I know you were working on writing your memoirs. Is that something that you are still pursuing? 

Yes, I add to those all the time. I don't know if I'll ever publish those or maybe I will in small little increments. For right now, I'm really not planning on a book or anything. 

What are your memories of playing the Monterey International Pop Festival? 

Well, it was the first worldwide seeing that the hippy culture was worldwide rather than just restricted to New York, London, Los Angeles or San Francisco. That was fascinating. Jimi Hendrix was an incredible performer. He was truly musical and really so talented. And Otis Redding was like a fountain of energy, it was great to see him. So, those were the two people for me. Other people had other things they liked about it. But to me it was Hendrix and Otis Redding. Other people would chose The Who, Simon and Garfunkel or who ever. Anyway, it was Hendrix and Otis Redding for me. That was a big thrill. The main thing though was seeing that the sixties counter-culture was going to be a worldwide phenomenon.

How about The Grateful Dead? 

Well, they were not known. We think of them now, when they're probably the most successful and well-paid rock band there is. But at the time, they were not that. They were just another San Francisco band… many don't realize that they performed at Monterey and the reason for that is that they weren't filmed. They didn't sign the release. On a business level they were right, on a publicity level they were dead wrong. 

 Is that were Albert Grossman's business and management savvy helped BBHC?

Yeah, he saw past the making of the money right now. Which is hard for a lot of people to do. They only see the immediate money making or losing thing and they don't look far enough into the future. We did. We knew that we wanted to be in that film. We didn't care. We probably would have paid to be in that film. But he even saw that we should be in there. So The Dead and Jerry Garcia were known in San Francisco but probably not even that much in Los Angeles at that time. 
 

You crossed paths with many of the popular West Coast bands around that time. 

Yeah, we did. We crossed paths with everyone. I mean we grew up with The Dead and Moby Grape, which was another band that played at Monterey. Wonderful band. Way better than most of the bands who were there and who were also not thought of as having played there. We knew Jim Morrison and The Doors. We were on the same bill with them a lot and that kind of thing.

We talked earlier about how the passing of time changes memories and the way events are perceived. There's the famous picture of Big Brother and what seemed like the whole San Francisco music scene hanging out in front of 710 Ashbury Street. What are your memories of that house? 

Yeah, well my memory of that is one day I found the first fuzz tone that I'd ever heard of on Haight Street. Someone was selling it out of a little cigar box and I took that and went over to play with Jerry at the house. That's my dominant memory of that house. There wasn't much hanging out there. 

How did the BBHC reformation in 1986 come about?

Some promoter called us and asked us to do a "Summer Of Love" show. It must have been the 20th Anniversary. We didn't care for him much so we hung up the phone but then we said, "Hey, maybe we should get together and play." We tried it and it worked and it was great. 

You are currently touring in support of "Do What You Love". What is the audience reaction like today? "Do What You Love" CD Info click here

Yeah, although that was more vivid to me a few years ago. I am kind of used to it now. I see people who weren't born when "Piece Of My Heart" came out and I see them mouthing the lyrics, they know them all exactly. 

What's next for BBHC? You're spending a good portion of the summer on tour?

Yes, we are going to go to Germany on July 15th and I am doing the "Love Janis" play in New York, which is a lot of fun. 

You are the musical director of the play "Love Janis"

Yes I am. It's going to be in July in Sag Harbour in The Hamptons on Long Island. Now talk about re-editing your life. It's like you can go back to your twenties and teach somebody else how to play these songs but take out all the mistakes! And all of the things you argued with your band mates about and now it's like, I get to do it! So, that's really something. 

 So musically and professionally it has to be a fulfilling experience.

It is, they have real good singers. It's a good play, that's the main thing. All the words in the play Janis wrote, there's not a word in the play that she didn't write. So, they can't screw it up. Even if they got it out of order, which they didn't. He did a real beautiful job of putting it together. 

 The play is based strictly on her letters to her parents?

Yes, it's only her letters to her parents. There may be some stuff interspersed, some interviews where she answered questions but it's all her talking. She will read a letter, and many times a letter I actually watched her write at the time, and the actress will read a letter in Janis' voice and costume. Then the band will play a song from roughly that same month. This play will go over with everyone. I've seen it with someone who is seventy years old. A lot of theatergoers are older and more affluent and they really like it because it's a young girl writing home to her parents. She cares about her family and she explains the 60's essentially to people who are kind of hostile to it. They pick up on that. So, it's universal in that way.

I found it interesting reading some of the letters Janis wrote home to her parents, looking for acceptance and explaining the hippy movement to them … 

I know her family didn't go for it at all but she tried. She went beyond the call of duty. She tried to make them understand that and she did try for acceptance, a lot of people don't realize that about her. She was always trying to be accepted. 

What do you think of the state of music today?

I hear a lot of it. People ask what radio station I listen to. Like they're thinking that I don't hear contemporary music, and I don't on the radio. But I hear a lot of unsigned bands because they send me tapes and I think that it's just technically, and in a lot of other ways, it's way better because it's later. Everybody has really learned how to do it and it is very specialized. There is some really great music happening. There will always be talented people. Probably about the same percentages as there ever were. So, technically, and in a lot of ways, it is better than what we did. On the other hand it lacks that focus. In the 60's that social revolution thing was happening and it really made everyone focus on a particular idea. So you don't see that today but that could change any minute. 

 The spontaneity and creativity of the mid-sixties West Coast scene was truly unique. Today, jamming and the blending of various musical influences seem to be lost art forms. For the most part, a lot of musicians today don't seem to have as broad an influence palate as many of the musicians who were active and influential in that San Francisco scene. Would you agree?

The thing I feel about the 60's is that it was a lot of people who came out of art school and they didn't know how to play the instruments so it made them well-rounded human beings. Which I kind of sense that maybe it's not so much today because people go into music really early and they go to music school and it's really a career path. So maybe they are not as broad in some of their understandings but that's not true for everyone. It's hard to say. There is a lot of good music today that's for sure. 

 What have you been listening to lately?

My girlfriend plays classical piano. She is a great piano player. So that's what I hear the most, literally. It is such beautiful stuff. Otherwise, it could be anything. I've been listening to some Miles Davis and John Coltrane lately. I love that. I like anything that is well done. I'm not crazy about country music but an old friend of mine sent me a CD I was listening to last night and it sounded kind of rockabilly country. It was really good. Excellent stuff! Not my cup of tea but it's really good.

I know it's almost impossible to pinpoint, but looking back over all your experiences is there any performance or memory that stands out in particular? 

There are so many. It's different having recordings of them. There is a bootleg going around now about Janis and The Kozmic Blues in Amsterdam and I remember that night but it doesn't really stand out in my memory. But the recording is fabulous! The band sounds really great and she sounds really great. There's a case where that night was unremarkable to me but the recording is amazing. 

 Speaking of bootlegs, how do you feel about them? With the Internet they're flying all over the place.

Well, I like it. The drummer in the band hates it. He thinks they are ripping us off. I think it's that Monterey thing that I was mentioning earlier, if you look far enough into the future I think it will do us all a lot of good in the long run. But he thinks that it's bad and that they're thieves and maybe were both right. I don't know. I think it's great publicity and it gets you out there. Gives you a new lease on life. I'm totally in favour of it. He's totally against it. It means somebody is hearing me that wouldn't be hearing me otherwise. 

Tell us about the BBHC website. Was it your idea? www.bbhc.com

It was my idea out of the band. I was the one that went and commissioned the person to do it and so on. I really like it and I'm glad we did it.

 It's makes for immediate interaction with fans and a creative outlet in itself…

Yes, it's great for my writings, it's also an immediate publishing thing. I put my writings on there and Dave can put his art on there and people can see it. 

 Stephen King had his last mini-novel published strictly online…

That's true, it may come to that. Maybe all publishing will come to that.