Now we are going from Powell St. John to a member of the original 13th Floor Elevators. Their main bass player was Ronnie Leatherman. He has been kind enough to answer some questions about himself, the Elevators, and things in general during the psychedelic era. Ronnie and his wife Amy live in Kerrville and have been revisiting Austin regularly over the last three years revolving around the resurgence of the Elevators and their music. Ronnie still plays regularly around Kerrville with "Jay Boy Adams & the Roadhouse Scholars", and "The Welfare Fathers", and can still rip through the Elevators material when he is called upon. Ya'll enjoy.... THANKS FOR YOUR MEMORIES RONNIE!
Interview for austin.com....Okay Ronnie....spill your guts!
Q#1. Lets go all the way back... Fill us in how you became a musician and who were your early influences so we can get an idea of how you developed your style of playing in the first psychedelic rock band.....The 13th Floor Elevators.
A#1. Well I started listening to the radio in the mid fifty's : The Everly Brothers , Elvis, Wayne Cochrane, The Ventures ect. Then along came Chuck Berry, Little Richard ,Buddy Holly. Here came the early sixties with The Yardbirds (one of my favorites) The Animals, The Stones, The Kinks and The Beatles. -It was in the seventh grade when I got a chance to take some guitar lessons. We had a science teacher who had a guitar class after school in his classroom. But he taught more of a spanish style of guitar but I enjoyed it and was learning some cords. Then he moved away and that ended that. But in 64 thats when I met some guys who needed a bass player. So I sold my car and bought a silvertone bass guitar and amplifier. They played all instrumentals. So I bought the first Ventures album and set down in my bedroom and listened to the bass line and noodled a round until I found all the notes he was playing. Believe me it took me awhile. So in about a month I told my friends I was ready to play bass for them. It worked out well. We played a lot of the school dances. Also at that time Stacy had a band with a vocalist named Max Range. They played all the cool songs. I'd try to make it to all their gigs. Stacy was also in the high school band. He played drums. I played cornet. We knew each other since about 63. So most of my influences came from this era of music.
Q#2. How was it you came to replace Bennie Thermin after his brief stint. Was Stacy Sutherland your connection to the Elevators?
A#2. In late 64 Stacy's band split up and Max asked our band to back him up. We were called The Penatrators and we started playing gigs with Max. Then in the spring of 65 Stacy and John Ike found out about a really cool club in Port Aransas right on the beach. They recruited Max and got the gig for all summer (June-August). John Ike had been in Austin and saw Benny playing fiddle somewhere and broke out his banjo and they got to know each other. Well John Ike mentioned they were looking for a bass player for the gig in Port Aransas. Benny told John Ike that he could play bass you know it only has four strings. Anyway John Ike ask him to join their band... Max and the Lingsman. So when they they got down there and started to rehearse Benny found out the four strings were a little different than fiddle. Anyway Stacy & John Ike callled me and asked me to come down for a couple of weeks and play and teach Benny the bass. I accepted, and Benny caught on really quick and was able to take over after the two weeks. I still had another year of high school so I couldn't commit to the band in the beginning. So I went back to my other band for my Senior year. By the time I graduated of course I had heard of the Elevators. And occasionally Stacy & John Ike would come to Kerrville. They usually came out to hear our band when they were in town. We were playing in Fredericksburg one night at the American Legion Hall and Stacy, John Ike, Roky & Tommy walked in. What a thrill to have the Elevators at our gig. But the biggest thrill was when the called me aside and asked if I'd like to join the band! I couldn't believe it. I don't know for sure what their differences with Benny were , so Ill leave it at that. We rehearsed for about two weeks and I played my first gig at the Jade room. Its was a good night but there were also a lot of fans who missed Benny. But in a few weeks they were getting a little more comfortable around me.
Q#3. Tommy Hall by all accounts was the main force to be reckoned with in the band. Is this true? Did you have to pass some sort of personality test to "Slip Inside The House" so to speak. Were you drawn into the LSD agenda?
A#3. Tommy was one of the main forces of the band. I don't think I quite slipped inside the house. I just wasn't convinced that LSD was going to be a way of life for me.
Q#4. How did Tommy Hall's psychedelic philosophy/mysticism appear to you when you first encountered it? And now that this much time has passed what is your take on the psychedelic generation and THE SUMMER OF LOVE ect.?
A#4. Tommy definently had a mystcism about him. I also can look back and say I really enjoyed the psychedelic generation. It was quite an experience. California was of course a lot of fun ,But we also met a lot of great people all looking for some kind of change.
Q#5. During your first year with the band and the first album PSYCHEDELIC SOUNDS OF THE 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS surely you friends and relatives back in Kerrville caught wind of the unbelievable reputation of the ELEVATORS....how did this go?
A#5. My relatives and friends were all very supportive of our music. Of course some were not really sure what it was all about. I guess my mother probably encountered a few difficulties since she was the secretary for the 1st Baptist Church. And of course the law enforcement seemed to just hover around us every where we went in town and/or out of town.
Q#6. The first band trip to California was during the formative moments of the psychedelic era. What are your recollections of San Francisco? Who did ya'll meet? Who did you jam with? Which bands did you see perform?
A#6. San Francisco was awsome. Driving across the golden gate bridge for the 1st time and hearing Your Gonna Miss Me on the radio was probably one of my favorite memories. We met alot of people mostly musicians. We played the Avalon with Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape, Quicksilver messenger service and met most of the band members. There was a jam over in Sausalito at a small club called The Ark. It was right on the bay. On weekends after midnight you never knew who might show up. Stacy and I got to jam with Lee Michaels and I Believe it was Skip Spence from the Moby Grape band. I can't remember who the drummer was. We saw most of the bands in the bay area at one time or another. They were all great.
Q#7. Right before the second album EASTER EVERYWHERE you were drafted and did a tour in Viet Nam. On top of that you returned and rejoined the Elevators for the third and final studio album BULL OF THE WOODS. I can't think of another psychedelic musician who experienced this wide of an array of events in those turbulent times. How do you see yourself for having experienced these dramatic shifts? At the time was it just par for the course or did you have flashes you were doing extraordinary things?
A#7.Well I must admit it was quite a change getting drafted. Its hard to talk about this time. It definitely made a difference in my life. Lets just say it was a long 18 months in the service. I really was thrilled to get asked to come finish Bull of the Woods. I enjoyed getting to do alot of Stacys songs that he had wanted to record. That was one of Stacy and my favorite and closes times together. Especially musicically. I guess I went thru quite a bit of changes but I feel like I must have weathered the storm well.
Q#8. On BULL OF THE WOODS you contributed WITH YOU. Give us some insight to your lyrics and how you developed the tune?
A#8. I guess the music for With You probably came from the Ramsey Lewis Trio song Take Five. I just liked the 6/8 beat. The lyrics came mostly from my experiences during my last year in school and getting to California. Its seems like everybody was always talking about something they heard from somebody who heard it from someone else. But they were always trying to spice up the story.
Q#9. The hard core ELEVATOR fans [ me included ] would love to hear funny stories or just any thing about the dynamics of the band. Can you share a few recording studio or live gig memories with us?
A#9 Well I do have one story I can share that was at the Theatre in the Round in Houston. About two hours before the show Stacy was having a bad acid experience. He thought the Devil was after him. So after about an hour we all finally convinced him it was the acid and everything was really okay. He was skeptical but finally seemed to be back in the groove. Well we got out on stage ready to play and the introduction for the MC/DJ came through the house system and then the MC came down the isle to introduce us. He was wearing a black suit with full length black cape with bright red lining, and he had a handlebar mustache and a gotee. I looked at Stacy and could see it in his eyes. He thought the devil had finally caught up with him. So we started Levitation. The entro went well but when Roky came in with the 1st verse Stacy went right into the I've got levitation chorus. It took a few bars we finally got on track.
Q#10. When the Elevators came to an end many people discussed /remembered the trials and tribulations of the band and forgot the message of love and mind expansion. Please tell us how you saw this period and share with us any thing positive you might remember?
A#10. I guess i never look at the downside of the Elevators. there was a lot of hard times but there was a lot of love and peace most of the time.
