{"id":722,"date":"2012-03-22T17:25:54","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T17:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=722"},"modified":"2022-03-19T00:25:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-19T05:25:32","slug":"john-sinclair-friends-at-two-stick-thu-322-interview-follows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/john-sinclair-friends-at-two-stick-thu-322-interview-follows\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Legendary Hippie Icon John Sinclair, Former Manager of the MC5"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"John Sinclair is one of my heroes.<\/strong> In my early twenties I regarded myself a revolutionary of sorts, a hippie with an edge who wanted to take over the current government and start over with a more communal, caring, and carefree lifestyle. In the ensuing years, I have done a lot of research and (hopefully) become a little more adult. I\u2019ve done a lot of reading on what I\u2019ve taken to calling \u201cHippie History\u201d: books on The Beats, Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary\u2019s sect, and more acid-dropping historical figures. I\u2019ve learned a lot from my reading\u2014namely, that I was not meant to lead a revolution.<\/p>\n

\"\"I do, however, admire those who have tried to make something sensible of this country, those who have actually done things that are stuck in people\u2019s minds sixty years later. The counter-cultural revolution John Sinclair began in the 60s was born out of desire for cultural freedom\u2014sex, drugs, and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, basically. But more than that, The White Panther Party was about busting out of the social norms to exploit the reality of the sociopolitical state of Amerika in the 60s.<\/p>\n

Like all recent Amerikan revolutions, the movement was squelched. In the \u2018Preview\u2019 of Guitar Army<\/em>, John basically sums up its downfall: \u201cWe lost sight of the larger view… and got caught up to a great extent in the immediacy of our insane demands, we thought the apocalypse was going to come any minute and instead of working with our people to build up an alternative social order which would be the long-range solution, we concentrated on exhorting kids to join us in \u201cmaking the revolution in the belly of the beast,\u201d which was much too abstract and much too frightening for them to relate to in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"There\u2019s no segue from the movement that you were a part of in the 60s and 70s because I don\u2019t know a whole lot about what you\u2019ve done since then.<\/strong><\/span> Gotta keep it a secret cause it\u2019s mostly in the arts. They don\u2019t really discuss the arts anymore unless it\u2019s a movie or a television show. I read the New York Times<\/em> arts section every day to get to the crossword puzzle\u2026 I\u2019m a poet, a performer, a bandleader, and I\u2019ve got my own radio station, on the interweb (laughs).<\/p>\n

When did you start that?<\/strong><\/span> This is its eighth year. Radio Free Amsterdam. We started with one show of the John Sinclair Radio Show<\/em>, and I just ran my 431st episode on Monday. Comes out every Monday, my show. And then I built it into an embryonic online radio station. [radiofreeamsterdam.com<\/a>]<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s all you, or do you have people helping?<\/strong><\/span> Well, I do it all myself but I have other people\u2019s stuff. I\u2019ve got Scott Barretta every week\u2014Highway 61<\/em> out of Oxford, Mississippi. I\u2019ve got my friend Harry Duncan of San Francisco in the Soul Kitchen<\/em>, I\u2019ve got John Morgan from WWOZ    doing the New Orleans music show, Leslie Keros of Chicago, my first female DJ, I just added her last month\u2026 so, friends of mine who\u2019ve done like me\u2014making radio shows for obscure public stations, or syndicated like Scott and Cary Wilson. We\u2019ve been doing it for years, you know, once a week. So I\u2019m kind of enshrining these things. So I hear something good that I like, I say, \u201cSend me some shows and I\u2019ll put them on RadioFreeAmsterdam.\u201d But then they\u2019re out there. You can listen to them anytime; it\u2019s not like radio, they don\u2019t disappear. I have a stream; you can play shows from my archives, or listen to new shows. Sometimes I\u2019ll post two or three shows a day. So, this is how I have my fun. In the future they\u2019ll exist, and maybe someday people will discover they need this music. Unlike today\u2014they don\u2019t need it. They need it but they don\u2019t feel that they need it. They think they can get along in this world with the stuff they\u2019ve got today. I do a jazz show once a week, it\u2019s called Jazz From the Hemp Shop.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, how long have you been in Amsterdam?<\/strong><\/span> Since 2003. I\u2019m just based there, you know, I\u2019m not even a resident. I\u2019m just there two or three months out of the year, whenever I can get away with it. Three months is really the legal limit. I don\u2019t have any work there, so I have to go other places to live.<\/p>\n

Yeah, I thought fleetingly about squatting in Amsterdam at one time.<\/strong><\/span> Squatting has been made illegal now, since last October. They\u2019ve got a religious right-wing government. The leading force from the government right now is the anti-Islam party. They just made the burqa illegal, even though there are only maybe 50 women in Holland who wear \u2018em\u2026 It\u2019s all nuts, it\u2019s like these idiots here. They just haven\u2019t gone that far yet.<\/p>\n

\"\"Well, they have gone that far. They\u2019ve just not made that particular law yet.<\/strong><\/span> They\u2019re working on it, the anti-Sharia movement. It\u2019s all a bunch of gods. I never in my life thought I\u2019d end up in the 21st century in the middle of a religious crusade against the infidels\u2026 in a country owned by rich people.<\/p>\n

I love The Occupy Wall Street movement. It\u2019s coming back big-time. They just kicked off last week, the 17th. They\u2019ve got a spring and summer offensive plan. They\u2019ve been meeting and planning all winter. I like it a lot, because for the first time, they\u2019ve found the right target. And they don\u2019t have any leaders, and they aren\u2019t making any demands\u2014they just see that it\u2019s f**ked up. I like that part of it, cause that\u2019s the truth. This society\u2019s just f**ked up, it\u2019s ruined. These rich people ruined it, so that\u2019s a good place to start.<\/p>\n

With the richest. I just hope it\u2019s not as disorganized as it looks, and that it\u2019s bigger than it looks and it gets bigger.<\/strong><\/span> It\u2019s a war of ideas. You can\u2019t win a war that involves physical resistance, because they\u2019re way bigger than we are. But we’re smarter. Cause they\u2019ve been doing that a long time. But it\u2019s a war of ideas and of culture, and if they stick with that, they might get somewhere, I think.<\/p>\n

Inherent in organization is corruption, so maybe a lack of leaders is best.<\/strong><\/span> I like it. That\u2019s what we used to say, \u201cLeaders suck.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve read this whole thing [Guitar Army<\/em>], but I seem to remember you priding yourself at the beginning for a lack of leaders.<\/strong><\/span> Yeah, I had to move to the forefront as a means of self-defense, you know? To try to stay out, to get out of prison. We had a pretty democratic organization for the time. And anyone who would do something in the line we were in, they were a leader\u2014male, female, dog, cat, whatever. We didn\u2019t want to bind anything; we wanted to open some eyes. Still do, but it\u2019s an uphill battle now. Then you had a whole generation of people who arrived a certain point, feeling kinda the same way\u2026 then you had hippies, and it was a great thing. It was so great that they\u2019ve erased them from history.<\/p>\n

Yeah, like they didn\u2019t exist?<\/strong><\/span> Cause they don\u2019t want anyone ever doing that again. It\u2019s like acid, they didn\u2019t want anybody doing acid again.<\/p>\n

Do you still think that acid came along in history exactly when society needed it the most, when the counter-culture needed it the most?<\/strong><\/span> I don\u2019t use that term, though. \u201cHippies\u201d is good enough. \u201cCounter-culture\u201d is what they have now; they buy it over the counter. Now they just have to have a lot of money, for the accoutrements\u2014your tattoos, expensive combat boots, or whatever they\u2019re wearing this year.<\/p>\n

In Oxford they\u2019ve taken to calling them \u201ctrust-fund hippies.\u201d<\/strong><\/span> Aw, yeah. But they\u2019re better than trust-fund squares, aren\u2019t they? I was just doing my crossword puzzle, and I came across a word for \u201cstylish,\u201d and the answer was \u201chip.\u201d Hip doesn\u2019t mean stylish. Hip means you like jazz and you get high. I won\u2019t budge from that.<\/p>\n

\"\"So, a little bit about what you\u2019re doing now.<\/strong><\/span> My legal address is in Detroit. I work with Trans-Love Energies. You know, we have legal medical marijuana in Michigan, now. We have what we call a compassion club for patients and growers. And the younger people who started it named it in our honor. That was our hippie organization\u2014Trans-Love Energies, as you well know from that crazy book. So, they chose that name for it, and I was quite thrilled and honored. And they embrace the principles, too, which is even more important. They\u2019re trying to embrace the concept. It\u2019s like most of the people into medical marijuana are grubbing money. It\u2019s a huge business in Colorado and California, and it\u2019s gonna be in Michigan. So we\u2019re a little straw in the wind saying, Wait a minute, you know, this is supposed to be about getting high and helping your fellow humans. You can\u2019t win, but if you don\u2019t put it out there, who will? You\u2019ve got to keep putting it out there, that\u2019s what I do. \u2018Cause somebody\u2019s gotta do it, but there are not that many who are really qualified because they don\u2019t understand it. I went through this whole thing and I learned a lot. I would like to pass it on. It\u2019s not the most popular or marketable thing that they\u2019re looking for, but\u2026 I\u2019m gonna do what I do no matter what they say. They can\u2019t stop me. So far.<\/p>\n

Hopefully we\u2019ll see a resurgence of the ideas.<\/strong><\/span> I hope so. Geez, I pray for it, for their sake, you know. I\u2019m too old for it to make that much difference. I\u2019ve been through the shit. I may not be here that much longer, so I won\u2019t have to put up with it that much further. I feel bad for the people of today, \u2018cause they get such an ugly, terrible f**king world.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s kind of what I wanted to end up on, actually\u2026the Occupy Wall Street movement shows that people are fed up with the death culture of today. But, short of starting your own revolution\u2026<\/strong><\/span> There you go!<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like something to say to the other people who are just as fed up with today\u2019s death culture as the Occupy Wall Street people.<\/strong><\/span> Well, you have to coalesce your ideas with the people that share them. You\u2019ve gotta remember that in our day we didn\u2019t have any idea what was coming. There weren\u2019t very many of us when we started out. Then we started getting high, and we started taking acid, and we started getting these visions about the way things should be, and then you wanted to live like that. And that\u2019s the bottom line\u2014you have to live like your ideals. And find the other people\u2014that\u2019s why we coalesced into communes, and lived together and stuff. We were trying to make our shit be bigger, to grow. I talk to young people about this all the time. You\u2019ve got to do what you want to. You don\u2019t have to do what they tell you to do, but you gotta figure out what you want to do and then figure out how to do it. It sounds simple. It\u2019s not really that simple, but it\u2019s the only solution. You can\u2019t ever get what you want by doing what these other people want you to do; it\u2019s not going to work. You\u2019re just going to float along in their river, you know?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Sinclair is one of my heroes. In my early twenties I regarded myself a revolutionary of sorts,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123468,"featured_media":118410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[281,282,280,279,20931,149],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-shows","tag-amsterdam","tag-awesome","tag-hippie","tag-john-sinclair","tag-mc5","tag-two-stick"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/ColumnHeader-JohnSinclair.jpg?fit=994%2C375&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}