'Cannabis Brings People Together': Blues Traveler Drummer Talks About Sharing A Joint With Metallica, Neil Young, Marilyn Manson

Brendan Hill, drummer of Blues Traveler and co-owner of Bainbridge Island’s Paper & Leaf, one of Washington State’s top grossing legal cannabis retail shops, recently sat down with Benzinga and told us about his experience with marijuana.

My First Joint

“Blues Traveler is kind of an improvisational band," he said. "We grew up listening to Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers Band, Santana and all those kinds of groups from the '60s and '70s that made music that was influenced by cannabis use. So, when Blues Traveler got together, we moved to New York recently out of high school, and we got into the club scene. So, cannabis was all around us, and it became part of our culture."

“What cannabis does for a musician or an artist is that it gets you into a very creative place very quickly, especially if you’ve practiced a lot and have good friends that you like to play with or perform with. That kind of social ritual of passing around a joint before you play just connects you even more and allows you to get on that same wavelength or flow-space, allowing new ideas to come to you,” Hill continued, clarifying that “you don’t need cannabis to play well, but, for certain kinds of improvisation, especially when you’re playing night after night, just having just even little bit can help you get to that flow-space even quicker.”

My Favorite Person To Smoke With

Benzinga then asked about the musician’s favorite person to smoke a joint with.

We [Blues Traveler] went to a benefit event at Neil Young’s house in San Francisco, California. It was us, Marilyn Manson, Metallica and Neil Young, and we were at a party after the event, in one of Neil Young’s teepees that he’s got on his property, and I just remember looking around thinking ‘this is so surreal, but so awesome,’ not only because Neil Young had put together this event, which has such a good cause, but also because we were around this group of musicians that I really enjoyed listening to. It felt really cool being a part of that event.

Cannabis in a lot of ways brings people together and allows for that kind of spontaneity to happen. To me, that was one of my favorite moments for cannabis smoking.

My Outlook For Pot

Finally, Hill went into politics.

“I’m hoping that with the new administration states’ rights are respected, and we’re able to continue as we are, keep that status quo.”

Having said this, he added, “I believe that the medical portion of cannabis is the next thing that is going to be universally accepted. I think there is probably going to be a couple of studies — none that I know of exactly, though — that will whitepaper the effects of cannabis on, let’s say, glaucoma or Crohn’s disease or spasticity or whatever it is [...] And, as soon as that happens, that kind of opens the door for more research.”

Liked this interview? Check out our conversations with the ArcView Group’s CEO Troy Dayton who shared his optimistic outlook for the marijuana industry under Trump and his impressions on cannabis going mainstream and entering the major capital markets. Also, check out our chat with 420 Investor Alan Brochstein, who explained why Singlepoint Inc SING’s 'slim and shady' finances may point to a marijuana pump and dump.

Image Credit: Provided by and used with expressed permission from Brendan Hill's PR team.