I don’t believe I’m alone when I say Cheech & Chong’s records were as essential to my listening diet growing up as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Their whole counter-cultural comedic stance was in exact alignment with the music of the day. After playing Black Sabbath at 78, one of the duo’s characters, the infamous Bob Bitchin, even saw God. Or maybe it was Grand Funk.
So you’ll get little argument when it comes to Cheech & Chong’s rock & roll credentials. It was enough to get them hit singles and opening slots with some of the world’s biggest bands back in the 70s. And now, reunited for six years, Cheech & Chong are spending the summer of 2013 touring the States with War and Tower Of Power.
After seeing them at the Greek, I got the chance to speak with Tommy Chong and discovered a rich musical heritage. For one, he’s a bona fide guitarist who spent the 60s playing with Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, a Canadian band signed to Motown whose only hit, “Does Your Mama Know About Me,” was co-written by Chong. He says now he was never really that great of a guitarist, but it certainly was a major stepping stone for his career in show business.
Along with the tour, the legacy of Cheech & Chong, the movies, and what’s on the horizon, we got into the comic’s views on marijuana. He’s obviously not shy about expressing his desire for full legalization — emboldened by his own experiences with the authorities, and the changing laws of today that are making legalization a likely reality in the next few years. At 75 and recently declared prostate cancer-free, aided in part, he claims, by his use of hemp oil — Tommy Chong is more rock & roll than most guys half his age. And he ain’t done rocking and making us laugh yet.
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