When I was 20 I hitch-hiked from Seattle to Mt. Vernon when a powder blue Cadillac pulled over to pick me up. It stopped suddenly, skidding on the gravel shoulder of the U-District on-ramp for Highway I-5 going north, so I ran over wondering who in such a nice ride as this would pick ME up?
Inside was this cool looking, dark-skinned young Native American guy. I happened to be wearing white magician’s white gloves, an old grey ratty trench coat and some rhinestone jewelry I found at Goodwill. I’d never even come close to being picked up by a Cadillac before and so I was a bit alarmed at first, wondering why and what could this be about??
Within the first few minutes the driver told me he was a millionaire named Eric Minnis whose family back in Oklahoma owned a field full of oil wells. His wide bright toothy smile and friendly manner combined with his choice of music, Abba on the car stereo, put me at ease and we chatted for the rest of the journey. He actually went quite far out of his way to drop me off directly at the home that I shared with my band Medusa at Big Rock (actual place name!) in the Skagit Valley.
A few weeks later Eric Minnis reappeared at the Big Rock house in the magic Skagit Valley driving yet another gorgeous giant American automobile– a dark green Lincoln Continental with suicide doors. I was very surprised to see him, impressed that he remembered where our house was in such an obscure rural location. We laughed and talked for awhile, sharing a few joints of marijuana that he brought along. He then asked if I’d like to accompany him on a road trip down the West Coast all the way to San Francisco and then on to Hollywood (at that point I’d never been there). I was completely excited but a bit scared as well seeing as I’d only met this guy one time before, so I asked if we could take one of my best friends along, Don Freeborn– Medusa’s brilliant drummer and hero of Oak Harbor.
I grabbed a mandolin which another long time friend, Kenny Weller, had loaned me and off we went towards California by way of the breathtaking and inspiring Oregon Coast with its crashing black waves, threatening jagged rocks and blissful sea-lions. Eric picked up a stray dog from a veterinary shelter and brought him with us, feeding him room-service steaks from the nice oceanside hotels that Eric generously paid for all along the way. I was used to eating mostly bread and potatoes at home, being a young desperado rock musician and all, so I was mighty happy and impressed. He even took us for an exhilarating helicopter ride over the eerie, disused San Quentin Prison in the San Francisco Bay.
Sure enough, we got to Hollywood and Eric generously gave me and Dono our own room to share at the famous Continental Hyatt House while he took a room for himself and his new dog-friend. Upstairs, Freddie Mercury and Queen had the entire top floor to themselves and The Tubes were holding court at a venue on The Sunset Strip (now you know roughly what year this was)! I was out on our balcony just looking at the shining stars above and the glittering young stars below, strumming this beautiful old mandolin and feeling very very cool, lucky and blessed.
I wrote a little melody which, hilariously, I can still remember today. I developed that into a song called Skagit Valley Shrooms, named for one of the highly transformative aspects of the Big Rock / Skagit River area; its strange blue-ringed mushrooms that, when taken in herbal tea, or Pizza Hut salads, imbue intense distortions via hallucinatory impressions. Such as the time our beloved bass player Brian Phraner’s head turned a glowing green and floated off his body whilst still staring at me intensely… mmmm. A clear baggie full of these white-grey brown mushrooms would literally turn blue, purple and green within moments of being picked from the cow-fields all around our house, and this was BEFORE they were ingested.
Two Highlights from the Hollywood Trip
On day 2 at the Continental Hyatt House, Eric informed Dono and I that he needed to fly up to Seattle to pay some bills and that he had already paid up to keep our hotel room while he was gone. He even gave us food money and some spending cash. Two days later he returned and we were so surprised to see our beloved band-leader Brian whom Eric had decided to bring along to join our adventure. This was great, and we all had an wonderful time exploring Tinseltown.
We picked up our friends from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and several other of my closests school-friends who lived in Los Angeles (Steve Kirk, Ken Weller and Scott Levitin). Then we ingested strong hallucineo-genic small paper squares, and went to see the Johnny Carson TV show being filmed live! Oddly, they had a guy who trained giant spiders for movie sets as a guest and watching those hairy tarantulas doing tricks was about as much as my undulating mind could possibly absorb! Later, Eric drove us to a fancy restaurant, which he also paid for (a musician’s true friend-in-need), so we all ordered huge meals which none of us could eat because the hallucineo-genics prohibited us from even trying. Griff Stevens and Robert Wilhelm Puff rolled up and stole the red carpet from in front of that fancy restaurant and loaded it in the trunk of the Green Lincoln Continental with suicide doors.
Finally the day came when Eric announced that our holiday trip was over– we’d be leaving Hollywood. Our stay there had lasted about 10 days and he bought the three of us Medusa musicians Greyhound Bus tickets back to the Skagit Valley, while he and his little dog drove off to Oklahoma. Dono, Brian and I smoked hashish out of an apple in the back of that bus all the way up the West Coast.
One year later I again had regular visits with Mr Eric Minnis, We’d picnic and smoke pot at Lake Sammamish State Park, one of my true original spiritual stomping grounds, while listening to Eno “Another Green World” on my cassette player. Eric informed me that after our Hollywood trip he’d flipped the green Lincoln Continental while driving through the desert in Nevada and he last thing he saw was that poor little dog running across the sand in a panic.
Robert Plant staying at the famous Continental Hyatt House in Hollywood, overlooking Sunset BLVD
Our amazingly talented Medusa band leader Brian Phraner in our bandroom in Big Rock
I remember Eric. Really loved Abba. In hindsight he had it right, I think. Very sad about the dog.
Any idea what ever happened to Eric Minnis?