A Timothy Leary anecdote

Yesterday, as part of my day job as an Ohio newspaper reporter, in Sandusky, I met for coffee with a local jazz singer and concert promoter, Anna Givens, and her husband, rock musician David Givens, a former member of the band Zephyr. (The band never quite hit the super big time, but one of David's bandmates was Tommy Bolin, who found quite a bit of fame as a guitarist before dying young for the usual reasons.) The band has retained a following; the first album will be re-released this summer. I can't find any live performances on the Internet, but the above YouTube video combines live footage with audio from the band's first album, giving the best-available approximation of the band in its time.

Anyway, I had read that the Colorado-based band had once crossed paths with Timothy Leary, so naturally I asked David about that. He explained that Zephyr had once opened for Timothy Leary, in Boulder.

"There's not a lot of people who can say that," he said.

"Tim and Joanna came out and sat down on the stage and watched us," Givens related. Afterward, Leary told them, "You guys are the best band I've ever seen."