Yesterday I gave a little peak into a corner of Jerry Garcia’s musical life outside the Grateful Dead. Today, I’m going to link you to one of the more interesting interviews ever given by the man. This 1972 Interview with Charles Reich and Jan Wenner has some fairly heavy content and ranges far and wide. Here’s an excerpt:

Reich: I have a question right off one of the evening talk shows, and that is, “Dr. Garcia, how do you stay high?”

I smoke a lot of dope.

Reich: Do you think that’s . . .

Would you like some?

Reich: Do you think that that’s it?

Well, in reality I don’t really stay that high, although I get high a lot, smoking a lot of pot, is what I’m trying to say. That’s what it comes down to, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m high. A certain amount of seeming to be high has to do with my being more or less well rehearsed in the role of Jerry Garcia, ’cause it’s kinda been laid on me. In reality, I’m like lots more worthless than any of that would make it appear.

Reich: Among the different things the kids say about you, one is “Mr. Good Vibes.”

Yeah, but that always is part-true bullshit, because my old lady can tell you about how often I’m on a bummer. Really, I’m just like everybody else and it’s just that I really love those times when I’m high, so my trip has always been to make them count as much as possible.

Reich: What I’m trying to get at is that you believe in being high, and many other people not only don’t believe in it but think it’s dangerous and hateful.

Well, you know, I . . . everybody’s . . . one man’s poison is another man’s dope.
…

Reich: I read a book on rock & roll recently that said the real medium of rock & roll is records and that concerts are only repeats of records. I guess the Grateful Dead represents the opposite of that idea.

Right. Our records are definitely not it or ever have been. The things we do depend so much upon the situation we’re in and upon a sort of a magic thing. We aren’t in such total control of our scene that we can say, ”Tonight’s the night, it’s going to be magic tonight.” We can only say we’re going to try it tonight. And whether it’s magic or not is something we can’t predict and nobody else can predict; and even when it’s over and done with, it’s one of those things where nobody’s really sure. It’s subtle and it’s elusive, but it’s real.

Reich: And the magic comes not just from you but from the whole thing.

The whole thing. The unfortunate thing about the concert situation for us is the stage; and the audience has either a dance floor where they all sit down or seats where they all stand up. It’s too inflexible to allow something new to emerge. lt’s a box that we’ve been operating in, and we’ve been operating in it as a survival mechanism, yet hoping to get off when we can. But basically it’s not set up to let us get off, and it’s not set up for the audience to get off either. The reason is that anarchy and chaos are things that scare everybody, or scare a lot of the people–except for the people that get into it.

RS: Why doesn’t it scare you?

Because I’ve had enough experience with it to where I like it. It’s where new stuff happens. I have never understood exactly why people get scared, but they do get scared for reasons, like to protect oneself, to protect one’s own personal visions of oneself. They’re all paranoid reasons. That’s the thing you stimulate if you fight it. It’s like any high-energy experience; if you fight it, it hurts; if you go with it, it’s like surfing, it’s like catching a big wave.

Reich: Do you think they don’t believe in magic?

I think that our audience definitely does. Or, rather than dwell on the idea of magic, they know that there’s a certain phenomenon that can happen, and if they come to see us enough, they’ve observed it, they’ve seen it, they’ve been part of it. And that’s the payoff. That’s the reason to keep on doing it. We know that it can happen, and the problem has been in trying to figure out how can we make that happen and at the same time keep our whole scene together on a survival level. And that’s essentially what we’re doing .

Reich: Why is it important to get high? Why is it important to stay high? What good does it do anybody–the world, the community or people themselves?

To get really high is to forget yourself. And to forget yourself is to see everything else. And to see everything else is to become an understand- ing molecule in evolution, a conscious tool of the universe. And I think every human being should be a conscious tool of the universe. That’s why I think it’s important to get high.

More of the interview is available in Garcia: A Signpost To New Space.