave functioning and how rhythm percussions balance. Caryl is a real human being and when dinner is affect those brain waves. happening, I like to be there, not locked in the studio for days. I am on the Board of the Institute of Neurologic Function at Speaking of balance, Caryl and I have the strongest rhythm in the Beth Abraham Hospital in New York City, which studies world. She's my other half. neurological functions. They are doing the serious neuroscience Mickey is the father of two children: his 23-year-old son is on how the brain works when it connects with rhythmic stimuli a drummer, and his 12-year old daughter is an aspiring actress. and what part of the brain lights up when certain rhythms or CC: What are some of your other interests besides grooves happen how to make music medicine and how does drums? music work on the brain how to repeat, what's the code? This is MH: I wasn't into anything but drumming as a child, but

22 CALIFORNIA CONVERSATIONS SPRING 2006 now that I am older, I do have a couple of hobbies. I hobby now. one. My life became this beautiful, challenging life. It was the Caryl: Excuse me, you do not hobby! right life. I made a concerted effort to become a more MH: What do you mean, what about my Bonsai gardens? responsible partner. I was never fully into the party scene when Mickey has an intricate Bonsai garden on his property, I was with the Dead, so the partying wasn't the challenge once I which he attends on a daily basis. met Caryl, it was the excessive work. That CD was our aria, our Caryl: You know how people do things on the side, an love song. interest they pick up and pursue it casually? Well, that doesn't CC: Do you two share a taste in music? exist in Mickey's world. He gets passionate about something MH: Nah, she likes Jackson Browne and the Eagles… and holds on. He does not have hobbies. Caryl: Hey, I listen to new music too, not just stuff from CC: How did the two of you meet? the '70s. I tell you though, before I met Mickey, I didn't listen to MH: She was brought to me by the God of the Story. the Dead. Caryl: (laughing) That's not it. MH: Listen to this one: The Dead played at Cornell in MH: Okay okay, we met in the beautiful flaming fire of 1977, where Caryl went to school. They say that we played one love. of our greatest concerts of all time. My future wife and some Caryl: (laughing) You were doing a CD, remember? unnamed suitor went somewhere else. Can you believe it? MH: I was doing a CD of the voices of the New Guinea CC: (laughs) Nope. rainforest. I was working with one of our greatest It was a good time to stop. There were questions about the ethnomusicologists, and he would tape the rainforest sounds past that made sense for the article, but didn't make a whole lot over a 24-hour period, bring them back to the studio and we of sense when you were in their company. I didn't ask Mickey would condense it into a 60-minute CD. Caryl came over to my where he was when he heard that Jerry was dead, or how much house with a mutual friend because she thought it was a good time he spends with his ex-bandmates or what it was like to be environmental idea. They were talking about how to promote it, one of the coolest guys at one of the longest, coolest parties in and it was love at first sight. We moved in together one week rock history. later. The road that I traveled after I met Caryl was not a familiar The past speaks for itself. The future will, too.

Side Story Moving to California to see the Dead playing well and I was dancing, nothing else mattered except that moment. She took some time to consider what I had just I remember a conversation I had with my mother in 1989. related to her and looked at me with a deep sense of I had just returned from a two-week vacation in which a group understanding. of friends and I followed the Dead around the East Coast. We My mother is a very devout Catholic and goes to church saw something like 9 or 10 shows in that two-week period. I every day. She simply looked at me and said,” That is how I was telling my mom how I had just seen my 60th show, (it feel when I go to mass.” She never asked me again what I got would grow to over 150 by '95), and she was puzzled as to why out of the Grateful Dead and would instead ask me about I would spend so much time and money on a 'rock and roll' different shows over the next several years. band. John Casey is the highly regarded Chief of Staff to I told my mom that the music the Dead played affected California State Senator Alan Lowenthal. In 1991, at the age me deeply, touching a chord within my soul that filled me with of 24, John left his home in Maryland and moved to Sonoma an overwhelming sense of peace and joy. I couldn't put a finger County to see more Dead concerts. John is married and has on it, and it didn't happen every show, but when they were one child.

Side Story A Beginning and the End Going to see the Dead I traveled through 48 different states, Canada and a good bit of Europe. My sister Donna used to play the Dead at home, and I It was an amazing adventure, often feeling “like a surfer ended up seeing them for the first time in 1978, a few days on a tidal wave.” before my 14th birthday. I was hooked! I saw the band five more I did a million jobs in the months separating their tours. times that year, and I continued on to see more than 400 of their I've washed dishes and mowed graveyards. I didn't get serious shows, including when they played together for the last about a career until after Jerry died. Life is still good. I like time. what I do, but down deep there's an absence, and there'll always I was a Deadhead. They weren't my family, but they were be a part of me that is a Deadhead. as close to family as you can get. It was a spiritual experience of Don Wilcox is a successful, former campaign consultant not only what their music brought to me, but the sense of and former Chief of Staff to a Southern California community for those of us who toured with them. Today these Assemblywoman. He is now a partner in one of the leading “members of my extended family” are still a big part of my life. California lobbying firms.

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