Chris Hillman spoke with Den of Geek about his bands, bass, and the canyon which created the California sound.

CHRIS HILLMAN: We were just following our instincts. I mean it sounds corny, but we were following our heart. We came out of folk music, and me more so out of bluegrass and traditional mountain music. It was quite a move just to plug in amplifiers. We really took what we had been doing and put it together, especially with “Mr. Tambourine Man” when we got a hold of that song. Bob Dylan had written that in more of a country feel. Roger McGuinn put it into a 4/4 feel where you could dance to the song, which is really what got it to happen for us. No, we weren’t aware of that at all. Never. Even when we started to do, say country rock. Before that, what do we have? Folk rock and then psychedelic rock.

“Eight Miles High” is one of the beginnings of psychedelic rock.

And it is all connected to where we were living. Roger McGuinn and David Crosby and I lived within a half mile of each other in Laurel Canyon. I think we were several of the first ones up there. Then, bands started moving up later. I was only there from ’65 to ’68. My house burned down where I was living and I moved up to Topanga Canyon, which was about 30 miles north of LA. A little bigger area, but similar to Laurel. Not quite the closeness in proximity of two other musicians at the time. But it did… It was all people that same way Laurel Canyon did.

Your album Bidin’ My Time had old friends from all the old places. It was produced by Tom Petty and featured David Crosby and Roger McGuinn. What is the difference between living within a half hour of them and later on. How were those sessions?

Roger lived in Florida, so unfortunately, we couldn’t get him into the studio on the Petty sessions. We sent him the files and he over dubbed at his house. His own little studio he has. David came down and sang. That was nice.

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Did you have any idea “So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star” would become an anthem?

No, I didn’t. I think that’s one of the better tracks we’ve ever done. I know I wrote half of it. It’s just that’s where the band got really good. It’s so interesting when I hear that track. I go, “really we nailed it that day.” Mike was playing great on the drums and [was doing] Hugh Masekela. I had worked a couple of days for Hugh Masekela playing bass on some songs he was cutting for this South African Jazz singer Letta Mbulu, who is very good. She sounded like Peggy Lee. They were all Jazz players from South Africa. Crosby and I were on a date. He called us in to play. So I played bass, David played rhythm guitar. I had such a good time. That’s what really propelled me. It also got me to writing songs.

The whole premise of “Rock and Roll Star,” the groove of it and everything, came from working with Hugh. That was all from Hugh. Later on, when we recorded our next album, I had Hotep Cecil Barnard, one of Hugh’s band players come in and play on a song, “Have You Seen Her Face.” Wonderful man from Johannesburg.

I loved that, at the end of part one where they say, so you want to be a rock and roll star. It was so funny the way we wrote that. I started the song in my house in Laurel Canyon. Roger lives across the canyon. I called him up. I say, “Listen, I’ve got something I just started. Can you come over and listen to this?” He says, “Yeah, I’ll come right over.” He comes over, he listens to it. He says, “This is great. Let’s do this for the bridge.” Then we put the bridge to the song, [sings] “And in a week or two if you make the charts…” And I said that’s great. He says, “That’s something Miriam Makeba had done.” He had worked for her as an accompanist. So that song came together quickly. Originally we were like old men at 23 having been around the block a few times, writing this parody of it. So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star, we’ll grow your hair long. Do this, do that. It holds up quite well.

What did you think of Patti Smith’s version?

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Loved it. She was the first one to cover it. She did great. Patti did it great. You won’t believe this, but my wife saw this record, CD, a year or two ago. Jeff Bridges had done the songs in his movie that he won an Oscar for. Jeff Bridges made an album, and cut “Rock and Roll Star.” So Connie, my wife, brings it home. She said, “You know Jeff Bridges cut this song. I listened to it, and it was really good.” I call up Crosby. He says, “Yeah, email Bridges.” I knew him, but I didn’t know him. I said, “I just got to tell you, you did this fantastic version of ‘Rock and Roll Star.’ At the end you did this whole different arrangement. It’s sort of a breakdown. You guys are all singing.”

He wrote me back in three minutes. He was so excited that I noticed him doing it. I said, well, you did a great job on it. Yeah, a lot of people have cut it. It’s always an honor when someone covers one of your songs. I think that’s the stamp of approval for the writer when someone covers one of your tunes.

The Flying Burrito Brothers covered Merle Haggard. And you and Herb Peterson did an entire album in ’96. Tell me about the Bakersfield sound and Buck Owens, and that whole sound.

The thing that I loved about Buck especially, Buck was a lot like when I first heard Bluegrass. It was so energetic and improvisational in that sense, with so much energy. I love the singing. The Buckaroos were so exciting. Buck said, “I wrote music so people could dance.” As they come in on the weekends, the Blackboard or whatever the place was he played up in Bakersfield. They wanted to dance. That’s the kind of stuff he’d do, these fast shuffles so they could dance. Then you add Haggard, who was a little different. And Winn Stewart and all this. We loved all that music. It was very close to the Bluegrass that Herb and I grew up with.

I remember being turned on to Buck Owens when I was in high school. This gentleman that took me under his wing was the school custodian. He was a country singer, worked on the weekends. He took me under his wing and showed me stuff you won’t believe. My first mentor, I wrote extensively about him in my Memoir that’s coming out.

Yeah, I’ll tell you about Bakersfield Bound. Tony, that cost eight grand. That’s called being prepared and going into the studio and recording it  live. It was one of the best records we’ve ever done, I thought. We nailed it. It was really a tribute to all those guys up there.

If you hadn’t gone to Nashville, how might have Sweetheart of the Rodeo sounded?

I don’t know? I’m sure we could have nailed it. A lot of people don’t know we were doing country stuff way before Sweetheart of the Rodeo. On our second album, we did “Satisfied Mind.” It was a hit for Porter Wagoner, a huge hit. And it had a great lyric to it. Then, we consistently did that throughout the rest of the records we made up. Younger Than Yesterday was when I started writing. I started writing a lot of country stuff. Had Clarence White come in and play. He was an old friend of mine from my Bluegrass days. He came and played electric guitar on a few cuts.

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But you still write?

My memoir is coming out in September on DNG. They’re publishing it. It just covers my whole career in music in a very positive, good way.Laurel Canyon part one airs on May 31 and part two airs on June 7 on Epix.