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An Interview with Roky Erickson: 21st March 2005, © Paul Drummond
Paul: Mac Rawl & John Meadows?
Roky Erickson: They were just friends of mine.
Paul: In their 40's? They befriended you and introduced you to the folk clubs in Austin?
Roky Erickson : Yeah right.
Paul: What performers were you seeing?
Roky Erickson: I can't remember... I just remember Mac had a house ...near downtown and we spent some time over there. It was just hanging out together.
Paul: Did he encourage you to perform?
Roky Erickson: Oh yeah.
Paul: Did you play the clubs, Red Lion?
Roky Erickson: I don't think so.
Paul: Did you see Carolyn Hester?
Roky Erickson: Yeah right I saw her at the auditorium.
Paul: Did you go see her because she knew Dylan. (1961)
Roky Erickson: Ehh Huh. She had a record called ...I can remember how it goes, (sings) "If I had no horse to ride, I been down a crawling... down that rocky road... looking for my darling... Swing time Jubilee... You ever heard that one? It's a good one.
Paul: Had you written any of your own songs?
Roky Erickson: I had written YGMM & We Sell Soul...
Paul: So you were only 15 (circa 1963)? But the sound came later with Gloria etc... it was never a folk song?
Roky Erickson: No I had it more rock'n'roll... I got a band together called the Roulettes...
Paul: That's a little later? (1964/5)
Roky Erickson: Yes.
Paul: Your first performance at Travis.
Roky Erickson: Joe Bierbower. "Like a Rolling Stone"
Paul: Was that you very first electric performance?
Roky Erickson: Close to it.
Paul: What had you done before?
Roky Erickson: Just got the band together, we were practicing and trying to get gigs...
Paul: May '63 Free Wheelin' Bob Dylan came out ...and you broke from school and went to NYC...
Roky Erickson: Oh yeah right I went to New York. On a vacation, about 5 days.
Paul: Rode the bus?
Roky Erickson: Yeah Donnie (younger brother) and me.
Paul: You hung around the East Village folk clubs... See anyone?
Roky Erickson: And err... I can't think of that Park?
Paul: Central?
Roky Erickson: Yep. Oh I was really impressed by the big city.
Paul: Was that the first time you'd got out of Texas?
Roky Erickson: Probably...
Paul: So I can put that down as being an influential trip?
Roky Erickson: Yeah right.
Paul: Okay ...What was the next band?
Roky Erickson: The Spades?
Paul: I've got some other names?
Roky Erickson: Okay go ahead...
Paul: Delmores?
Roky Erickson: Delmores, No...
Paul: Billy Hallmark said everyone was to too intimidated by you?
Roky Erickson: Oh yeah right, probably so but I don't really count them.
Paul: Another, the Missing Links at Travis?
Roky Erickson: Yeah. Ahh that was just a more refined version of the Roulettes. Gary Clarkson- no Mc Farland... Joe Bierbower on drums and we just really did like the name of the band, the Missing Links. ... Let's see Elf, I can't think of his name John ...(Eli) ... do you have any John's down there besides John Kearney? ... Gary played guitar... we both were lead.
Paul: Next band the Fugitives...
Roky Erickson: No I wasn't.
Paul: (reads extract about) ...
Roky Erickson: We could have done something like that ...
Paul: This famous story about LBJ coming to your local St David's church and the secret service asking you and John Kearney to leave because of your long hair?
Roky Erickson: It was probably a thing where they thought somebody new was in church, in charge of the church and they didn’t know, recognise us as influential people. And asked us to leave…
Paul: This was before you left school?
Roky Erickson: Yes….
Paul: Why did leave home in ‘64?
Roky Erickson: Oh, I just did. I liked that place but I wanted a bigger place…. It was really a neat place; it was in the cellar of a house.
Paul: Still at Travis High School ?
Roky Erickson: Yep.
Paul; Where did the sound for “Your Gonna Miss Me” come from?
Roky Erickson: Ahhh. I just thought it up in my head…radio. I listened to radio, at night before I went to sleep…and they had this one Disc Jockey on Laveda Dirsch and he would play songs like, Little Willie John, (Sings) ” You better leave my kitten all a lone…. etc…and they played that lots of thing a and I was just really influenced to play. And be a star like them.
Paul: The Who and Them’s “Gloria”, they influenced the sound? The early Who singles came out just as you recorded the Spades version.
Roky Erickson: Ehh huh. Yeah right.
Paul: There a bunch of songs that could have influenced the title YGMM. I Don’t Mind by James Brown?
Roky Erickson: Ehh Huh.
Paul: Buddy Holly – “Early in the morning -Your Gonna Miss Me”
Roky Erickson: Yes, ahh huh.
Paul: You sang those songs?
Roky Erickson: Yeah I did.
Paul: Did they inspire the title?
Roky Erickson: Now that I think of it, they could have though. Now that I think of it they more or less could have.
Paul: Also the Muddy Waters, Your Gonna Miss Me?
Roky Erickson: I could have….
Paul: In 1973 you mentioned in an interview that Dylan’s Baby Blue……..was the inspiration ( Baby Blue actually came out after Roky had written YGMM).
Roky Erickson: (Sings) You must leave now, take what need, you think will last… Yeah. I ‘m sure it did.
Paul: You said leave, or we’re gonna bust you.
Roky Erickson: Yeah right…
Paul: Is that part of it?
Roky Erickson: Yes, yep.
Paul: High School, leave Fall of ‘65.
Roky Erickson: Something like that. Oh I had long hair and I just decided I didn’t want to be in school any more and I asked my father if I could quit and he said yes.
Paul: Really?
Roky Erickson: Yes. I just didn’t like it, for some reason it was getting on my nerves. Something about it really bothering me.
Paul: Good old teenage angst?
Roky Erickson: (laughs) Yep.
Paul: You joined the Spades while still at Travis?
Roky Erickson: Yep.
Paul: Do you remember the first show?
Roky Erickson: Yes it was a sorority or fraternity house and it went over really well. We rehearsed a lot…John Eli was the guy’s name called Elf.
Paul: Was he one of the Spades?
Roky Erickson: Yeah he was one of the Spades as well, he played tambourine.
Paul: Which band?
Roky Erickson: Spades.
Paul: Do you remember a battle of the bands?
Roky Erickson: yeah right…we did a battle of the band and we did all right.
Paul: The Babycakes won.
Roky Erickson: I think so….
Paul: Le Lollypop Club ?
Roky Erickson: A place with go-go dancers, we played it and finally it burned down. We did a bunch of covers, Beatles, Stones, Dylan…let see, “Tell Me” (from the Stones 1st LP) , “Baby’s in red and I’m feeling blue” (Baby’s in Black from Beatles fro sale), by the Beatles, seems like Baby Blue… good stand by.
Paul: Who did you meet first Powell st John, Tommy Hall…
Roky Erickson: Met Tommy first. He would come into the Jade Room and New Orleans club and listen to me play. And so finally he said the reason he was there was he’d been hearing a bunch of …..erm things about a singer, that they really wanted to hear and talk to about leaving the band I was with and coming to play with them.
Paul: He’d met the Lingsmen already.
Roky Erickson: Right and they invited me down there to hear what their band was doing now -without me ( in Port Aransas). And they let me sit in on a song, so I sang “Satisfaction”.
Paul: So they came to see you at the Jade Room and then you jammmed that night at Tommy Hall’s house?
Roky Erickson: Yes.
Paul: Then you go to Port Aransas on the coast to see the Lingsmen play? Roky Erickson: Yes and sang one song, ‘Satisfaction”.
Paul : Okay this is new info……
Roky Erickson: I won’t worry about it. It’s gonna come, you know -when these things people have been talking about will come together and form a whole that you’ll be able to know.
Paul: Rehearsals?
Roky Erickson: We practiced out at Tommy’s house and one time we practiced out at this house out in the…ahh west, north Austin Hills. Way out in the hills. We rented a house for the night and practiced there.
Paul: Was this the one Yvonne (Benny Thurman’s girlfriend) arranged?
Roky Erickson: That’s right…it was out, that ride we took the other day, near Christmas…out there.
Paul: You rehearsed for 2 weeks before the first 13th Floor Elevators gig?
Roky Erickson: Then they talked to John Kearney and told him they wanted me to quit their band and go with the Elevators. And so he said that would be all right.
Paul: You still had to play the Spades bookings until Christmas?
Roky Erickson: Yeah right.
Paul: Do you remember the last gig? Jade Room?
Roky Erickson: I just remember it was a pretty good gig.
Paul: You played San Antonio?
Roky Erickson: Yep and Dallas. We played sorority and fraternity parties. They would throw big, elaborate parties. …And they’d have this kind of prize for coming to their parties; they’d be able to hear us play.
Paul: What was the Spades biggest gig?
Roky Erickson: We played club out by the Lake and all of them were drunk, so they threw their glasses… they finished drinking their liquor and would throw their glasses on the ground and there was much broken glass all over the dance floor, girls were cutting their feet on it, trying to dance bare footed. So that…
Paul: Did you play the OU football weekend in Dallas?
Roky Erickson: Right. Yeah that was a pretty big gig.
Paul: Was it hard to leave and join the Elevators?
Roky Erickson: Well I wanted to, because I listened to their band and I liked it, it had a certain click to it that was groovy…
Paul: Was it ever discussed whose band it was.
Roky Erickson: We tried to keep it as all of ours.
Paul: That’s seems where the conflict started? John Ike thought it was the Lingsmen with a new singer…. Tommy thought it was a new band , you thought it was your new backing band …..
Roky Erickson: Oh it wasn’t a problem. But remember different people thought different things. …They had formed the band.
Paul: Tommy had this idea of playing the acid. How soon was that introduced?
Roky Erickson: Pretty soon.
Paul: Were you taking acid at the first gig?
Roky Erickson: Erm, it doesn’t seem like we were.
Paul: George Banks told me a story about dicing up peyote in Waterloo Park?
Roky Erickson: That was way later. I think that he was talking about was he was doing that.
Paul: Do you mind talking about LSD?
Roky Erickson: No.
Paul: Wasn’t it hard as a performer. Remembering lyrics?
Roky Erickson: You had to respect it. Because you didn’t really know where it would take you, so you had to think, “Well, is this happening?” And so, erm…what did people say about it?
Paul: Well I have one quote from Stacy …(reads) He saw the audience melting in front of him at the Jade Room…
Roky Erickson: I know what he meant by that.
Paul: Did you ever experience something like that?
Roky Erickson: No.
Paul: How did the audience look?
Roky Erickson: They would be clearer. Like if you see through a fog but what that could have been was a respect for the drug. If you had respect for it, you would have a good trip if you didn’t then you would have a bad trip.
Paul: Clarity and the white light?
Paul: What about the spiritual side?
Roky Erickson: No, I would find it real clear. You know and I was thinking it could have been the drug or it could not have been the drug.
Paul: How about negative feelings?
Roky Erickson: No I didn’t.
Paul: Stacy was worried.
Roky Erickson: He was concerned He was always worried we were going to get busted. We would say if you’re gonna worry about being busted, you’re gonna get busted. And they would point at Stacy and say that’s what he was doing. Worried about being busted so he was going to get busted.
Roky Erickson: He was concerned He was always worried we were going to get busted. We would say if you’re gonna worry about being busted, you’re gonna get busted. And they would point at Stacy and say that’s what he was doing. Worried about being busted so he was going to get busted.
Paul: Self fulfilling prophecy. Was he the most religious?
Roky Erickson: He would speak of religion like people would carry a rabbit’s foot, for good luck. That’s how I would think he felt about religion. He would always say, God to this and Jesus Christ to that”. In other words, if he did that he would have good luck.
Paul: Was Tommy religious?
Roky Erickson: Yep
Paul: And mathematics?
Roky Erickson: When he would write his songs, he would do them in phases and he’d show em to me and say do I like this ? You know. And I did like it and err and so that’s probably the mathematics you’re talking about.
Paul: Did you ever co-write lyrics or was there a division where you wrote the music…
Roky Erickson: I helped him.
Paul: Did Tommy take over the band for a while?
Roky Erickson: Yep , that was Easter Everywhere.
Paul: Stacy mentioned 6 or 7 times when you were playing on acid he felt a wall blast thru him and lift his guitar.
Roky Erickson: Ahh, I guess I did .
Paul: Like a wave or vibration?
Roky Erickson: Yeah that would be the reason the band formed is because ….ahh they would play with the feedback from the guitars. We would put our amps on to each other and it would create what we called the third voice. And the third voice was what would come out of musicians playing to each other trying to form their feedback into a separate tune. And so it was called the third voice.
Paul: The lost chord?
Roky Erickson: Yep the Missing Links. Like that.
Discuss third sound / transcendental mediation
Paul: The jug ?
Roky Erickson: I liked the jug He got it because he used to listen to jug band music and so he decided to play jug and he asked them if it bothered them, he asked them all the time and they didn’t tell him it did.
Paul: He wanted it to be like the Byrds?
Roky Erickson: Yep right , the Byrds had the 12 string guitar and the Jim McKweskin jug band was kinda like a folk music jug band and ahh , ahh Tommy wanted his jug to be like them . And there was another band called the Holy Modal Rounders . They had a song called “ Floppy Eared Mule.” (sings, laughs).
Roky Erickson: So that’s probably what is was , John Ike and Stacy didn’t like the jug , something folk music.
Paul: Do you remember it begin discussed that Tommy should join on bass and Benny stay on fiddle as the “extra” sound ?
Roky Erickson: Seems like I remember that.
Paul: There’s story about recording YGMM and the pick up on Benny’s electric fiddle whipped the first few takes because he’d placed it next to the recording desk ?
Roky Erickson: It could be , I don’t remember
Paul: Do you remember anything about recording it?
Roky Erickson: We did it and got it right in about the first few tries. And ahh it sounded real good just like we wanted it . So we went ahead and got the one track we liked…..and so , and so YGMM was born.
Paul: 3 tracks studio.
Roky Erickson: IA – no Contact.
Talks about signing to International Artist ….. little memory…
Paul: Time frame…… Dallas… March ‘66…. House?
Roky Erickson: We had a house there , a friend of Tommy’s loaned us the house.
Paul: Supporting the Byrds ?
Roky Erickson: Yep in Fort Worth…that was fun.
Paul: Impressed by them?
Roky Erickson: Yep.
Paul: Tommy said you didn’t play well , the car broke down
Roky Erickson: Yeah right. I must have , carbon monoxide started leaking out of the car.
Paul: Acetate of Reverberation demoed with Bob Sullivan in Dallas ?
Roky Erickson: erm yep.
Paul; Second 45, why didn’t it come out ?
Roky Erickson: We figured we wanted to get one down and move on to the next one. Each one would have it’s own aura or shape. Be like boxing it up and getting ready for the next one , that would be telling a different story. Each song would tell a story, then we’d move onto the next record and tell another story.
Since we’d already covered the next section of the Elevators history previously we jumped to Rusk, the Maximum Security Unit for the Criminally Insane, which Roky was sent to following his 1969 bust for marijuana.
Paul: Rusk?
Roky Erickson: Well, Rusk was kinda like a concentration camp. It was just an old building in the middle of nowhere and it was a maximum security unit of the criminally insane. And I didn’t think I was criminally insane . But the whole idea was …that I would be pronounced insane and be able to got a mental hospital instead of a jail. And so that happened to me but it turned out the minimum stay at this particular mental hospital was 3 years.
Paul: What was the daily regime like?
Roky Erickson: O’ well we would go to classes , take courses and I got my GED there.
Paul: Why did you become a Reverend?
Roky Erickson: I just did. I was writing a book ( Openers amongst others) and I decide to make …it would make you feel real religious to be in a place like that. All you would have would be your religion. You’d want God and Jesus with you at all times to help you through the times.
Paul: But you’d been developing your own ideas. Did they force their religion on you?
Roky Erickson: No, there was this one guy , his name was Marvin Rosell and he had a certain , his own way that he was in pray all the time ….and he would call you down if you weren’t praying like he wanted you to…
Paul: An inmate?
Roky Erickson: Yep and he liked me a lot and would get me a pass . He was in charge of the clothing room and so he would get me pass so I could go and sit with him and play the guitar and he’d play and sing songs in there.
Paul: When you came out you changed God to Satan in yours songs, how much was that a rejection?
Roky Erickson: Oh that was. I would look at it and think maybe ….. My fans wouldn’t understand it if I would be praying to Jesus, all the time , so I was thinking of Lucifer more in the vain of horror movies. You know when I was young I wanted to go to horror movies and my mother would say, “No, I don’t want you going to these horror movies, they’re bad for you and you could get too scared from watching them.” So, I was comparing that, what my mother would let me do to the horror movies I would try and make my songs into. Horror songs.
Paul: Were you also addressing your own internal demons?
Roky Erickson: Well I didn’t look at it like that- that I had an internal demon that would be more Rusk.
Paul: You lost three years of your life. Were you dealing with that? I heard I Walked with a Zombie was about Rusk.
Roky Erickson: err could be.
Paul; The drug regime? (Thorzaine shuffle, name given to the side effects….)
Roky Erickson: I can’t remember what drug I was on, but they just take medication there at Rusk.
Paul: How did you view the way they treated you?
Roky Erickson: It was too severe. When I first got there I get put my clothes underneath my bed and one of the attendants came by and pushed me down and started kicking me and says “don’t ever put your clothes underneath your bed.” That was the Rusk thing. Once you got to know em , they wouldn’t bother you , if they didn’t know you they would really take it out on you. The guy, the attendants name was Jack Ball…. I mean Dan Ball.
Paul: Was there a lot of rough treatment?
Roky Erickson: Yeah some people had it pretty bad. But sometimes the prisoners would call it upon themselves. One time I came back at night to go to bed and there was blood all over the place and Dan Ball had attacked this guy for …erm he wouldn’t be quiet. He kept nagging at Dan , so went back and beat him up.
Paul: Did you feel safe?
Roky Erickson: After a while good people would hear about it . And we had this one guy he had a bad leg , he was a kind of a young guy and he was the night attendant …and he would come and get me out and let come and watch television in the attendant’s room.
Paul: So keep your head down , keep your nose clean?
Roky Erickson: Yep.
Paul: Did they give you Electro shock treatment?
Roky Erickson: No , not at Rusk. That was at Hedgecroft.
Paul: How many times?
Roky Erickson: Once.
Paul : It says Lab treatment on the treatment record , what was that?
Roky Erickson: I don’t know. First time I heard of that.
Paul : Was it on your 21st Birthday?
Roky Erickson: It could have been.It wasn’t soon as I got there . I was there about , oh …a pretty good while before I had that happen to me.
Paul: Do you remember your 21st ?
Roky Erickson: Yeah My mother came visit me and Dana and different people.
Paul; Your mother says they wouldn’t let her speak to you.
Roky Erickson: That could be too.
Paul: Do you remember Tommy rescuing you?
Roky Erickson: Yeah he took the door of the hinges , with a screwdriver and snook me out of the hospital.
Paul: You had a prison band also called the Missing Links at Rusk?
Roky Erickson: John Starns , and I can’t remember the others.
Paul: Why did you form that for your sanity?
Roky Erickson: Yep . Just to keep it straight and we were able to go across the fence and play gigs . We could leave the hospital…..we played another maximum security unit, and played the unfenced part of Rusk , there were two units, the fence in and no fence in unit.
Paul: Rodeos
Roky Erickson: we did one.
Paul: So you were writing songs?
Roky Erickson: I did that book Openers…..
Paul : You reformed the Elevators in ‘73 , why?
Roky Erickson: I just felt there was something I hadn’t said , and wanted to get together and say it . And so we played Mother Earth (Club in Austin February 1973), and old fans came and really liked it . I can’t remember what we called the band , it could have been the Elevators.
Paul: Why wasn’t Stacy in the band?
Roky Erickson: Oh by that time , they had figured the things they were thinking about being busted were real . They didn’t want to chance it . They didn’t want to chance getting back into the limelight…and into a place where in their mind the ….
Paul: Different drugs too…is that why the Elevators couldn’t last?
Roky Erickson: I think the reason the Elevators more or less, the members of the band …if they …. In other words…like thinking that Benny Thurman was demeaning the band (by taking speed) . And so we decided to fire him and get Danny Galindo.
Paul: Ronnie Leatherman was next bass player. Danny was huge speed freak.
Roky Erickson: Oh Ronnie.
Paul: Stacy was nearly kicked out too with Benny. Given an ultimatum to stop using speed….
Roky Erickson: I remember Tommy talking to him about it. They would argue , but I think it was more hearsay……
Paul: Recording Easter Everywhere was a troubled month?
Roky Erickson: Well it seemed to go pretty well but we seemed to work ourselves too hard on it. Worked and worked and worked…
Paul: I heard you walked out ?
Roky Erickson: Could have.
Paul: Clementine came in and recorded with you and persuaded you back.
Roky Erickson: Yeah……and May the Circle ? Have you ever that?
Paul: You recorded that as a solo recording?
Roky Erickson: …I went down there (Goldstar studios, Houston) and they were looking for the Elevators ….IA was, and they couldn’t find them so they talked me into going in and making May the Circle Remain Unbroken.
Paul: They just wanted you to do some work?
Roky Erickson: Yeah.
Paul: Keyboards and guitar….and Stacy daisy chained lots of Echoplex units together……
Roky Erickson: See they would have these new experiments they would be working on…and not have it okayed by the whole band , so that could be the turmoil you were talking of.. When we first started the Elevators the whole thing was to make sure everyone agreed on something before we did it . So, it was getting so that no one would have it so the whole band would have to like an idea and that was one.
Paul: Were there any songs you didn’t record?
Roky Erickson: No I don’t think so.
Paul: “Egyptian Eyes”?
Roky Erickson: I think that was Stacy’s
Paul: “Moonsong” , “Sweet Surprise” ?
Roky Erickson: It could have , they did …see Bull Of Woods was the idea of not having the whole band agree to everything that was being done. So I don’t really remember those songs , he probably wouldn’t even show them to me . He would be paranoid if he said anything to anybody about it and that his ideas would be rejected in the end .
Paul: The George Harrison of the band.
Roky Erickson: Yep.
Paul: You and Tommy made an agreement to write Easter Everywhere together?
Roky Erickson: Yeah right…..
Paul: Slip Inside This House?
Roky Erickson: He would read about metaphysics……and erm and he would try and write about what he had got out of the books .Like the guy on the back of EE was a metaphysical guru. Of what one must live like , it was a posture. In other words …..
Paul: Some songs you wrote together…
Roky Erickson: We write while were playing. Somebody would think of a tune they would like to have announced , and so they start playing and we’d get working on the tune …..and then start writing the lyrics .
Paul: What about John Ike ?
Roky Erickson: All of us did
Paul: He came in with ideas?
Roky Erickson: He would have ideas…..
Paul: Did he complain about the more psychedelic ideas?
Roky Erickson: He did, he just stated it as a fact of something he thought was happening.
Paul: Draftboard?
Roky Erickson: The draftboard , Tommy said that I was …..
Paul: Before SF?
Roky Erickson: Before … I went to a draftboard and had him …..I told I had something was wrong with me , I can’t remember what it was….
Paul: Your back ?
Roky Erickson: Yeah, and I had a spinal tap in SF. I went out to SF….
Paul: You smoked Asthmador cigarettes to make you fuzzy at the draft hearings , did you smoke those anyway?
Roky Erickson: (laughs) Belladonna , no …..
Paul: Ok spinal tap in SF? Did you have a second?
Roky Erickson: SF, one.
Paul: You started acting weird out there. You went a mental hospital?
Roky Erickson: I spent a very little bit. Some think like one day. I was walking along the street and they picked me up and…the cops picked me up and wanted to see my identification.
Paul: Why?
Roky Erickson: Apparently I didn’t have the right ID , I was from Texas. If you weren’t from SF you were a risk to them. So they took me to a mental hospital and checked me in for the night and luckily it was a nice place, for the big-wigs . So, I didn’t have too much trouble and the next Dana came and got me.
Paul: Dana wasn’t out there ….. Tommy and Sandy Lockett got you out.
Roky Erickson: That probably true , I just couldn’t remember who and I thought it was more likely to be Dana….
Paul: They later used that against you after the ’69 bust?
Roky Erickson: Yeah right, when I was arrested for marijuana…when the Police man said he found the vial (of grass Roky had supposedly through from a car window , on Mount Bonnell in Austin Tx) . I think I was set up for that.
Paul: How?
Roky Erickson: Well it doesn’t seem right that I would through out a vial of grass into the weeds and a Policeman would stop and set his flashlight on it and get it .
Paul: Are you saying he planted it?
Roky Erickson: That sounds real good.
Paul: Were there other people in the car John Kennedy ?
Roky Erickson: Just us and he was driving. I don’t know we were even smoking. We could have just had the weed on us.
Paul: You definitely did have grass on you
Roky Erickson: Yes .
Paul: And threw it out ? And you don’t think he found it but planted some other?
Roky Erickson: That just seems impossible that happened.
Paul: Was Tommy dealing acid with Chet Helms in 1966?
Roky Erickson: I think he was.
Paul: Did you see Benny in SF in 1966 ?
Roky Erickson: Yes , he said he was a changed man. He wasn’t doing speed , wasn’t using the needle . And so people said , whether he was changed or not , they didn’t want him around because of what he had done.
Paul: He seemed very subdued the other day ( at the SXSW Elevators panel , the first time Roky and Benny Had seen each other seen each other since 1967) ? What did you think of seeing him again?
Roky Erickson: I liked him . He was the guy with the beard, right?
