Nardwuar the Human Serviette Spends 15 Minutes With Dr. Timothy Leary

Nardwuar: So Dr. Leary, the news in Washington is : 'There is no news.' What is the news now, from Timothy Leary?
Timothy Leary: Ooh, wow, that is a complicated question! Um, we are approaching the 21st century. It is going to ... Everybody knows that the old systems are over... communism and... everybody knows it... Everybody knows that politicians are corrupt and are interested in only one thing...umm...himself. And there is a global sense of sorrow and grief, because we hate to lose our ideals. But then, at the turn of the century, a new species will be born. It is going to be born...It is a global language which will be - I know it sounds funny when I say this, but it is based on Nintendo, and the Nintendo kids will suddenly be sending history and religion.

[Sarah from the band Kreviss:] That sounds scary!
Well, you can be scare if you want, but if you want the old way, you can go back.

Are you the Hugh Heffner of LSD?
Now that is the dumbest question... Who's got the award? You've got the award. I want to congratulate you. I have been interviewed thousands of times and I have met the greatest professional crazed interviewers, and you're right up there. You're the Joe Montana, right?

I'm Nardwuar the Human Serviette, Timothy Leary.
You sure are. I'm not going to argue with that!

Is going through life without a psychedelic experience like going through life without a sexual experience?
People ask me how many times have I taken LSD. Now, I’ve been experimenting with the brain for forty years. I say, how many times have I made love? I don't count like Wilt Chamberlain the basketball player, but there’s one thing I know: not enough! Not enough!

When was the last time you were busted?
Oh about seven or eight years ago.

Did you meet Charles Manson in prison, Timothy Leary, and did he really supply you with hallucegenics, i.e. marijuana?
No, I was in the same cell nest to Manson for one night. Legends have developed about that. He did not give me any drugs. I would never take any drugs from anyone who does not have the qualities in their eye that I want from that drug. So I would never take drugs from Manson. This is Tim's Tips to the Young, okay? Don't take drugs from Manson.

How about Elvis?
What about Elvis?

Did you ever meet Elvis, Gilligan or Frank Sinatra?
I met Frank Sinatra. He is a very suave and courteous mafioso.

Would Brian Wilson be the same today if he didn't do LSD in the 60's?
Well, I'm a kindly guy and I try to say nothing negative about anyone. I have always considered Brian Wilson to be a pathetic moron. It is not his fault. The DNA, you know... We have morons out there. I don't think that he is a child molester or anything evil, but he is just plain... his elevator doesn’t reach the top floor.

Are you related to Winona Ryder or Uma Thurman at all?
Last night, I had the pleasure of being in Winona Ryder’s home in Beverly Hills. We were watching her big screen, her winning the award for Best Supporting Actress in Days of Innocence. Her brother was with her, and I was sitting next to David Pirner from Soul Asylum. So I am very close to Winona. I think she is a brilliant person. Uma Thurman's mother was my wife. We first met... I was on a honeymoon with Uma Thurman's mother when I met you in Calcutta [pointing to an old Indian guru acquaintance of Leary's]. She was a tall blonde woman. She is the mother of a famous actress now.

Did JFK ever do acid?
I don't know. They say he did.

But you dropped acid with Marylin Monroe.
No comment.

Have you ever made money off your work?
I have ended every month in my life in the hole. I have lived basically... You wouldn’t believe the debts I have. I basically live on the largesse and compassion of my friends. I work my ass off, but I knew that. It is the job of a philosopher, particularly a Socratic philosopher who teaches young people, corrupts their minds by telling them to think for themselves. It is a hard job. Someone has to do it... badly paid... can be dangerous to your health.

Is there a patent for acid? Is somebody actually making money off it?
I don’t know much about details. I don’t think they’re making much money. I’m not into chemistry and finance.

How does it make you feel that more young people are doing acid today than ever before?
Well, I don’t think around at night tossing and turning on my pillow. There are a million other things happening, and again, what does that mean: acid? Because the government’s policy of restriction, they do not regulate or help you know what acid is. Nobody knows what acid is. My advice is: Do not go out and get acid from someone who goes up to you in a trench coat in a bar and says, Hey, here is some acid. Like anything else that is precious in life, you should know what you are doing, and if you're going to share this experience, do it with someone who shares your spiritual ambitions and when you look in their eye, they have the same holiness that you’re looking for.

Do you still have a mind-blowing experience once a week?
I'm having one right now! I tell you! To be locked up in a cell with you...

Are you on any drugs right now Timothy Leary?
Coffee.

Is Prozac the legal LSD of the '90s?
Where do you get these questions? Do you have committees of monkeys?I'm not an expert on legal drugs.. basically I'm not a fan of legal drugs. Think about it,. If a government legalizes a drug, there's got to be something wrong with it. Think about it: alcohol, things like that... Listen let's take a break here for a minute, and I'll ask you some questions.

Okay, sure.
How long can you stay quiet?

Yaaaaa........didn't you design some rides for Disneyland?
No, it would never happen.

Didn't the Johnny Appleseeds of LSD live in Vancouver? What are your memories of Vancouver in the 1960's?
Listen, I'm so senile, I don't remember what was going on last night at this time, so let's get easy.....What is your name?

Nardwuar.
What does it mean in English?

It's like Sting in English.
Bzzzzzzzz.

Is G. Gordon Liddy the Anti-Timothy Leary?
No.....He has a million characteristic personalities.... I have a milllion characteristic personalities. Maybe fifty thousand of them are different. What is this bullshit about "anti"? Anti-Christ, anti-G-d, anti-devil? There is no such thing as anti-Timothy Leary. You're betraying a feudal, if not worse, theology here: the anti-Timothy Leary. I will get him and I will put him on a fucking cross and put a sword through his side and I will make him a crown of thorns, baby. Yeah, He's anti! Are you born Christian?

I think they splattered some water on me but I actually pray to a lucky chestnut. I have one to give you. But reading from a quote from Newsweek Magazine dated 1968, Dr. Timothy Leary, " The work of the psychedelic-"
1968? Well for Christ's sakes, I did... The person who is here now: I have almost no relationship to that person.

Right. This is tying into all of that. " The work of the psychedelic scholar-politician is over. With love and confidence, we turn our work and our planet over to the young and their prophets." Along with Psychic TV, who would this circle of 90's prophets comprise of ?
Who is Psychic TV?

Genesis P. Orridge. Didn't you do some work with him?
I know , but why did you drag him in?

Is he not a 70's prophet of Timothy Leary?
Now we're getting into prophets! I've got an anti-Christ in Liddy and a prophet in Genesis! Genesis is a very talented nothern English guy who had a great moment in England when he started Throbbing Gristle. He used his children a lot in naked stuff. Did you know that? So he's ... No, he's not the Timothy Leary of the 90's. He's a nice guy, but um...

Who is?
Ummm. The concept of "is", the anti-Christ, the anti-this , the anti-that is all very primitive thinking.

Do the guys with LSD get the most chicks?
The vulgar sordidness of that question is Olympic. "Getting chicks". I mean, what does that mean: "getting chicks"? That is a very vulgar 50's term. Man you are out of it! Out of it!

Thank you very much, Timothy Leary! Do, doodle, do-do...
Me too!!!

Interview done in person, Vancouver, B.C., January 15, 1994.