“Good acid”: How the Grateful Dead became drug dealers for Kyuss
Drugs and rock bands have always seemed to go hand in hand, but sometimes there are some very specific pairings when it comes to bands and their substance of choice. For example, you’d be hard pressed to find a more acid-centred band than Grateful Dead, and while there are plenty of bands who have abused heroin over the years, the Velvet Underground were certainly heavily associated with the opiate.
For a band like Kyuss, it’s always going to be weed above all else. You don’t get given the stoner rock tag without a dedication to smoking cannabis, and while there have been plenty of other notable acts in the field such as Sleep, Electric Wizard and the aptly named Weedeater, Kyuss were at the forefront of the movement when it began to emerge in the late 1980s and early ‘90s.
In terms of what constitutes stoner rock, it’s usually a combination of droning, sludgy riffs that are akin to heavy metal, but slowed down considerably in a way that mimics the way your brain functions when you’ve had a few tokes on the devil’s herb. Of course, you don’t have to partake in such activities to reap the enjoyment of stoner rock, but it certainly helps when you’re trying to find an appreciation for the genre and fit in among the other fans of this particular style.
However, while Kyuss were certainly pioneers of the style, as evidenced by classic albums such as Welcome to Sky Valley that helped popularise the genre, it wasn’t just marijuana that the band had an affinity for, and when you’re in a rock band that is heavily influenced by drug use in general, then the temptation to dabble with other substances becomes too great to ignore.
Drummer Brant Bjork certainly developed a taste for drugs other than pot, and while other members of the band such as future Queens of the Stone Age members Josh Homme and Nick Olivieri most certainly partook in this, it did take him a considerable amount of time to find a reliable source for these other mind-altering substances.
In an interview with Metal Hammer, the drummer revealed that there were considerable safety concerns about other substances during the ‘80s that put him off wanting to actively search for another way to get high. “For all my interest in psychedelia and 60s music, I didn’t have friends who had connections to get drugs except pot,” he recalled. “But even if I had got the connections to score acid back then, I would have been hesitant to take it. By the 80s acid had become a street drug, cut with bad shit. I was eventually turned onto Mexican dirt weed.”
However, a stroke of luck befell him when he crossed paths with the aforementioned kings of acid-taking in rock music when he got a little older and wiser about the drug market. Who did his sources include? “A friend’s mom who had connections with the Grateful Dead and could score good acid, someone in the high desert who got really good mescaline… mind-altering substances that made me more comfortable to experiment. But as a kid I played my cards right, because chances are the trip wouldn’t be good.”
Despite their stoner reputation as a group, at least Bjork kept his wits about him when it came to scoring drugs from reliable sources, and when it comes to getting LSD from the Grateful Dead, you can be sure you’re going to be taking potent and high-quality stuff.
