a lot of people were waiting for him to play the old songs he did the last time he was in england.

do you ever do the old songs now?

no, not often. i don't mind playing them, but there's no way to go back. there really isn't... - it cuts off what's happening now. a lot of butterflies end up like jesus, pinned to a wall. it's not fair to do something without blood; far be it from me to bring up that old blood....

if it's in the mind of the people for me to do something i did when i was last here, i can't do it. the way i play 'abba zaba' now...: it sounds a lot different. these musicians i have now are much more mén..., nícer men.'

the current magic band includes zoot horn rollo (bill harkleroad) and winged eel fingerling (elliot ingber) on guitars, rockette morton (mark boston) on bass, ed marimba (art tripp) on drums, and a new member, oréjon (roy estrada), on bass. winged eel, ed and oréjon are all ex-mothers of invention.

i had all the facilities to be a superstar long ago. you know, if i had done a record like 'safe as milk' immediately after [the two debut singles] and pushed it, but i won't do that. that is sick, in my opinion.... it just breaks off all art, it's just another footpath to coca cola.

i wouldn't think i'm a superstar.... as a matter of fact my next album will be called 'brown star', and it's not to avoid superstar that i say 'brown star'.... you ask a child if he's seen a brown star and he'll laugh and jump up and down and say: 'i found a brown star right on the ground' (with 'brown star' don means the earth - t.t.).... i think that this planet is as bright as sirius. people just think the grass is greener elsewhere.

when everybody is perfect anyway, they still try and cut off those blood flows that make the brain do what it does...: all those weird postures that people put on (makes tense, jerky expressions of unease). hard to deal with. people who do things like that are wrong, man. they are very... - do you want to call it disconnected or insane? i would rather say it's varying degrees of disconnection.

VARYING DEGREES OF DISCONNECTION

i have been a victim of it myself. i got extremely fat, but i did it as an experiment to find out what people think at that weight. i wanted to know. but i don't think it's worth getting into the bullshit to find out what the bull ate when it comes to poisons like hard drugs and narcotics.

i mean, i am not going to sample every tablet on the table because it might enable me to paint a stroke better. i might have a stroke. some people who think they are getting high are just having repeated strokes.

being put out as an aspirin and being called a genius because somebody thought i was a really heavy tablet is kind of corny.

TOO MUCH DRUGS

i was saying about teevee that you're watching and suddenly your chair gets taken away and you fall on the floor and break your tail bone. i think that's what usually happens to people who take too much drugs and then all of a sudden say they don't really have an imagination.

that's absurd, man. too much invested interest in any one point like that is varying degrees of disconnection. look through the mirror and let go of the handle. that's one of my songs on 'brown star'....

 

you know, they used to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, now they use it all the time. i'm trying to quit cigarettes. don't think that marijuana isn't going to do the same as tobacco to your lungs. why would it be any different? we weren't meant to inhale weed into our lungs. that won't work. you know, over anything - moderation is the answer. really occasionally i will drink a little alcohol. but very occasionally.

the joint has become part of the anatomy in this day and age. that poor little weed, all that emphasis upon it. like, as soon as they found the tuna fish was a gourmet's delight, they disappeared. and now that weed is so sought after, pushed, hunted, whipped and intellectualised....

i don't think anyone can get a good puff now unless they're way out in the middle of nowhere with nobody around to go: 'oh, yeah man...'.

INDULGING

i used to indulge in marijuana, just a little bit, but i quit five years before i did 'safe as milk'. yes, i did once have acid slipped on me (seven) years ago in honolulu. they put it in a glass of whisky and i thought i was horribly ill. corny - everything looked like one of those cheap old american movies, like where the woman goes faint and the walls go back and forth.

that's all it was to me. acid is a dead scene and i wish it had never begun. it's like disneyland. all of a sudden great painters like van gogh are looked upon as old hat - a fellow who dared to jump into the sun and come back and paint for people.

it's very difficult for an audience at a concert - like watching a train go past and trying to count the wheels. i think they should try to get into the rhythm, start moving. but not many people can successfully get out of the formroom. what they have to do is let the form come out of them in everything they do - then they're there.

i have a corporation called 'god's golf ball'. that's pretty bouncy, isn't it? you think that one's up to par?

we rent 110 acres in eureka, california, overlooking the ocean with the redwoods behind. the band lives in separate houses. you can see the whales cleaning themselves of barnacles.

INTELLECTUAL GIRAFFE

our society is just too intellectual, i think. artists, painters, musicians usually become babysitters in a society like this. i think there should be some faster moves going on, like moves to prevent people from poaching those beautiful animals in africa. what if you have a child who grows up and has to intellectualise a giraffe?

all you can eat is what you can hold in your hands at any one time. wouldn't you agree? even that is a lot for a little bitty stomach.

HONEST JOHN

i like john peel. i think he is a very honest man. you say they have put him in a comic strip - that's not fair. that's what walt disney did to the wolf. i wish there was something i could do to repay john for what he has done.

i wrote all of our music, drums, everything. this group has a long life in front of it. eventually we'll be around each other the real way and we'll be able to do free music, telepathically. i'm not looking for a flash in the pan. it has taken me five years to get this group together. now they're men, and honest, i think it is important the public should get a chance to see a band like that.