"From Raids to Regulations: Navigating Cannabis Legalization" Larry welcomes guest Nick Erickson from Full Moon Farms in California. They discuss Erickson's background in cannabis cultivation, his family's history in California, and his experiences with law enforcement raids. Erickson shares insights into the evolution of the cannabis industry, including the impact of legalization on farming practices, consumer awareness, and the focus on terpene profiles. They also touch on the challenges and opportunities faced by legacy growers in adapting to the changing legal landscape.
"From Outlaw to Entrepreneur: The Evolution of Cannabis Farming"
Larry Mishkin is joined by Nick Erickson from Full Moon Farms in California. Nick shares his family's long history in California, dating back to the Gold Rush era. He discusses his introduction to cannabis cultivation, growing up around marijuana plants, and his experiences with law enforcement raids during the outlaw era of cannabis farming.
He explains the transition from illegal to legal cannabis cultivation in California after the state's legalization in 2016. He highlights the challenges and benefits of operating a legal cannabis farm, including the importance of testing for safety and quality control.
The conversation delves into the evolution of cannabis culture, the emergence of scientific understanding around terpenes, and the increasing focus on quality and sustainability in cannabis farming. Erickson emphasizes the significance of terroir, microclimates, and genetic diversity in producing unique cannabis strains with distinct flavors and effects.
Overall, the transcript provides insights into the experiences of a legacy cannabis grower navigating the transition to a regulated market while maintaining a commitment to craft cultivation practices.
Grateful Dead of the Day
March 25, 1972 (52 years ago)
New York Academy of Music
Concert in NY immediately before their departure for Europe for the ’72 tour.
INTRO: How Sweet It Is
Track No. 12
2:30 – 4:00
MID-SHOW: Nobody’s Fault But Mine
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
Slate Quarry U.K. 1994
Jimmy Page & Robert Plant - Nobody's Fault But Mine (Slate Quarry UK 1994) (youtube.com)
OUTRO: Next Time You See Me
Track #15
:30 – 2:06
Larry (01:17.604)
hey everyone welcome to another episode of the deadhead cannabis show i'm larry michigan from chicago and uh... this is one of the good days if you happen to tune in uh... we've got a little grateful dead for you like we always do we have some other live music that i think our guests will enjoy uh... we've got some not marijuana news but most importantly we have a wonderful guest on our show today folks uh... nick erickson from uh... full moon farms in california we're gonna get to him in one minute
uh... but we are going to also be taking a look at what the grateful dead were doing fifty two years ago today at the new york academy of music on their own hangover in new york relay over in new york probably hangover too while they waited to uh... take off for europe for the always famous europe seventy two tour so we're gonna kick right into it and start you off with a doozy
Larry (03:38.928)
How sweet it is to be loved by you is a song recorded by American soul singer Marvin Gaye from his fifth studio album of the same name released in nineteen sixty five it was written sixty four by the Motown songwriting team of Holland, Dozier, Holland and produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier. The song was inspired by one of the actor and comedian Jackie Gleason's signature phrases how sweet it is and probably right along with asking somebody if they're old enough to have ever seen Jerry Garcia you can ask them if they're old enough to even remember
how sweet it is by uh... jackie glee sin uh... james taylor released his version of how sweet it is the lead single from his album gorilla in nineteen seventy five uh... his nineteen seventy five single has been the most successful remake of the song today hitting number one on the easy listening chart and number five on the u.s. billboard one hundred chart in addition to james taylor on lead vocals other personnel include his then wife carly simon on vocals
Larry (04:36.572)
Fender Rhodes electric piano and possibly ARP string ensemble, Lee Sklar on bass, and both Jim Keltner and Russ Kunkel on drums, with Kunkel doubling on the tambourine. Author Ian Halpern believes that the song was included on Gorilla as a tribute to Simon, who was then his wife. It was produced by Lenny Warronker and Russ Tittleman. After his success with How Sweet It Is, Taylor continued to record R&B hits, applying his soft touch approach. That's quite a lineup of people to be playing with him, but James was a player at the time. And although this song was a regular
for the jerry garcia band and often a song that jerry would come out and open his shows with this is the one only time it was ever played in concert by the grateful dead so for shows this show last shows this show how many times played just one and here we are dot that kind of a day this is really a good show and i wish we had more time to go over all of it because as i say it is on their way out the door to europe uh... it's uh... in a very small theater in new york city
and uh... the part of this been released by the grateful dead on i think it sticks picks number thirty if i'm remembering my tix picks correctly but it's well worth listening to world it probably pull up one more song uh... at the end we have another uh... musical uh... highlight in the middle of things it's gonna come from uh... different than for reasons you'll find out when we get there but yeah this is just a grateful dad doing their thing
Larry (06:02.68)
uh... it's a beautiful song from a beautiful time and it's a damn shame that jerry didn't play it more with the band uh... that would have been a lot of fun one other note i just want to throw in there uh... as was probably obvious for those of you who are vet veteran enough to know what i mean this is an audience tape and just an audience tape it was posted on archive dot org as an audience tape so it's not a cd kids it's not a remaster it's not something where all the this is what we had a listen to the grateful dead like for years and years
the eighties and early nineties if you were to listen to live grateful dead you traded tapes with people some tapes were better than the others so you know their shows i had from way back the rossum shows but the tape recordings basically sucked uh... but that's what you had to live with so sorry that this is not a show where uh... you know you're getting that technical clear musical sound but rather than blame it on our producer dan humiston we will just go uh... with the fact that it is an audience tape and also very interestingly it turns out
that this show on uh... march twenty fifth of nineteen seventy two is the first time that donna gene couch out join the boys on stage her husband uh... keith had already been playing with them uh... for a while dating back to the uh... i wanna say the fall of seventy one i think uh... and uh... he of course was coming in to take over the keyboard duties pig pen is still with them in the show and we will actually be highlighting a pig pen tune towards the end and then he did go with them onto europe seventy two tour but came back
and that was pretty much the end of it unfortunately for pig pen in terms of having the strength and ability to go up on stage and perform and uh... for better for worse the dead moved on uh... without him on keith is a great piano player and donna jean has her moments as a backup singer uh... and they've all done a really good job the keyboard players but you know nobody was picked and nobody could belt out a blues tune the way he could uh... you know he didn't have the range on the keyboards that a keith gaucho or a brent midland or even a
of this well the cad uh... but he was damn good at what he did so uh... it's always important to be sure to mention him and give him his due uh... because over the course of time he just didn't seem to get enough of it so we will get back to live music in a few minutes but we are going to now jump right into our guests for the day and i just want to tell you how excited we are to have nick your bob hernandez on our show ericson sorry i had it right and i didn't think i did nick erickson on our show
Larry (08:30.612)
The guests we've had typically over the last year or so have tended to fall much more on the musical side, which is great. We've been very lucky to have wonderful, wonderful musical guests. But it's not often that we have an opportunity to take a few minutes and chat with somebody like Nick. Nick is an original, an OG from way back in the day, a legacy grower. We're going to talk with him for a little while right now about.
his marijuana experiences and the state of marijuana and anything that he's willing to share with us about uh... his cultivation efforts uh... then we will in the second half of focus our conversation a little bit more on music and uh... i find very interesting the role uh... that nick has been able to play in the music industry uh... and it's no surprise that uh... his two big passions link right up
and we will be hearing about that but first of all nick thank you thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show today we really appreciate it's great having you here
Nik Erickson (09:31.379)
Absolutely, thank you. It's an honor. Like I said when we met there at the gallery, I'm an avid listener of the show and I'm always learning facts from you guys. So to be on here and hopefully have your listeners learn something from me, that's an honor.
Larry (09:50.588)
well thank you we certainly appreciate all of that for our listeners there's a full podcast connection runs all the way through this i was lucky enough to meet nick
uh... just about a month ago maybe not even a month ago maybe just a few weeks ago in san francisco uh... the wife and i were out there for her birthday we were visiting various friends including alex and andy both very good friends of the show uh... who are also good friends with another good friend of the show jay blakesburg and i think i mentioned on last week's episode about jays absolutely amazing photo exhibit at the contemporary jewish museum in san francisco and that my wife and i went and
saw the exhibit and then had a very unique opportunity to walk back through it again with Jay as kind of our personal guide. We weren't the only ones though. We had Nick and one of his friends with us too and that's when Nick and I first met. And you know, once you start talking marijuana with a guy who really knows marijuana folks, it's hard to stop. I mean, you know, this guy's answering all the questions I always have and was gracious enough to agree to come on the show.
So tell us, Nick, tell us first of all a little bit about Full Moon Farms. What's its background? Where is it at today? What role do you play?
Nik Erickson (11:02.835)
Yeah, so you know my family has been in California since 1853 They came over for the gold rush that didn't really pan out so well And you know they stayed with it with farming and all the blue-collar kind of Northern California work ranching and timber and those kind of industries my My ancestors were set like I said seven generations deep they the first farm that we picked up
uh... d they were trading vegetables you know in for the balloon payment because california didn't have a currency yet and
you know, it was a raw and rugged land and money didn't really do a whole lot for you here anyway, but substance did. So we have like some of the old deeds where they're trading like X amount of pounds of potatoes and carrots and those types of things for the rights to the land. You know, progressing onward, my grea was a fabulous moonshiner and outlaw and I heard that we would have been wealthy from her if my grea didn't drink everything. And then...
you know going fast forward into the 70s you know my dad always had plants in the backyard so I grew up around plants you know
Larry (12:09.529)
Hahaha
Nik Erickson (12:18.943)
The cannabis was mixed into our vegetable garden and it was always just personal stuff, you know. He might trade for some hash or something like that. But it was always familiar to me. It wasn't ever deemed something as a negative or something that should be hidden from us. My swing set was set up out there to where I could kind of kick my feet up through the fan leaves. And in 1978, under the guise of a bunk warrant, which he later got off on, you know, the cops came in
Nik Erickson (12:48.877)
garden, you know, overturning our house. I was young and I wasn't quite sure what was going on, you know, and to this day that's still my earliest memory in life. I don't know if it's just the trauma of it or what, it just kind of seared it in, but I vividly remember, you know, the cops coming in and yanking my dad's plants out and I was escorted to a toy store where they got me a little Tonka truck to kind of calm me down, you know, and then my dad parked that from when he got off. Yeah, but from that point on, I was like,
Larry (12:56.007)
you
Larry (13:14.969)
That's not bad.
Nik Erickson (13:18.797)
You know, he didn't he didn't have it around me when he smoked he smoked somewhere else he didn't have it around me from that point on and you know, I You know good get into the elementary and high school junior high
you know i had friends with older brothers and sisters you know they're always introduces to you know different types of music you know from the early eighties you know you'd have older brothers you know handing you twisted sister or something like that or you know quiet riot you know and you were and i was probably one of the only eighth graders that had this like really eclectic uh... you know set of tapes you know i had you know buddy guy and robert johnson i was probably the only eighth grader listening to like true old school blues back then but i also whatever was popular at the time you know uh... you know i
Larry (13:46.295)
This is
Nik Erickson (14:00.761)
A lot of outlaw country music, what's deemed classic rock now, The Dead, everything, but also Motley Crue, Almond Brothers, Eagles, I was all over the board. But also getting those tapes handed down to us came cannabis. And at the time it was mainly just brickweed coming across the border from Mexico. And in 1988 I popped my first seeds, tried my hand at growing my first plant. I sent you a photo of that.
And I didn't even know how to sex it out. I was just lucky that the one.
Larry (14:31.512)
Yeah. Is that your dad let you, your dad let you go ahead and do that?
Nik Erickson (14:37.231)
No, no, this was all me sneaking out the back door and going up on the hill because our backyard bordered mountains. And so this was just me going up and doing it kind of outlaw style on my own before I knew what was going on or what the risks were or anything like that. I was pretty naive to all that. I just knew it would be cool to try to grow this plant. That's all I really knew about it. And I was lucky enough that it was female, so it started to bud out. Obviously it's a sativa and it wasn't going to, a true sativa, and it wasn't going to finish out in time for us.
me. And uh...
you know, I packed all my friends up there to show them what I was doing and show it off a little bit. I was really proud and one of them ended up coming up a couple weeks early and taking it from me. And from what I understood, he microwaved it to dry it out and that's how he ingested it and I lost my first plant. So right away I learned loose lips sink ships, you know, and that whole thing. And that was my first experience with cannabis. I got to grow a plant. It got taken from me and lessons learned and we progressed, you know. So, you know, 1993,
Larry (15:14.072)
Ssss
Larry (15:28.398)
Ugh.
Nik Erickson (15:39.417)
1993 I was living on a bean bag at Humboldt State and you know we introduced a good quality grain bud which at the time was 5200 a pound, you know big discrepancy from the $400, $500 you're seeing in California these days and you know magic mushrooms those type of things so we had a friend that I was living out of the back of the van with on tour and we'd hit Humboldt and get back out on tour and trade you know good grain bud.
some magic mushrooms for grilled cheese sandwiches in the lot and trade for tapes and get tickets and that type of thing. And we weren't just following the dead, we were following Page and Plant and there were some other people that were doing West Coast tours and everything was West Coast, you know. We were pretty in the dark to what was going on back East. I never made it to any of the East Coast shows.
Larry (16:14.747)
Hehehehe
Nik Erickson (16:28.507)
But your information traveled a lot slower back then as well. It wasn't as available. So it was just everything was kind of word of mouth and that type of thing. And with the dead, you know, there was a large West Coast presence. There were a lot of shows and stuff happening out here. So, you know, and then progression, you know, I got into the outlaw era of cannabis. And
you know went through my bumps and bruises you know and uh... the good days and the bad days and everything that came with being a legacy farmer you know until 2016 and my uh... you know what like every outlaw farmer you have to have a good legal defense and my defense attorney came to me and said hey you know uh... we're going to be looking at california legalizing next year let's step into the light and start dotting the i's and crossing the t's and get you guys uh... get you guys ready
pretty good mentor with him and we started about a year before legalization getting prepped for it and then it launched with a lot of optimism. Everybody had these grand grandioso visions of where craft cannabis should be and you know that all kind of fell apart fast you know and it's just been a struggle and survival mechanisms happening ever since that you know and we're seeing it now we're starting to see the separation right now the
markets are pretty tied to the hip price point wise, but not quality. And so just educating up on why sun-growing is what it is, why organic is better and why. The whole notion of indoor farming. When the helicopters were hitting us really heavy in the 80s and 90s, that drove a lot of the people out of necessity. We're out in the hills, we adapt, we can roll with these punches, but everybody went underground and we called it the diesel day.
Larry (18:07.688)
Sure.
Nik Erickson (18:19.729)
And everybody had their diesel generators to power their lights. We were all off-grid anyway and out of necessity we were farming underground indoors and You know since legalization there's really not a need for that, but somehow that just turned into the cookie cutter You know go to for every state in the industry So now everything's in warehouses where that dichotomy seems really strange to me when you're talking about a plant that can heal So much and do so much, you know remediating the land
and all this kind of thing to where it's just a big drain on the system and you know we're growing soilless you know and rockwool and pumping chemicals and running these lights and that's okay if that's where people want to be but that's not us and so we just we need to see these markets separate you know because we're a whole different you know whole different animal.
Larry (19:06.428)
Let me.
let me ask you this i mean that i could just listen all day but i just wanted to a couple of questions in here you know the area you're talking about we were and i know is up in humboldt and uh... the emerald triangle and you know famous for what it isn't for so long when you when your family decided to you know kind of
Nik Erickson (19:20.479)
Yes.
Larry (19:29.02)
stay in the Humboldt area was it because of the presence of marijuana was it they're just other reasons and they just happen to be growing marijuana in there and how was it all that you know you or your father you know both of you kind of ultimately found your way into not just growing for personal use but you know large enough amounts to be able to sell
Nik Erickson (19:49.479)
Yeah, that one's pretty much on me. My dad, he grew up in the Plumas County area. He was back with high-series music festivals at Edison, the Sierra, and at Asmoor.
My grea on his side was up here in the early 1900s in Humboldt for timber. Like, when the 06 earthquake happened in San Francisco and they had to rebuild San Francisco, there was a big logging boom to get timber down to San Francisco and start rebuilding. He was part of that. Prior to that, on my mom's side, her family was more on the Mendocino coast. Again, timber, cattle. And those were really the only industries up here at the time. I came over in 93.
Nik Erickson (20:32.202)
And Full Moon Farms literally, that is sprouted with me. That was my personal vision. And my dad and I partake, when I turned 18, I sat down with him and brought him back a nice green bud because he was used to smoking the brick. And we passed the peace pipe and went from a father-son to a friendship level when we did that. And to this day, I won't try to market anything
that I wouldn't feel proud enough to smoke with my own dad. That's, you know, morally, you know, if it's not growing properly, if it's not up to a certain standard, it shouldn't go to the market.
Larry (21:03.728)
That's very cool
Larry (21:10.184)
OK, let me ask you this. What has it been like to live in a community where growing marijuana is such a major part of the community and of the economy? And I know you've gotten involved from time to time in some of the local organizations, but tell us a little bit about that, a little bit about the relationship with your local law enforcement.
Nik Erickson (21:33.439)
You know, it's both a blessing and a curse. You know, from the outlaw era, you know, there was fewer people growing up here because the penalties were so severe, but the rewards were greater. So you had more of a sense of community. You had families that were multi-generation. You had the back-to-landers. You had people that were making enough extra money, but living, you know, off the grid. They were supporting their community centers. They were supporting their schools.
You know, there was a lot more donating going on. It was more of a sense of community, kind of like us against them also with the law enforcement. You know, every season was cat and mouse. You know, they were out to get you. Their budgets depended on their plant counts. You know, hippies were the, you know, the green dopers they'd call us. You know, we're the low-hanging fruit. We live here. If they catch us, we're going to pay our bills. We're not running away somewhere else because we love where we live.
So we're not disappearing on them. We're easy targets, you know, we're not sitting there shooting back even though they're dropping out of helicopters with, you know, AR-15 strapped to their backs. You know, it was overtime for them, it was, you know, hazard pay for them, it was, you know, the summers of fear for us. But it bonded us as a community, you know, and we always revolved around an annual reggae event called Reggae on the River. It's the United States' largest reggae festival, the second largest in the world outside of Jamaica.
first week in August, they're bringing it back finally this year, which I'm super happy about. But it got everybody kind of come out of their heels and people didn't like to use phones, we're definitely not on the internet, so you got to see your friends, share your wares, what are you growing, are you making some hash. Everybody got together and just puffed and enjoyed some music and community and then back to work because it was still kind of pre-harvest. So there for a long time, law enforcement, they were definitely honest. They were definitely honest.
Larry (23:23.208)
Hehehe
Nik Erickson (23:31.009)
And there was,
some showboating going on too. You know, if you saw like a 16 year old driving a $50,000 rig, towing a $80,000 boat and that sheriff is making $40,000 a year, there's some resentment there, you know, when the money was higher, but that wasn't everybody, but those kinds of things happened. And so we all kind of got blanketed into the same, the same pool, right? If you grew dope, you know, you're probably messing up the environment. You're probably, you're, you can pay your fines. We should, we tax you a little extra hard this year when we come to your house and knock on your door. And.
Larry (23:48.295)
Sure.
Nik Erickson (24:03.257)
that kind of thing. So there was a different mentality amongst growers but we all got treated the same.
Larry (24:09.668)
OK. Let me ask you this. Was your farm, Full Moon Farms, were you guys ever the subject of a raid?
Nik Erickson (24:18.639)
Oh, multiple times, yes. Yeah, absolutely. Camp raids, it's scary. I mean, we would get flown, the helicopters, you know, and back then, you know, especially in the early 90s, mid 90s, it was all Hueys. So you could hear them coming up the canyons a long ways away, and you would have that whoop, just that signature sound, that thump.
Larry (24:22.128)
What's that like?
Nik Erickson (24:40.475)
and it resonated, you know, and you had to, you'd run by your truck, you'd drop your telegate so that your telegate was blocking your license plate so they couldn't read your license plate, you'd take cover. You know, they would hover in you three, four, or five times a summer, even if you didn't get rated, they were just kind of putting your X on the map for maybe next season. Out where I'm at, no, we would, that our hill would get hit about every third year and they wouldn't make a rest, they would just drop in, cut your stuff, get out, you know, they were going for plant counts.
just a real quick operation. They weren't doing a lot of background work unless there was something real egregious. But yeah, so we'd get raided a lot. In 2012, I actually had them come to my door. That was a whole different chaotic scene. I knew who it was by the knock at seven in the morning. It was very strong and rapid. They had their signature knock, so I knew who was on the other side before I opened it. That was my first arrest.
Larry (25:28.412)
Ha ha ha.
Larry (25:38.48)
Let's go see how many times have you been arrested.
Nik Erickson (25:42.099)
Just the once. And yeah, but you know, it would be fair to say that a lot of product never made it to evidence either. There were sticky fingers everywhere up here. And yeah, so that's how that goes. Yeah, I mean, they got me. Put it this way. I got hit with.
Larry (25:44.364)
Oh good, okay, so that's not bad.
Larry (26:00.656)
Got it.
Larry (26:04.521)
Okay, well...
for sure. Well, let me ask you this.
Nik Erickson (26:12.)
Yeah, go ahead.
Larry (26:13.412)
Oh, yeah.
Larry (26:17.808)
Forever, there was California weed. And then people grew marijuana in other parts of the country and sometimes successfully, sometimes not so successfully.
But basically, for years and years, at least when I was coming of age, there was either your local dirtweed or California weed. And everybody knew about it. And because of the conditions and the environment for growing it and the fact that people have been growing it forever, and we're a bunch of teenagers sitting in their father's garage trying to come up with something. And now, really for almost the last 10 years, there's marijuana growing all over the United States, legally, right? And a number of states that have come on board and said,
medical, adult use, has the presence of a legal market, and even in California, talk to us about what that's done to your business, as well as your thoughts on the stuff you can produce versus the stuff that they're producing.
Nik Erickson (27:17.295)
First of all, I mean, for all the headaches of this like broken system that I feel like we've been going through since legalization, it's better for us as a farmer and it's better for the consumers. You know, testing, testing is a big thing because cannabis can look pretty and you will not know what was used on it, how was it grown. And so pesticides, like illegal pesticides, harmful pesticides, stuff that becomes carcinogenic at temperature, you know.
uh... for my people twenty these things that you know not to put a lighter to the but doesn't turn carcinogenic you know these are the same things that they spread out food you know supply you know that the a cc's it is ok for our food but you know uh... not for a cannabis so i'd say you know that you the health and safety for uh... factor for the consumers by far better the science behind all of this is making us better farmers it's more educated consumers i mean we're
terpenes what terpenes are in what plant and why what different environmental factors are affecting terpenes the whole entourage effect You know, what's this doing? I'm not a THC chaser Some some brands, you know, just chase the THC and that's a whole other issue with the legal side of things because of you know Discrepancies in lab testing and everybody, you know promoting high numbers even if they're falsified that whole chaos that's being checked, right?
Larry (28:16.9)
you
Larry (28:31.739)
Yep.
Well, that's what I want to ask you about.
Nik Erickson (28:41.051)
Yeah, no, it's- it's swapping.
Larry (28:41.956)
So OK, so let me ask you this. I started smoking weed in 1980. And when we smoked weed in 1980, we were just happy to get our hands on weed, right? For all we knew, it could have been a handful of dirt that somebody threw in a baggie. But for us, it was like, I'm going to throw up.
You know, it was great stuff. And then all through college and through my early adult years and really up until the legal market really burst on the scene, I had never heard of a terpene. I had no idea what a terpene was. All of a sudden, I talked to my kids about weed. To them, oh, dad, the terpene profile, the terpene. I'm like, I just want to get high, right? But I mean, and I know a lot of these legal businesses are coming in with their scientists and everything to maximize terpene.
you start seeing thc counts that get close to forty percent which i can't even imagine i mean for you guys it is what do you do to keep up with all of this new science you know the terpenes and thc and you know thca and everything that's coming out now
Nik Erickson (29:45.199)
I mean, you know, I've been in this for 30 something years and you know, you learn something new every day. There's, there's, and yay, you know, I don't ever want to hit that ceiling. You know, I mean, I, it's, it keeps things interesting. It keeps things, you know, creative. You know, last year we grew 50 different genetics. We work with a couple of different seed companies, the Humboldt Seed Company, Happy Germs Genetics. We do some stuff in house. And so we're doing phenol hunting all the time.
And we have three different microclimates that we grow on. Each one of those microclimates has a whole different terroir. The whole concept of like Appalachians when it comes to like wine, let's talk about craft wine, they're such a parallel. Because cannabis and wine, they grow on the same cycles, the same climates, really bringing out their best expressions. What we're seeing is we can take the same genetic.
and grow it in three different microclimates in our area and have different expressions through the turpeins. And so you're getting a little bit different flavor profile. You're getting a little bit different effect. And this is the same genetics. And this is just on our farm footprint, let alone driving three hours inside the county to another friend's farm or sending it seven hours down the state and growing it in Salinas or Santa Barbara or something like that. So it's very indicative of where you grow
each strain and how it expresses itself. Just because it says OG does not mean you're going to get the same experience from an OG from me as you are my neighbor that's maybe, you know, ten miles away. And so that science right there, you know, it really teaches us what to grow, where and why and how to really bring out the best of each flower. And some strains don't need to be grown at one of our locations. They do better somewhere else and we're, you know, constantly rotating.
Larry (31:22.824)
Okay.
Larry (31:38.032)
So that's what I wanted to ask you. You live in an area where there's a lot of growers around. Do you guys like gathering the bar on Friday nights and start swapping stories? Or hey, try doing this. Or is it more of a competitive thing and people kind of hold on to their own secrets?
Nik Erickson (31:54.011)
Now that's how it used to be. It used to be a little bit more competitive. You know, if you met at the bar, you met...
with your friends and you kept your head down again because the penalties were so severe. So you didn't really talk about it like we have since legalizations happened and the advent of everything, you know, hitting on social media and those kind of things. And what I love about that is I've connected with farmers that have the same ethos as I do, that have the same vision for Humboldt County as I do, in other parts of the county that I wouldn't be interacting with without, you know,
And you kind of touched on, well, you're up here with all these farms. Before legalization 2015, we had 15,000 mapped farms in Humboldt County. We have, I think, like 1,100 active licenses and maybe 700 active sites right now. And most of those are 10,000 square feet or less footprints. That's tiny, that's less than a quarter acre.
Larry (32:45.138)
Wow.
Nik Erickson (32:54.795)
If you add up all the canopy in Humboldt County right now, all of the total canopy of all the farms, and we're a large county, I believe it's like a half mile by a half mile total canopy, very small footprint. So we've really lost a lot of quality farms. We also lost a lot that just came during the green rush that needed to leave anyway.
Larry (59:31.738)
So Nick, you know it's interesting because you mentioned having an ethos as a grower. And you and I talked a little bit about that when we first met in San Francisco. So I'd like to hear a little bit about that. But what I'd also like to hear about is what success you guys have had, if any, in competitions, Emerald Cup or Cannabis Cup type things or other awards that are given in the industry, whether you guys have gotten any of those.
Nik Erickson (59:59.007)
Yeah, so as far as ethos is concerned, I mean, obviously, quality of product through environmental consciousness. We have...
about 750,000 gallons of above tank rain catchment storage, about another 5 million gallons in rain catchment in ponds that we use for our irrigation. There's no artificial lighting, it's all organic inputs. Our fertilizers are all based in sea kelps that are sustainably harvest, fish emulsions, crab meals, things like that. So we really look at our inputs and we want our inputs to be
reflected in the output of the flower and the quality of the flower and the expressions it gives us at the season's end. We have, we've entered four different competitions and we've won two awards in each of them, the Emerald Cup, Feast of Flowers, the Golden Tarps, the California Grow Off, those kind of things. But you know, honestly, for us...
The real reward is having somebody that we don't know reach out to us and go, hey, we found your product. We really enjoyed it. And we're coming back to get it again. Or have a bud tenderer let us know that somebody drove twice this week from an hour away to purchase an eighth. Something like that. It's like, wow. That's the real testament right there. Because packaging and awards are just one thing. But repeat customers because of quality. It's much like the restaurant industry.
a bad meal, you're probably not coming back. And so we really want to maintain that standard of quality. And it's not necessarily chasing THC percentages or bag appeal, because some of the best experiences that I've had from flour, the flour has looked pretty generic in general, just the sun-grown kind of bag appeal. But we do focus on terpings, because we want your experience to be what it should be for you. When you walk into a dispensary, there seems to always be the top 10 fad strains that are
Nik Erickson (01:02:07.481)
pushed on everybody. A lot of bud tenors don't even smoke the house brand that they represent, you know. So there's a big disconnect from what the farms are trying to do for the consumer versus what is being pushed by, you know, the industry. And, you know, like I said, this year we grew 50 different genetics. You know, they're not the best yielding genetics. You know, we're leaving money on the table for sure because we're not chasing yields.
Larry (01:02:09.394)
Hehehe
Nik Erickson (01:02:37.261)
teens but has a very high terping percentage to it and we want to find something for the individual. We grow for the individual. It's just trying to get that information out there and give people options. Some people want to be energized and invigorated and have it be a communicative experience. Other people want to check out at the end of the day and just hit the couch and unwind. People don't want to feel anxious and stressed.
Larry (01:03:02.094)
Hehehe
Nik Erickson (01:03:07.161)
like kind of correlate what terpenes are in what flowers and kind of steer those flowers towards the right person for the right reason. It's not, you know, we're so individualistic, it's just there's not one strain for everybody. And we understand that.
Larry (01:03:22.518)
OK? But that's kind of cool, isn't it? You know, you walk into a dispensary, and there's your stuff being offered for sale. And people are buying it. Where can our listeners, who live in California, go to find your stuff?
Nik Erickson (01:03:36.615)
I'm retail wise. You know, we're in the embark chains. We're in the spark chains. You know, planning a wellness down in Clear Lake.
You know, we also have a very amazing direct to consumer partner with Flower Company. They just acquired Muse. So it's the largest direct to consumer platform in the state of California now. This just happened about a month ago. So we are able to be delivered door to door from San Diego to Humboldt County, usually under 24 hours, sometimes same day, depending on how close you are to the hub. So we have a partner.
farm, a very small footprint farm called Humboldt County Farms. He is working on kind of a co-op style model for similar farms like mine and we're just pushing the Humboldt brand. You were kind of alluding to competition earlier, not at all. There's when I see anybody in a retail environment or in any cannabis space purchase or talk about craft farms in general, that's a win for all of us and that that's also Mendocino and Trinity and you know Santa Cruz area
legacy operators that the ones that are surviving still are because all of us during the green rush experienced a surplus of subpar cannabis. Everybody got in it for the wrong reasons. They were just chasing the money. They drove the quality down. Well, the money disappeared in the industry for the last few years. So if you're at...
you're still in it at this point as a legacy operator, you have to have craft to maintain because otherwise you're in the commodity market, you're not gonna keep up, you're not gonna win that war. So, you know, the craft farmers are definitely on the same side. And, you know, each of one of us, our supply is so much lower than the big boys, you know, Glass House and those guys that are, you know, whatever it is, 600,000 pounds they claimed last year or something like that, which, you know, there's only 1,200,000,
Larry (01:05:36.051)
Ssss
Nik Erickson (01:05:37.201)
licensed stores in the state. So, I mean, not everybody wants that chemical commodity. We're kind of alluding to every state that's coming out right now, there's just this novelty of this abundance of cheap cannabis. And it's everywhere and it's cheap, but it doesn't mean it's good. And so we just want to spread the word about quality. The small farms that actually care about their land, care about the plant, because this cannabis
you know, understate this. It's a plant that gives you back what you put in. It's like a relationship. You know, if you give it your A effort, it will give you its A effort back. And you know, if you want to cut corners, it will still produce for you, but it's going to cut corners also. And you just see that time and time again.
Larry (01:06:24.686)
OK, well that makes a lot of sense too. And I can certainly understand your desire to do it that way. Just one last question focusing on the marijuana side before we shift over to a little bit of music. But.
Larry (01:06:41.122)
you know with all of these you know the state's going legal and everything and uh... it seemed for a while as though the regular you know prices of marijuana at least the ones we were all used to we're going to kind of hate be the same but over the last few months we've seen tremendous uh... fluctuations in prices in some states you know you can get ounces now under a hundred dollars and i did uh... how can anybody be competitive you know when you're dealing in a market where prices you know an ounce is dipping below hundred dollars
Nik Erickson (01:07:10.224)
Yeah, that's the million dollar question, right? Or the lack of having a million dollars. No, it's, you know, I was in it when I was purchasing pounds myself at $5,200 a pound, you know, and trying to make money at it.
you know now we're operating and everybody's having to sharpen their pencil and figure this out and adapt and compete with these commodity prices but have a better product to make it to market. You know if we're able to operate in that four to five hundred dollar range and be pro pound and be profitable on the wholesale bulk market, well you know what's that translate into? I mean fifty dollars an ounce you know is still eight hundred a pound. You know so that's it's there you know minus the taxes and you know and how many people are.
you know, taking their bite out down the food chain. That's why we like the direct to consumer model, because we're in control of our quality and our supply. We can send out smaller batches, fresher batches, more frequently that are maintained in a climate control room closer to the consumer. We'll sell through the smaller batches and then just re-up. That way, they're not being disappointed. They're getting better value. We're still getting paid because, you know,
what Dan and I were talking about when you took your time out was like.
you know, getting the money back up the food chain to the farmers also is a huge problem. You know, every one of the farms has had non-payment issues. And, you know, we were just talking about a grass door shutting down, I think it was $7 million owed to their vendors. I mean, that's a massive ripple effect in a community like mine. You know, we don't have these venture capitalists backing us. You know, a lot of these big MSOs that are operating in the state are going through these fluctuations. Well, you know, investors don't like to see contraction market.
Larry (01:08:30.606)
Hehehe
Larry (01:08:50.073)
Sure.
Nik Erickson (01:09:00.529)
So as those valves get turned off, we're watching more and more of these bigger brands fall off. And you know, they're renting these high lease, you know, storefronts and prime real estate and that whole kind of thing. But if it's not translating into dollars, you know, we're just seeing this ebb and flow. It's like an accordion right now. And we're just trying to ride these waves and make it through. But we know in our heart, you know, we got passion for what we do. You know, quality always finds a path. And
We're staying true to the roots like that.
Larry (01:09:34.87)
Very nice. Well, there's so much more in marijuana I really feel like we could talk about. But I want to shift our focus over to music a little bit, just for a second, or not a second, but for a few minutes here. Because that is definitely part of the identity of our show. And you fit right into that side really well. Tell us about the kind of marriage that you've created between your business and the music industry.
Nik Erickson (01:10:01.887)
Well, you know, cannabis has always opened doors. You know, it's opened doors that I would have never had open to me had I not been in cannabis, you know, even from the 90s. And so, you know, we used to work with a lot of, you know, musicians and athletes and politicians and those kind of things when nobody wanted to talk about it. You know, there wasn't a lot of questions brought up. It was just, you know, those doors were open very early on. So I knew that we were in the right business, right? It was a connector.
This is, it's a connector. And it's not like, being an outlaw farmer is much different than a typical drug dealer, right? I mean, you're operating with a very different experience, a different substance, right? This is cannabis. They're using cannabis now to get people off of opiates. It's being used in rehab centers, those types of things. But anyway, so we've garnished friendships inside the music industry, in the sports world,
through cannabis and you know bring in the green to the green rooms you know we've been lucky enough to be invited into a lot of behind-the-scenes scenarios and you know
Just because a musician is carrying a guitar case and touring doesn't mean that they're also independently wealthy There's a lot of struggling tour musicians and they're very grateful for some quality flower to show up backstage And it's just nice having that interaction, you know, we're not we're not out there You know with that Avenue trying to make money anything like that We definitely want to be whatever kind of positive influence that we can on the music because the music has always been a positive influence on us so that whole synergetic just
it.
Nik Erickson (01:11:46.995)
that synergy there is just it's amazing you know and a cc that somebody uh... you know use our product and go out there and crush the set have sounded in your tap you and say hey man second set was rockin man like good job you know that and they've got a critical and i'm not a musician you know i'm just a fan you know of in a very eclectic fan of all sorts of music but so it's so it's nice you know i mean again you know Taylor and strains to certain people you know everybody wants something different and
Larry (01:12:16.353)
Sure.
Nik Erickson (01:12:16.969)
blends those kind of things. It's cool to watch people get creative after partaking of something that we created.
Larry (01:12:27.086)
for sure. Now I know from our conversations that you've had occasions where you met Bob Weir for instance. Tell us about that. What was he like?
Nik Erickson (01:12:34.271)
Oh, he's amazing. You know, so we had a mutual friend that worked with him in my consulting realm. And the first time I met him was, like, my friend texted me about 7.30 in the morning and said, hey, I need to call you in about five minutes. That's all I had. I was still in bed. I was groggy, pre-caffeinated, hair flying everywhere. So I started to get up.
the about ten seconds later at the phones ring it's my buddy steven is bates face time in the so i'm trying out a better half naked my hair flying i hit face time it's bob understand about what is going on alright what am i what am i looking at it and try to watch my hair down here and i'm like you know i did i in my room was a mess of a walking out back so i could get the redwoods in the background to have the sleep out of my eyes and i just clueless of what's going on in and he wanted to talk about uh...
Larry (01:13:08.226)
Ah! Ha ha!
Nik Erickson (01:13:27.253)
just because he had some issues with his hands and his shoulder, you know, packing instruments around so many years. And so we just kind of talked a little bit about CBD and he was just great and gracious and he said, hey, why don't you just come on down to the Sweetwater. The Wolf Brothers were going to be doing a warm-up pre-tour. So we came down and got to kick it with the boys and Big Steve was there, MCN, and just listening to him talk like friends, you know, and just that whole just flying on the wall. I was just blown away because just absorbing that environment.
and he invited me up to his house the next day where the picture I sent you was from and I got to check out his guitar collection and stuff and gave him some CBD water and some salve and stuff and just tried to help out with the aches and pains, a total positive, just whatever we can do to help him because he's surrounded by people that need things and want things and that's not us. We want to be the person that can help and give something back. And obviously being a dead head, the music has given us so much and shaped our lives
Larry (01:14:25.466)
Thanks for watching!
Nik Erickson (01:14:26.873)
ways and formed friendships within the dead circles. And just a weird coincidence, a little side note on that, you've been in Chicago, a dead head that I met from Philadelphia in line at the Chicago shows just sent me a Chicago deep dish overnight and I thought about you and how poignant that was today. I'm like, oh, Larry's been calling from Chicago and I just had a deep dish like next day to me today. So thank you, Dana. Yeah. Anyway, yeah.
Larry (01:14:28.695)
Sure.
Larry (01:14:54.514)
That's awesome.
Nik Erickson (01:14:56.407)
Yeah, yeah, so he was great. He was very gracious, very down to earth, and just like, it was wonderful. It was wonderful, and just, you know, just talking like, you know, he'd known you his whole life.
Larry (01:15:08.162)
that's wonderful uh... but it was in the grateful that family also had run ins with guys like uh... rob bleak steven david gans
Nik Erickson (01:15:15.831)
Oh yeah, absolutely. So, you know, we do work with the Haight Street Arts Center. You know, we'll help them with their openers on some of their galleries and anybody that's down in the city, you know, they have such amazing stuff coming through there. It's a nonprofit, but it's all things music, you know? And so...
They were doing an herb green exhibit, so it was just everything herb green. And, you know, we had a little table at the front, so anybody who's a VIP type experience, anybody coming in could get canvas bags from us. And so we talked canvas, talked music, got to meet Dave that night. And I don't know if you've seen his new book, Improvise Lives. It's Grateful Dead.
72 to 85 I think, but he's got some great interviews where he's got Bobby hanging upside down from these workout boots and he's interviewing him upside down and that type of thing. He's a big fan of cannabis as well. We have these right off the get-go cannabis interfacing and started running circles around and Rob as well. Rob's a big stoner. He's like me
California sober, you know, it's just weeding some psychedelics. And you know, I've I haven't drinking down about five months and feeling good about it. And, you know, he's been on that train a lot longer. And and, you know, Rob likes his one little hobby plan or two hobby plants in the backyard. And so he's been growing some of the forbidden grapes from us and he's loving that. And he's a good guy. You know, every time every time we bump into him, he's always throwing us like some live, you know, CD from New Riders or, you know, you know.
Poking us with something special for sure. He's a special guy. We really like our friendship with him
Larry (01:17:10.37)
Yeah, they're both great. Rob and David have both been guests on the show, and both just fascinating people. And the kind of guys when you sit around and you say, boy, wouldn't it be cool to be David Gans? And what I love is how he talks about how, here I am. If you ask me what my game plan was to become this associated with the Grateful Dead family, I don't know that I could have told you, but here it is. And that's one of the things I loved about the Grateful Dead always was the
organic way in which you know so many people just kind of found themselves becoming part of the family uh... you know if there was a role you could fill if you were the right kind of personality if you know as long as you're bringing positive energy and stuff like that uh... you know and for all of us deadheads you know who don't have the luxury of living in that part of the world we could bump into somebody in the grocery store maybe you know we just all told oh my god you know and then the closest i think i ever came was in uh...
Nik Erickson (01:17:39.828)
Sure.
Nik Erickson (01:17:58.836)
Yeah.
Larry (01:18:04.338)
1985, we were out at the Greek Theater for the 20th anniversary shows. And that Saturday or Sunday also happened to be the Haight Street Fair. So a group of us went over there and we were sitting in Panhandle Park right there at the end of Haight Street. And we were rolling some joints. And all of a sudden, we looked up and there were two security dudes standing right there. And we're like, oh boy. You guys rolling those joints?
Nik Erickson (01:18:19.767)
Yeah.
Nik Erickson (01:18:25.865)
Yeah.
Larry (01:18:27.998)
Yes, we are, sir. Yes, yes. OK, well, I need a few of them. The guys backstage say they need some joints. And Bobby was backstage, and Brent was backstage, and a few of the others. And I was like, can we go backstage with you and give? No, no, no. They want some joints, so we need some joints. So we handed them some joints, and off they went. And all I'm thinking about was, I hope they were good joints. But then I said, he doesn't know who I am, so I guess I'm clear either way.
Nik Erickson (01:18:53.187)
That's awesome, I love that. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, it's a...
You know, that is one thing. There's so many talented musicians that interplay with each other too down in the Bay Area, East Bay, the city, Marin. You know, that whole scene down there is amazing. I had a buddy that was down in Mill Valley the other day and was pumping gas next to Carlos Santana. You know, it's just like, oh, there's Carlos. You know, it's just that kind of thing. So, yeah. And it's awesome, you know, because everybody plays with each other too. You know, they all sit in and just, you know, it's wild.
Larry (01:19:20.942)
That's awesome.
Nik Erickson (01:19:28.741)
the warfield 100th anniversary with Phil and friends you know and um i went in that one watched that show completely sober and i had happy tears in my eyes i mean that show was just amazing you know that was uh the late uh James uh Casey you know he's his voice is phenomenal and the dear prudence i mean it just he had the room mesmerized you know i mean it just stuff like that you know uh Eric Krasnow you know watching him play i mean in my eyes he's you know top 10 top
love what he does and phenomenal work. And yeah, it's just, it's fun. You get to see a lot of live music in small intimate venues and that's what's cool. It's not all stadium stuff.
Larry (01:20:08.386)
Yeah. And that, I mean, to me, that's such a difference. My kids are taking me to Fish Festival this summer out in Delaware.
I'm looking forward to it. I think it'll be a lot of fun. I've taken a liking to Fish lately. But you hear about the old days when they were playing in small theaters and when the Dead were playing in small theaters. And when I go to see bands that are playing in small theaters, and all I can do is sit there and just say, imagine, you were in here and this is the room the Dead showed up in one night, or Phil and Friends. And I happen to love Phil and Friends. Dead and Co. is great, and all the others are great. But there's something about Phil Lesh and John Molo. And then when he has the quintet with him, right?
Warren Haynes and Rob Barraco. But then I've seen him with other guys, including Casey and the other two women on the horns. And that's just as amazing, too. People just, yes.
Nik Erickson (01:20:56.632)
uh... jennifer yet uh... natalie cressman just played up here last night and i missed right
Larry (01:21:04.788)
Yes, Natalie Cressman, thank you.
Nik Erickson (01:21:08.135)
Yeah, I got in from the farm too late. Jennifer played here last night. And it's rare when you get a nice beacon show up here. And I just got in too late to catch her. So I missed that. Sorry, Jennifer. But yeah, that's one downside of being three hours, four hours away from anything. We catch the shows that are usually people playing in the Bay Area and Portland. And they did pit stop here on their way.
Larry (01:21:36.194)
So here, I just, for no reason, but we talked about this when we first met, I want to shift gears a little bit and ask you about Jimmy Page and Robert Plant and a tour that they did in the 90s. And you were telling me a story about how a group of you were kind of following that tour as well. Can you talk about that for a minute?
Nik Erickson (01:21:51.669)
Yeah.
Nik Erickson (01:21:57.807)
Yeah, yeah, you know, we were living out of a van. And so the same way we were taking on Dead Tour, we followed Page and Plan on both their tours from LA up to Seattle. And I also grew up a big Led Zeppelin fan, and I had a license plate that said One Zepp fan on it. And we got our tickets, their first show, their first tour was the old LA Forum where the Lakers used to play.
Larry (01:22:19.875)
you
Nik Erickson (01:22:26.515)
And I would read all the books. They had two tour managers and then Neal Preston, their photographer. And I kept up on, Jimmy Page was a collector of music memorabilia. So a lot of stuff he did, he would design four collectors, like the physical graffiti album, having the sliding windows and the coat album going into the packaging, the sleeve and those kinds of things. So I was young, 18, 19, whatever. And I had this grandiose idea of my contact with a rock legend.
like Jimmy Page, so I took my license plate off my truck, wrote my information on the back. I think I wrote my dad's house number on there because I didn't even have a cell phone at the time. And you know, just said, okay, well I'm going to get down there and throw this thing on stage and he's going to hold it up. He's going to keep it in his personal collection and I'll probably get something pretty cool sent to me. And I just had this, you know, this total off the rail dream, you know. And so we got down to LA and we had super cheap tickets and you know, up till then.
Larry (01:23:00.59)
Hahaha.
Larry (01:23:16.654)
Hahaha
Nik Erickson (01:23:26.209)
everything was general mission so we were used to GA and as we're walking in we had a bag of mushrooms and got into those and you know we had ushers pointing us to where we needed to sit which wasn't ideal at all it was basically our backs were against the concrete at the top of the third tier up there and the stage just looked like a postage stamp by us it's like well this isn't gonna work at all and the mushrooms started kicking in the lights went down and I ran down the stairs and there was a drop off to the to the floor
Larry (01:23:50.357)
Hahaha
Nik Erickson (01:23:56.089)
There wasn't standing it was all seated and everybody was standing But you know they all still had seats there And I dropped down and had security chase me into the crowd at the time I was probably only 140 pounds So I was squirrely and I was going over people's chairs and shoulders and you know work my way up dead center row two And a bank corporation had bought like ten seats and some people didn't show up so they let me sit there with them and they took turns holding my license plate up and You know got to watch the whole show just having a great time
Larry (01:24:09.738)
Hahaha
Nik Erickson (01:24:26.249)
and you know I was telling him about my master plan of getting the plate on stage during the encore and this and that and you know I'm peaking pretty good and the encore comes and it's a two, there was two layers to the stage and Jimmy Page came out with his double neck, you know and the bow and they got into cashmere and he starts doing that classic riff with his bow and they brought out the LA Philharmonic was on the second tier and it was just loaded and
I got all amped up and threw my license plate and it took off like a frisbee. It went right over Jimmy Page's head. It went to the second deck and it hit this poor old lady on the violin right in the throat and she dropped her violin. The guy next to her stopped playing his violin to help her and before I could even say oh shit I had security guards just jumping the rail after me. I was only two rows back so I had to turn like in my haze you know from elation to fear
to get away from these guys but you know I never got arrested but I never got an autograph either so that was my fame to shame story
Larry (01:25:36.826)
Well, now did you ever have a chance to meet those guys?
Nik Erickson (01:25:41.147)
No, never did. I did bump into Robert Plant one time down in Costa Rica and he was flip-flopping along with the lady and nobody recognized him. I knew who he was and he saw that. He made eye contact and gave me the hand like, hey, hold off, I'm chilling kind of thing and that was cool. I just didn't invade his space, let him be him and do his thing. That was the only time that I saw him after that.
Larry (01:26:08.733)
OK. And when was the first time?
Nik Erickson (01:26:08.863)
But here's him and Allison. Oh, no, Robert and Allison Krauss are playing the Frost Theater out here, I think, like late August, early September. So we will play it. You can get down there and see that one. More license plates this time, I promise. Maybe a 14-gram joint. I'll be more friendly about it this time.
Larry (01:26:21.879)
No license plates.
Larry (01:26:28.118)
Ooh. OK. When was the first time you saw the Grateful Dead?
Nik Erickson (01:26:33.223)
Uh, God, that was, I think, uh, CalExpo 92, 93? I got on, so, you know, I graduated in 93. I got turned on to them probably mid-80s, 85, 86, from, you know, friends, brothers and sisters type of thing, passing tapes down. I kind of was in that era of, like, you know, built to last and in the dark and, you know, you know, all that kind of stuff. You know, that era, those later dead tapes.
Larry (01:26:56.719)
Mm-hmm.
Nik Erickson (01:27:03.606)
And
When I started seeing them in the 90s, I didn't have anything to calibrate to. I didn't see them in the 70s or with Brent. It was just mind-blowing coming out of high school, what the scene had turned into. Looking back on it now, I realized that the band was like, oh shit, it's out of control. People were saying they weren't playing their best music in the 90s, but at the time, I was just floored. I was just like, look at this. There's as many people out in the parking lot that didn't get in, that got in. It's just like you don't have to leave the parking lot.
like you can barter for everything. It was just this like utopian society and like I was in. I was all in. You know, I was, I jumped on that bus and didn't want to look back. And so even, you know, that era of, of the dead, you know, it still had me and, you know, and I'm thankful for it to this day. And so, you know, like I said, you know, getting to, getting to meet Bob and all this, it just, you know, he sees it every day, you know, we definitely don't, you know, from, from our perspective. And it was a beautiful thing.
Larry (01:28:01.226)
Right? That's wonderful. That's really, really cool, man. Nick, I'm having a great time. And notwithstanding the little technical problems I had there, which I apologize again for, I would blame Dan. But everybody knows it's me anyway, so it doesn't matter. But we're going to have to stop for today. We're just reaching our limit here.
But I feel like there's so much more we have to talk about that I hope you'll be willing to come back on again in the future and pick right back up so we can just get into more great stories.
Nik Erickson (01:28:32.151)
Absolutely, absolutely for sure. I would be honored. I'd be honored. I thank you for having me on like I said You know, I'm a big listener of the show and I'm always learning something new. So hopefully that translated well for your listeners today and You know, there's always so much to touch on in the cannabis world is ever-changing. There's always something to touch on in the music world That's ever-changing Speaking of did you see Don Ross dropped his new band? yesterday what said that the
Ensemble so he's going on tour
Larry (01:29:06.807)
I love him too. The beauty of it is there's so much good live music out there that eventually I just run out of time to see it all. Really, what's available and where you can go and find it is just outstanding.
Nik Erickson (01:29:14.579)
Yeah.
Nik Erickson (01:29:19.815)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Larry (01:29:22.142)
really love it. Well listen man thank you so much what a pleasure to have you on the show Nick Erickson everyone our guest today from Full Moon Farms in California if you've already tried his products hopefully you like it and you'll tell people if you haven't tried him yet hopefully now you'll go try it out and then tell all your friends about how good it is. Take it with you to concerts pass it around anything we can do to help Nick is also cool too because you know he's one of those guys who's out there doing it for all of us he takes the risks we get the benefits so
It's a great thing. Thank you again, sir. As we head out today, there was not a lot of music, but I will dip into this concert that we're featuring today back from 1972 at the New York Academy of Music and as I promised a little bit of Pigpen on the way out the door today, Next Time You See Me, it's a blues song written by Earl Forrest and Bill Harvey, originally recorded in 1956 by Junior Parker. Next Time You See Me was one of the blues and RB songs that Pigpen
uh... you know brought into the grateful dead repertoire at the beginning of their uh... formation uh... the song with uh... pig pen on vocals and harmonica became part of their concerts regularly played in concerts by nineteen sixty seven according to one of the other deads biographers all over trigger they perform two different versions he describes one as a driving up temple rendition of the other is a somewhat rarer and moodier take sung as a duet with jerry garcia i don't know that i've ever heard that one
The group often played the song in the early 1970s, and live recordings were included on several albums, such as Hundred Year Hall from the April 26, 1972 Europe Tour, the Europe 72, volume 2 set, Rockin' the Rhine with the Grateful Dead. And you'll notice most of these are coming from the Europe 72 period, when Pig was singing it quite frequently. And this is probably his warm up, as we say, the last show before they go.
uh... the first time they ever played it was february twenty-fifth nineteen sixty six at the i've our theater in l a the last time coincided with the end of the europe seventy two tour at the lyceum ballroom in london they played a total of eighty one times be sure to listen not only to pigs singing but his heart playing at the end it's great stuff yours gonna love it thank you again uh... to our friend nick thanks to uh... dan humiston as always everyone have a great week be safe and as always enjoy your cannabis responsibly thank you