Rock My Monkey: Hello, you are listening to the Rock My Monkey netcast on RockMyMonkey.com. Today we are speaking with poet, author, radio host, and namesake for the John Lennon song, John Sinclair. How are you doing today, John?
John Sinclair: So far so good.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. Cool. Now, I was born in 1970, and actually most of our readers are even younger than I am. A lot of us, a lot of people that will be reading this interview, as well as me, I had no clue who you even were before researching for this interview or reading your book.
John Sinclair: I’m pretty far underground.
Rock My Monkey: (laughs) Well, there’s a lot of information about you. I was actually surprised about how much information there is about you online, and available.
John Sinclair: I’m a very productive individual.
Rock My Monkey: I’d like to start out with some questions that kind of go over your very impressive background. First off, you are the namesake of a song by John Lennon. For the readers of Rock My Monkey that have not read your book yet, do you mind telling me the story of how that came about?
John Sinclair: I was in prison for nine to ten years, for possession of two joints of marijuana. They wouldn’t give me an appeal bond. I didn’t even know I was challenging the constitutionality of the marijuana laws of this country. Even though it was eventually successful. So I was in prison. Ed Sanders my friend Jerry Reuben and my friend Jerry Reuben had both been talking to John Lennon at the time while he was staying in New York City. Then I think Jerry Reuben took him a poem that Ed Sanders had composed on my behalf. Then Jerry Reuben said, we’re going to Ann Abhor for this big rally to try to free Sinclair. Why don’t you and Yoko come? And they decided to come. So that was show and then they came, and three days after the show I got freed from prison. Just like that. It was December 13th, 1971.
Rock My Monkey: So now John Lennon actually did not write the song? He actually just performed it?
John Sinclair: No, no, no. He wrote the song also, and recorded it. But then he actually came to Ann Abhor physically in person and played at the show, headlined it the benefit and rally for me. Three days later I got out.
Rock My Monkey: Why don’t you tell people, what is the White Panther Party and would you call yourself-
John Sinclair: Was, was, was. This book’s been out of print for thirty five years. It came out in 1972. It was written between ’68 and ’72. So the events are referred to are things that were happening then, not now. It’s a historical document.
Rock My Monkey: Right. Absolutely. But White Panther Party, is that something that’s still-I see that there are online websites for it. Is it still active in any way?
John Sinclair: If it is, I don’t know about it. There are probably people posting information from the sixties and seventies. I would daresay. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll look it up today myself, now that you say that.
Rock My Monkey: Curiosity, are you in Detroit or Amsterdam?
John Sinclair: I’m in Los Angeles this morning.
Rock My Monkey: Do you have this area code as part of your political and social statement?
John Sinclair: This is my Detroit area code. My daughters live in Detroit, and I like them to be able to pick up the phone and just make a local call and get me on the phone. And my granddaughter. I have a five year old granddaughter, and once in a while I’m really lucky and she calls me.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but a lot of people actually consider this area code as a political statement.
John Sinclair: Why is that? 313?
Rock My Monkey: Yeah. Because of it being from the Detroit area, and because of that being so predominately African American, they actually consider the 313 area code-there’s actually a very strong political spin that goes along with that area code. I actually thought maybe that was something you did on purpose.
John Sinclair: I’ve lived in Detroit for 25 years. In the city of Detroit, not the suburbs. In the city of Detroit. That’s a political statement well. It’s one fast ghetto.
Rock My Monkey: When this book was first released, what is the difference between the first version and the one that is being released now?
John Sinclair: The difference?
Rock My Monkey: Right.
John Sinclair: The times. The context is extremely different. The book’s pretty much the same. It’s got some new pictures in it, and it’s got less sex. I took some things out so they could put more pictures in and print it for less than an arm and a leg. But other than that it’s got a different cover, and instead of-the original was printed on rainbow pages. There were seven different signatures of color of pages, because there was a rainbow of people at that time, or that was my idea. Now it’s just a book.
Rock My Monkey: How much has your ideals and your viewpoint of the world and your goals in life, how much has that changed since you wrote this book several decades ago?
John Sinclair: Not so much basically. I would hesitate to claim that rock and roll is a weapon of cultural revolution today. More a weapon of cultural suppression. It surrounds us. Other than that, I can’t stand the government, I hate capitalism. I’m a socialist. I still smoke weed. I’m against the war on drugs. Pretty much the same guy. I just decided not to put it up in their face all the time. I thought if you’re going to have a revolution now, it would be best not to tell them up front.
Rock My Monkey: Don’t let them plan for the invasion, in other words.
John Sinclair: Yeah, exactly.
Rock My Monkey: Do you ever wonder-a lot of people that look at books like guitar army, and look at the causes that you’ve been at the forefront for for your entire life, a lot of people wonder if the dope and as you say the ‘fucking in the streets’ got in the way of the revolution?
John Sinclair: What revolution?
Rock My Monkey: The whole sixties revolution-
John Sinclair: Got in the way? That was part of the revolution. When I was young, the cultural revolution The one that aspired to challenge the government and then the war, and then you got Nixon thrown out. Those were big parts of it.
Rock My Monkey: So you don’t think that it ever got in the way of causing the change that you guys were trying to go for?
John Sinclair: That was part of the change we were trying to cause so you could do whatever you wanted. Free personal freedom, like it says in our founding documents. Like liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That’s part of happiness for a lot of us, to get high and fuck. People have been doing that ever since there’s been people. It’s one of the oldest behavior patterns in the world. (laughs) No fucking, no people!
Rock My Monkey: For the readers that were born well after the sixties, what do you feel are the proudest goals, the proudest accomplishments of the sixties revolution? What do you feel was actually changed?
John Sinclair: Oh, not so much. We twisted a little bit culturally. But look at your cultural menu today. It’s pretty dismal. I don’t know. I’m not proud of anything. It’s just what we did because we hated the way it was, we wanted it to be a little bit different. So we challenged it. I ended up paying more than most with the two and a half years in prison, but I didn’t know it was part of it. I don’t regret that. There’s something that… maybe that was part of what I had to do. But we made an effort, and we didn’t win. We lost. We lost. They beat us on the battlefield and they beat us with the guns and the music about thirty five years ago, and it’s not been the same since.
Rock My Monkey: The one thing that I think was changed was, we got a little bit closer to-I think you were maybe part of us getting one step, a small step closer to reform of the marijuana laws and making them a little bit more reasonable shortly after-
John Sinclair: But they aren’t.
Rock My Monkey: But shortly after-
John Sinclair: They’re worse now. It’s worse now. If I got arrested now, if I had a house, they’d take my house.
Rock My Monkey: So you think that somebody could still be-
John Sinclair: The only way that you could get it is if you’re sick. If you’re a healthy individual in America you’re a criminal, a felon, if you want to get high.
Rock My Monkey: Do you think that somebody could still be in prison for ten years for the small amount that you had?
John Sinclair: Yeah. Right now, yeah. I can think of thousands of people in prison right now for marijuana crimes.
Rock My Monkey: But for the small amount that you had, though?
John Sinclair: Well, what difference does it make? If I had some, I had to get it from somebody. If it’s alright for me to have it, then it’s alright for them to get it to me. The whole problem was marijuana!
Rock My Monkey: That’s why I called it a small step. It is a small step.
John Sinclair: Yeah, yeah. I hear ya.
Rock My Monkey: I’m trying to say that there was some progress made. There actually was some things that were accomplished.
John Sinclair: I don’t mean to belittle, but I mean we wanted to change the world completely, and we failed to do that. So to some of us that’s a great disappointment. (laughs) You know? I wish they had.
Rock My Monkey: But I think maybe one of the lessons we can learn from the sixties revolution is be happy about the small little accomplishments.
John Sinclair: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.
Rock My Monkey: And don’t let the fact that you didn’t change the entire world bum you out.
John Sinclair: I’m not bummed out, but I mean, it’s hard to think about your successes when the main thing that happened is you didn’t win. (chuckles)
Rock My Monkey: Right. A loss is a loss. Still, there was some battles I think you guys won, for my generation and the generations to come. Now, we already did talk about the White Panther Party is pretty much, as far as you know, pretty much gone.
John Sinclair: For a long time.
Rock My Monkey: Do you still believe in the things that the White Panther Party promoted?
John Sinclair: Yeah. Sure.
Rock My Monkey: Absolutely. There’s not a single opinion that has changed since then?
John Sinclair: No, I would still endorse the ten point program. (laughs) Making everything free for everybody. I’d like to see that.
Rock My Monkey: You have an online radio show. You have several websites. What is that about, and what are your goals for your radio show and for your websites?
John Sinclair: The website I’m trying to build into something that encapsulates my activities throughout my life. I’ve been a writer for 44 years. I want to have all of my writing and all my poetry there. All kinds of things. I’m building that up over a period of time. And radio, the podcast comes from RadioFreeAmsterdam.com, and we’re building an internet radio station, a volunteer program. We’re gathering productions on our website. I’ve kind of got the flagship show, the John Sinclair Radio Show. We do a show called Alternative Amsterdam. We got a jazz show out of New Orleans out of Boulder, Colorado, with a blues show. So we’re trying to build a foundation of really good music that you don’t hear in American life anymore.
Rock My Monkey: Being so connected to the internet, do you feel that this technology, that all this technology is a good thing?
John Sinclair: Fuck, yeah. Yes.
Rock My Monkey: Absolutely. Cool.
John Sinclair: I wish we would have had the world wide web in our day. We would have took over the world.
Rock My Monkey: Very cool. Now, how do you feel about file sharing, and do you do it yourself?
John Sinclair: Yes.
Rock My Monkey: Yes. Absolutely.
John Sinclair: I’m just trying to get people to hear my work. I can’t keep it in print. I can’t get record companies to put it out properly and keep it in print. So I’m happy if it anybody hears it. If they can find it somewhere, download it, please. I’d like them to send me a letter and tell me.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. I think that’s such a healthy attitude.
John Sinclair: I don’t do this for the money, anyway. So if I did, I would have had to quit a long time ago. Because there’s no money in it for what I do. But I’m determined.
Rock My Monkey: I think that’s a wonderful and healthy attitude. I wish more people would embrace it that way. Now, being a politically minded person like you are, I have to ask you, is there a presidential candidate that you like at all right now?
John Sinclair: That’s been declared you mean? Not really. I mean, the Republicans and Democrats, they aren’t going to win. I’d rather have a Democrat. Any Democrat’s an angry Republican. I’m a registered Democrat. I usally vote democratic. So in that case I’m on that side. I don’t know. I would rather had James Brown as president, but he’s not here anymore. He was my music.
Rock My Monkey: I do have one final question. Every year we do try and make up one final question to ask everybody from the classic rock legends that we speak to, to the most extreme metal bands. For 2007 I’m asking people to look into their crystal ball and possibly predict-this is predict, not wish. You’re not wishing this on anybody. But predict what known, what well known public figure, could be a musician, could be a world leader, a political leader, whatever. Anybody well known, predict who we might lose by the end of 2007.
John Sinclair: Oh, wow. I don’t know. I’d like to lose the whole Bush family.
Rock My Monkey: Again, this is predict, not wish.
John Sinclair: No more dynasty. I don’t want to predict anything. Then the Secret Service will be here in five minutes.
Rock My Monkey: Well, you already wished.
John Sinclair: I’m on record as being opposed. I mean, millions of people are going to die this year. So I wouldn’t want to single somebody out and try to put the fickle finger on them.
Rock My Monkey: Is there any final word-before we close this off, is there any final words you might have for the listeners and the readers?
John Sinclair: Well, yeah. Turn off your television set. Listen to some good music.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. Well, we’re mostly a music site, so I think that’s a great way to end it. I just want to remind anybody that is listening to the audio version of this that they can go to RockMyMonkey.com for the full featured version with links to John’s website, readable text, and a whole bunch of other great stuff. I thank you very much for taking your time, John, and I hope everyone reading this-
John Sinclair: So what’s your website, where is this hosted at?
Rock My Monkey: This is RockMyMonkey.com.
John Sinclair: Okay. Good. I can go there and hear myself. That’ll be good.
Rock My Monkey: Right. As soon as we post it. And I’m hoping that anybody reading this can click on the book cover that is above and below this interview and purchase The Guitar Army.
