The Birth of Psychedelic Music

Frank Davis, 1975. (Photo: Bob Novotny)

Chris Ziegler / LA Record:
Do you think psychedelic music was born in Texas--specifically, Kerrville?

Frank Davis:
I have no doubt that is true. There's so much in Kerrville, Texas, and I have no idea why except for there were lots of native hallucinogens in that area. That goes back way way to the cowboy days. Cowboys were taking hallucinogens all the time. And some of the boys that came from that area, their fathers and grandfathers were in that tradition. Guys spent their lives outdoors and knew the land and they had their own religions. I hate to say 'white Indians' but they lived off the land and had great respect for it because they knew it. Eating peyote is quite different than taking mescaline. Just a religious experience. And they lived in that experience, and they were on their own, in a world that no one else was really available to understand at the time. And their children and their children's children had both worlds. Whole families were involved in music. The skies there are the most gorgeous things in the world, it's the most beautiful property that ever existed—you go camp out and put your head on a huge granite bowl that the Indians would leave when they traveled and walked paths under holy skies. And they'd have all that they needed. A box full of corn, peyote—running along. That was life in those days. That was where some of those kids came from.

Source: LA Record, Issue 118, SWSW Coachella 2015