Sunday, October 4, 2015

A Man's Life



By Emilio Castillo

"My psychedelic experience was limited because I never wanted to be out of control. I did a little bit of LSD but not a lot. I was into other types of drugs when I was a drug user. When Doc (Kupka) first came in the band he was the one who showed me how to smoke pot and drink rum and coke successfully.

Once that switch was flipped in my life I drank and used drugs steadily for the next 20 years. Very early on we would take mescaline. We would go buy it in Berkeley, CA from a guy. They were little pumpkin seeds, and we would take them on nights when we were playing nine to twelve sets. We played a before hours gig down in San Jose at a place called "The Warehouse" and then we'd pack up the PA and all the equipment, put it in the trailer and drive down to Fremont to a place called "Little Richard's." We would play after hours from two to six in the morning. Inevitably at around 5:45 the owner, Jim Findell would walk up and put a twenty dollar bill on the organ and say, "play another set." We would sometimes play till 8:30 in the morning. Six am the bar opened, it was closed from 2-6. Everybody did their drinking and drugging outside in the parking lot. Then they would come back in and dance to the bands."

I'm pretty open about my drug use because I've been sober for over 27 years. I want people to know that and I'm not ashamed to talk about my past when it comes to that."

*excerpt of my radio interview with EC from September 2015



 

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