 Dave Nelson, my name is Rebecca Nichols. I'll be moderating this. I just want to welcome you here today. Thank you for being here Thanks for having me. Oh my pleasure We want to start out and know a little bit about you Where were you born? I was born in Seattle, Washington Okay, and many years ago many years ago You can tell us when if you like or not 1943. Yeah, I was a war baby. All right Your parents, what were their names? Leo and Helen and what kind of work did your mother or your father do? They're both from Wyoming and My father was a pilot. Oh, he's a cargo pilot up in Alaska during the war and so United Airlines Took all those guys because they were already trained and hired them on. Oh, wow. That'd be sense. Yeah, and You then your family Wait after you were born you moved to San Francisco even to the area and we got in the car and drove up I kind of remember it too. I was only about three years old Remember long drives in the night and and going across the Mississippi River Wow because I think we were coming from Chicago at the time Right and but we moved to Redwood City a little place, which I don't remember but then away some back to Seattle, maybe for a while and then And then before school just before I started school who came back to send a tail Did you have any brothers or sisters sister? Sister Terry Is she musical at all? My dad was really what in what way it's a play harmonica and play guitar and you can The great things you have music from a young age when you picked up an acoustic guitar and yeah in those days Parents would it was pretty common for parents to get the kid a record album, which consisted of 78s Sure in a book clip, you know that you fold these ground envelopes, you know, right and I had text ridders songs and stories and Hop along Cassidy and some stuff like that But I also had you know the nutcracker sweet and Peter and the wolf narrates a nary by Basil Rathbone That was a trip. How old were you when you were? As long as I can remember I mean probably when I was one they started doing this Wow Yeah, I remember sitting in front of the magnet box One time I was listening to I'd have my mom put the records on you I was listening to my dad's burl-lives folks on Teething at the time. I was cutting teeth and the cardboard edge of the album was just perfect That's wonderful. I almost lost my privileges Shoot up the album when you were going to school. Did you ever Were you ever in the music classes or did you ever you continued? There was a time in school in grade school when in about the second grade when I Was coming home from school and I saw a guy getting out of a car with a big black guitar case And which I was really wanting, you know, I was really interested in that and I'd only seen one once before it Friends house. He said his uncle was here and he had a guitar and we ran in there pulled it out from under the bed and I Strummed the strings and oh, this is going to be hard because it didn't make music right away, you know, right? Like the open tuning Romantic tuning but anyway, I'd only seen that for a guitar and The guy comes up to my house and I ran up and he's telling my parents That I could could be enrolled in guitar classes And he takes out this guitar, which is an acoustic guitar, but what I didn't know I was too little to realize It's a steel guitar. It had the strings raised up So you can't play it like this? And I was saying yes to my parents. Yes. I want to do that. Okay Let me show you how your son can play now and they put it down my lap Well, maybe you start this way and then when you get good right play it this way He pick, you know, and he'd hold the bar and I'd strung It works out. Okay, and it's Just too little to say, hey, you know, I didn't what what do you say, right? You know and but anyway, so I got roped into these lessons and Then once you're roped into it, you can't really quit right, especially if you're good and I hated being good That means you're gonna be promoted into classes with older kids doing the same They all snicker when you come in little shrimpy guy comes in with his music, you know, right? And so I really didn't like that at all and it's not any kind of music that I could relate to right But some of that steel guitar My mom asked me to and stuff like that that I remember pointing at times with the The bridge club saying yes play something I'd be sitting And you know, I was just thinking yeah, I don't want to do this You paid your dues Yeah, so so I that went on for And then finally I said if I promised to go get sheet music every now and then learn tune Will you let me quit the lessons? They said okay, and that guitar went as far back in the closet as I could And then just a couple years after that. I'm in high school in Peter Alvin My good friend. Yeah. Yeah, it was in he was a year younger than me. He was in art class Mm-hmm, and he was saying his brother just got back from Mexico brought a guitar when I come over and learn this kind of guitar He said yeah, I'll be right over That's it. I just practice till my fears were blood and you and Peter's practice little together was yeah Yeah, I need to show us the stuff and they Peter showed me chords. I Borrowed guitar and you're in there and then finally got one You know, that's great. It's just yeah that the rest is history. Yeah, really it was like why didn't I think of that earlier, right? Well, you're young big now. I could get I can get one. I can have one. That's right. I Know what to ask for So there you are graduating high school. You're finishing high school. Yeah, and Peter. That's brings us to the thing I'm really attributed to Peter's older brother Rodney Is to the the whole connection between the scene that can insula everything Because he had this idea For a place that we could play but it wouldn't be like, you know You asked money for it or anything, but it would just be us You know, but it would be like a place would be a real sound system and stage. He got Mr. Hutchins bookstore in St. Carlos to loan us the store the upstairs with a balcony every Tuesday and Thursday night in a summer and We called it the boar's head, you know, we made up some kind of a sign like out of Shakespeare the horse head, you know, and I swear that was just that just that idea was just fantastic Everybody had something to contribute everybody had, you know, something they could do or some Stick of some sort, you know, and then one day Roddy comes up to me and Peter and says come on We're going down to Kepler's bookstore Find some of those beatniks down there the Kepler's crowd, you know, they all hang out and I say I know yeah I go there and it's stuff in the city. Yeah, those people You know, tell them there's a part of this guy named Jerry Garcia who's sometimes there and I remember thinking That I couldn't it because he hadn't played a gig yet There wasn't any such thing before the war lost, you know, well, yeah before black non boys, that's right. Yeah But it's just one of those things, you know, so Play together. Yeah, we went we drove down there and me and Peter peeking through the books You know, that's him there. He is and I see this really hairy guy with his shirt open and Playing a 12 string with this really intense look on his face really surly, you know sure and quietly playing this 12 string and We go over Rodney shoves us up there, you know, this is easier friends David Beaton We want to have this thing called the boys head and I had a banjo or if Rodney had a banjo puts a banjo in my hands And I all of a sudden sitting there playing, you know Didn't have time to think about everything but so anyway Garcia said, yeah, you've come down there and I was 18 Just turned 18 or maybe 17 It was either the summer of 60 or the summer of 61 But that one night when he Shown up with all these people all these freaks, you know, it's just really one of the greatest ever. I mean he did Some songs he still did Peggy y'all did that song It's funny. I just wrote an article about this for relics magazine. That's why it's fresh in my mind, right? Yeah That's a great story Yeah, and then we went on to That's the thing got gathered more momentum and more and more and we got parties afterwards And pay pen that's how pay pen got it came on the scene My current from Palo Alto Nobody milling is just outrageous looking at the perfect rock and roll jelly roll haircut, you know, I mean perfect and just amazing looking and Faced this really beat up by acting, you know years and Kind of a quiet And and then he would sit down and play and sound like lightning Hopkins or somebody it was just like amazing everybody was dropped job Who is this guy here? Well, it's Ron McKernan, you know from Palo Alto his father's a DJ So he's had access to all that obscure blue stuff all his life We're just like wow that is totally amazing. He would play all the time. I remember the night. He got his nickname, too We're all rumbling out on the street after the thing Wondering where to go because Susie Woods parents were home and we couldn't have a party there at her house So everybody's going well, you know, somebody suggested something. No, I don't want to go there That's too far and so we're dividing up into little factions, you know where they were going to go and somebody said Big pin said Why don't you all just drop it on just go on over to? This other place that people had nixed for some reason or other and Sherry Huddleston turned around like oh Pig pen, you're always saying something like that She just said it spontaneously because the big thing and the peanuts You don't see she says refer to everybody read it. Yeah, everybody's turned around with Hey, man, and I saw him looking like oh god, that's good You just kind of know it, you know So right about right about this time Hanging out more in the East Bay and coming back into San Francisco. No, this was Palo Alto This was San Carlos in Palo Alto and then the East Bay Because I went to art school at California College of Arts and Crafts. You were an artist as well? Next year after I graduated What kind of medium do you? Mostly most commonly I draw it and Boils was my favorite thing. Wow, because Jerry was in art school. Yeah, but that's in period two. Yeah as well and When I'm gonna bring us to When do you do you feel you played your first show? first show was been organized by Pete Alvin Where it was going to be the CSM folk festival and at College of San Mateo and But we had a that's right We had a thing in the afternoon. It was an art gallery opening at San Francisco State But somebody knew Jerry and said would you do that in the afternoon? for six bucks or something like that, but anyway It was me and Bob Hunter and Garcia and we were called I Think we didn't really have a name yet. So we said we're the Thunder Mountain tub thumpers formerly the Heart Valley drifters But anyway about what year are we that was 62, but 62. Yeah, and You continue to play with Jerry. Yeah Just went on and on. Yeah, that was The CSM folk with that afternoon and then going over to San Mateo We did This great show and I probably have tapes of it too. I'm gonna get into that project one of these days, but We did it in stages of the history of American music Starting out with ballads and unaccompanied stuff. No instruments Jerry did a couple of You know unaccompanied ballad singing like wow in the real traditional style like you and McCall or great one of those guys and And then we did old string band music and you know where you have Dick Perry's configurations Sure, and Joseph guitars out of the south Yeah, and and then on to the modern-day Traditional is which is bluegrass. I guess the living form at bluegrass. Yes. Yeah, and so going on now full-down stuff Exactly songs that aren't necessarily traditional, but lots of them are a lot of a Grishman does Yeah, exactly Did you guys at some point a few years as you're growing up ever take a walk down H3 and it's full-blown I Remember Long about that. There's seven, you know moving ahead a few years There was two or three years in there which seemed like about ten actually right in terms of the stuff that happened sure Like maybe ten bands, you know different bands playing and and and the jug band Mother McCree's uptown jug champions, and I think I thought of that name I wouldn't admit it only to you okay, and the rest of the world. Yeah That became the the warlocks Okay, so they were called the before the movies. Yeah, mother McCree's uptown jug champions and we do jug band music all up Jim quest can you know recreation sure sure faithful recreations of old jug band tunes like cameras jugs Sompers and stuff like that. Wow, and this little kid came around not little kid But that kid like two three years younger than us Was always hanging out and he was always kind of a pest, you know You know who are you get out of your kid, and it was weird Saying no, I'm gonna play in this band. I know I can do something. I can do something We thought well, well you really don't yeah, okay, and he comes back with all kinds of different jugs here What do you think the sound of this one? You know we were thinking kids got pluck, you know Yeah, and I was singing it and Dave Parker was playing a redboard and pigpan, of course and Then I got a gig with this really I covered bluegrass band down in Los Angeles and Had to go down there and played with the pine ballad voice for a while By the time I got back up to the jug band it's gone on to other things really to it now They were their tours were getting really intense, and right and it was great to see it There's great as it was being well received, you know, totally. Did you ever play anywhere Golden Gate Park? They did her like a truck anything at all during the 60s Yeah, so that's where they have to it says right around that time after the jug band folded and there was just kind of Hit and miss things going on and there was the thought of let's Like we did it parties a lot sure singing old rock and roll songs, you know We used to howl like dogs singing rock and roll stuff, you know do what stuff and Laugh and laugh and laugh because rock and roll really is in a humorous vein, you know, it's it's kind of like the light porn of music There was going up to San Francisco to these new shows and Jerry came home one night Saying it's incredible. You won't believe it. It's not like anything you've ever seen I think it was one of the early Fillmore shows or maybe family dog but He said people are just like all in wild outlandish dress, you know and and just Expressing themselves in any way. That's just the most outrageous thing, you know And they all seem to be together in a funny way too, but yet not right. I think they're Cool which meant they smoke pot right which was still hadn't come on above ground yet So that was definitely don't ever talk about that or telling anybody or anything. Yeah So you went to a concert so we went to one of those and it was just yeah, let's see what you mean it was great and Jerry got a gig or the band the warlocks started happening Practicing and one of their early early gigs. It was more or less an audition I think was at the Fillmore and this is the one Bill Graham story. I have I Go in there and they had just in fact for this gig. I think they had Changed the name to the Grateful Dead. It was a thought, you know, let's change it to the Grateful Dead and So but I'd still thought of Mr. Warlock So I go tag along and they said we got to go I set up and everything you can hang around here And so I'm in the hall nobody's here and I see a closed door and over to the left there It's where the bar is now, you know, I opened it up there's this room with tables and bowls of apples on the tables like like dining tables and So yeah, and I see this guy come in and he's got a sweatshirt and sweatpants I thought maybe he was maintenance or something like that He looks at me and I looked at him waited for him to leave and then I took an apple You know just about when I was about ready to bite into it. He comes back in you know, and he says Who are you with? and I said Warlocks and that turned out that was the one answer That I could have said because nobody knew that the warlocks weren't built the Grateful Dead was built Right. If you look at the poster you to see Grateful Dead not Warlocks. So he knew you were right on. Okay. Okay Super super so Three the years you now bring quickly back and we'll go back and forth a little bit right now you have banned the Dave Nelson ban Yeah, and you've played in many bands. You've jammed with many people I'd love to hear something That you'd like us to hear so if someone hears this watches this day 50 years from now And yeah, well, I played in the band called the new writers of the Purple Sage Some of the people in that band John Dawson, Dave Tauver, Buddy Cage, Nopi Tsitsuna. Nopi? Okay. Well, you are a young thing, right? Oh, yeah. Thanks for the compliment. Yeah And Spencer Dryden. It's Spencer. Okay. That's who I got the coaches. Yeah, but anyway, our big hit was Panama Red, so I thought I'd do that. I'd love it Did it for Bill many times So some of the some of the bands you've played in and you're part of this great family of music in the Bay Area I'm curious right now What do you see? You know, where do you see a life going from here on? It's just the beginning for you, David. Yeah, where it's a long life We wish you long life. Oh, I've been having great times just jamming with more and more people. More and more people Yeah, and do you have any dreams and he wishes you still want to do any CDs you want to record? Aside from a million dollars in a carload of nickels. You got it Well, yeah, I'd like to make lots of CDs There's just so many things back into painting and drawing You know, there's just not enough time in a day sometimes And I have a lot of other projects in mind about Some video stuff, I've got hours and hours of great stuff It's inside stuff like B-roll stuff what you call B-roll Making a movie, you know, it's the inside stuff of the gigs No, none of us playing because I'm playing I'm on stage, but I bring a camera and shoot all that out In between But anyway, I've got about I've got over, you know Many hours of it many hours, I'd say, you know, maybe 20 or so of stuff that I'd have to sift through Think about that. You know, and then I've got to get the you know the stuff transferred and edited, you know, the best out and stuff like that. Let's walk later. Yeah on that Writing new songs lately. Yeah, it's you didn't working on a little few things When you get your inspiration now, that's a good question I Collect ideas just in my head Something that sounds like it's got resonance because you can never tell it's something that's lasted many years I always try to put something in the song Something, you know, that I've been saying for a lot of years exactly or expressions that we all used to say You know, I remember those that's right. That's another one of my peculiar facilities is I can remember stuff from years and years ago. I mean actually word-for-word stuff But a lot of the songs that I write are So we used to say certain lines from one eye jacks the cowboy movie, you know, sure and Geez when was that 64 or something like that, but anyway, it's got to be just such a thing part of the fabric of the Conversation the language Had to put that in a song. Of course. You have to It's a true story to an event It's a good place to start a friend of yours, you know Because everybody come a late. Yeah, all that they want if if you could If the world would take your advice And they'd listen Whether the state is watch now or 50 years from now because it's going in the library. Oh, yeah What advice would you give the world advice would you give young people? Listen, seriously would listen Geez 50 years from now and I help you Or what kept you going She's a you know Something really sappy like work work hard play hard in mind your own business, right? That's what Einstein said. I Don't know that question is I'll probably think of a great answer for later, right? Phone it in you can find it in we both in the file on you put it on just like it comes out of home. Exactly. Yeah, I thought of it Yeah, exactly because some I Can maybe pull it out of if I said to you I had a big net in my hands And I had it to you and you could capture any moment in your life Any moment so far because you have great things to come I feel it Any moment in your life what moment in your life, which would be a highlight for you and capture be captured Oh playing on Broadway I love I think you brought a photo with you close with this plate. Oh, yeah, there's another bill stored about that how that started Behold that Jerry Garcia acoustic band Started just be comfortable You tell us the story right and I guess it was 86 or for 85 or something anyway Bill Graham did a did a benefit for the artist sure poster artists Yes, and everybody was going to play on there only just about two or three songs 15 minutes tops, right? I'd be Joe everybody, you know involved in those old days and Jerry and John Kong were going to do a set and We have been I've been coming around with Sandy Rothman We were playing some of the old stuff. He said why don't you guys tag along and so we did a set of songs maybe three or four songs and Bill comes running into the room after it Because it was rude stuff and he's just taught us Raven He's I could see the the roots of the grateful dead stretching all the way back And everything we're sitting on the couch, but that's right Bill. That's right He's right. He's right. Yeah, this is this is great. I just loved hearing that. Thank you, Jerry I've got to take this somewhere And I don't know where and Garcia does that take us to Broadway bill He backs out of the room this broadway The next thing I hear word book 17 shows sold out at the Lund Fontaine theater on Broadway Amazing the real deal. That's amazing. It was amazing. Yeah, you had quite a sighting life. I can see this is Just the beginning. I We're gonna be asking you back and you're gonna make the time because you have more stories that Yeah, I can't caption. Yeah, I have more stories, but I want to so thank you for being here and caring enough to share your life Yeah, so that Beach by piece the future will get a picture only only told by us first and yeah To get that inspiration to inspire and make a better world to make a better Better community and that it only takes one person to follow your dream. Yeah one day at a time to get there So thank you. That's what I would say. All right. Yeah, no one takes one person to follow your dream. That's right That's a good one. Thank you so much Dave