Video Interview: Bobby Mason

Bobby Mason

Interviewed by Jan Garrett

December 2022

2025.016.0001

Jan Garrett [00:00:11] Hi everybody. My name is Jan Garrett, and I’m so happy to be here today with Bobby Mason. Hi, Bobby.

Bobby Mason [00:00:18] Hey, everybody. Hi, Jan.

Jan Garrett [00:00:20] Hi. How are you doing?

Bobby Mason [00:00:23] I’m doing great. We’re in a place… Hawthorne, California, out by LAX.

Jan Garrett [00:00:30] Okay.

Bobby Mason [00:00:31] We’re staying with Jane’s son for either two weeks or a month and getting our Airstream fixed, and we’re…

Jan Garrett [00:00:40] Wow.

Bobby Mason [00:00:41] Yeah. So it’s a big thing. But he has three dogs, and he travels, so we’re taking care of his dogs.

Jan Garrett [00:00:49] Cool.

Bobby Mason [00:00:49] Which is nice for us, too.

Jan Garrett [00:00:51] Yeah. All right, well, so you guys are no longer living in Aspen, right?

Bobby Mason [00:00:56] No, I can’t go there anymore.

Jan Garrett [00:00:58] And why not?

Bobby Mason [00:00:59] Because of altitude. I have COPD, so, um, altitude, yeah. Altitude. End of story. Yeah. That was… the doctor said to Jane, said he’ll live longer and breathe much better at sea level.

Jan Garrett [00:01:23] That makes a lot of sense. So mainly you’ve been gone from Aspen… today is, it’s early December 2022. So you’ve been… you haven’t lived in Aspen for a few years, right?

Bobby Mason [00:01:34] Oh, yeah, about six years. Lived in Aspen, yeah.

Jan Garrett [00:01:38] And now you’re getting to travel around, which sounds really cool.

Bobby Mason [00:01:41] Yeah. We’re looking at maybe going down to Mexico, or we try to stay around sea level. I’m good to about 3500 feet.

Jan Garrett [00:01:52] Right.

Bobby Mason [00:01:53] And then I start getting silly.

Jan Garrett [00:01:55] We’re glad that we get to see you today and be with you today.

Bobby Mason [00:01:59] I’m so glad. Thank you.

Jan Garrett [00:02:02] Well, so one thing that we’re doing here is we’re just talking to a few people about, especially musicians, about Aspen. And there seemed to be kind of a magical decade or two from about 1970, maybe to about 1980, when there was a whole lot of beautiful music going on in Aspen. And you were right in the middle of that. So can you tell us a little bit about, first of all, how you got to Aspen, when… and yeah, just tell us something about that.

Bobby Mason [00:02:34] I got to Aspen in the year of 1969. We were playing at… very weird… we were playing at a club in Hawthorne, where I’m at right now, was playing at a club across from LAX, and somebody came in to the club, came backstage and said, “I have a club in Aspen, Colorado.” We had no idea where that was, but… you know, I don’t even know if I’d heard of it. But anyway, “We have a club in Aspen. We would love for you to play there,” you know? And we said, “Oh, okay. Just call our manager.” So then they flew us out. We stayed there and within, I would say within two weeks that we were playing there, I looked at the bass player and said, looking at Aspen Mountain, I said, “I’m home.”

Jan Garrett [00:03:40] Wow.

Bobby Mason [00:03:41] I just fell in love with it. And then I met you, back then, and JD and everybody, you know. So the people in the mountains and the music and the craziness brought me there.

Jan Garrett [00:04:00] I love it. And once you were here, we were all playing in different iterations of different bands through that time. So what did you start… what was the name of your band when you started out, and then what happened?

Bobby Mason [00:04:12] The Happy Medium. We played at the Aspen Inn. And what was great was that they had a… our band room was the big suite above the bar. They couldn’t put anybody in there, so we had a big fireplace…

Jan Garrett [00:04:34] Oh, wow.

Bobby Mason [00:04:35] …a lot of bedrooms and everything. And the only reason… because it was above the bar, so the music would go till 2:00 in the morning, so nobody else wanted to stay there.

Jan Garrett [00:04:44] I love that.

Bobby Mason [00:04:45] So we lived through it, you know, and it just blew me away. I just fit so perfectly, you know? And…

Jan Garrett [00:04:59] After The Happy Medium, what was the next band?

Bobby Mason [00:05:03] The Happy Medium. And then we went to Chicago and changed it to Wells Fargo, and then we broke up in Chicago, and drove out, heading for L.A., to go back to Hollywood, and I said, “Let’s stop in to Aspen.” We pulled up in front of a club called Danny’s, and Black Pearl was playing. So I walked in after driving from Chicago to Aspen, on the way to L.A., and I was playing on, you know, I was playing up there with Black Pearl, jamming and everything. And I said, you know, he says, “Where are you going? Where are you headed?” I said, “We’re going out to Hollywood.” This is why Geoff and I are playing leads together. We’re talking, you know, that’s how relaxed it was. So we’re talking, and he said, ‘Where are you going?” I said, ‘We’re going back to Hollywood,” and he said, “Why?” I said, “Because there’s probably work out there.” He said, “Why don’t you join us?” So I joined Black Pearl that night, you know, and went out and moved all my stuff back here. So that was probably 19–, probably 1970.

Jan Garrett [00:06:25] Okay. Wow. So then as you went on through, you played with Black Pearl. And I know you played with a lot of other people, that you would sit in with or that would come and sit in with you.

Bobby Mason [00:06:41] Ken McGinnis. (?)

Jan Garrett [00:06:41] Yeah. What was that like?

Bobby Mason [00:06:42] It was Mason-McGinnis, after we broke up, after Black Pearl broke up, and, oh my God… I called it “upset the fruit basket.” The game where at the end of the season, this bass player would go over to this group, and this drummer would go over to this group. And that’s just the way I felt like it went. We would break up the groups and shake it up and go somewhere else, you know?

Jan Garrett [00:07:10] And the music was always really great, no matter who was playing with whom, right?

Bobby Mason [00:07:13] Oh, I thought so. You know, I was, you know, it was great. It was a party, and that’s what I loved to do, you know? So it really worked out super. I thought one of the wonderful things that we got to do was, we would meet on a break in the mall, or it wasn’t the mall yet even, but we’d meet on a corner, and we would head for… we would trade clubs. So I would go over where Chris Cox had been playing…

Jan Garrett [00:07:46] Right.

Bobby Mason [00:07:47] …with the group I was in, and then Chris Cox’s band would go where we were playing, and all of a sudden, people look up and there’s a whole different band there.

Jan Garrett [00:07:55] Yeah.

Bobby Mason [00:07:57] And I came over and sat in with you.

Jan Garrett [00:08:00] Yeah. Wow. So it really was that wonderful. That’s one of the things that people talk about during that time. There was a kind of heart and soul element, to me, that was happening, where it was like people weren’t jealous of each other. There didn’t seem to be a lot of competition. It was more like people were just… loved playing, right?

Bobby Mason [00:08:23] Yeah. And I miss that in my life. I find, Jan, that one of the things that, traveling around the country, like going down to Austin or something like that, I know there are situations that are different, but I really get that people don’t care about the other musicians. It’s a… I don’t… that they care about them, but it’s still a fight or trying to establish, “I need the work.” And we just played music.

Jan Garrett [00:09:02] Right.

Bobby Mason [00:09:03] We just… and we all worked… a lot.

Jan Garrett [00:09:06] Well, I think Aspen was very different at that time because for one thing, you could actually afford to pay the rent. You know, people could afford to live there. And it was like, I think that in town there were a lot of clubs because it had not… that real estate crazy thing had not hit yet. So, you know, clubs could actually afford to have bands come and play. Maybe that’s part of it.

Bobby Mason [00:09:30] It was… even as you lived there, when the disco started coming in, you know, we kind of had that little pause in our creativity, but we all started working again. And people do need music. Music is very important, I find.

Jan Garrett [00:09:49] Right. And they still do. And music still is important. I wanted to ask you one thing, if you don’t mind, Bobby. I know that you can… you played with a lot of famous people. You mentioned Glenn Frey, Jimmy Buffett. But as you went through, um, this is rather, this is a personal question, and I hope you don’t mind my asking this, but…

Bobby Mason [00:10:10] Oh, please go for it.

Jan Garrett [00:10:11] You told me that, um, it was a party, and I remember you were a party guy and…

Bobby Mason [00:10:20] I am a party guy.

Jan Garrett [00:10:22] But, I mean, when you were doing substances to add to the party vibe. And then at a certain point, tell me about what happened there, that it got to a point where that didn’t work.

Bobby Mason [00:10:34] When I started playing music as… my first job was, I was 14. I played in a bar and… because they needed a lead guitar player. So I went down to this bar in Lakewood, California, the Hula Hut. And that wasn’t where I started drinking, that was another thing, but at 14, I started drinking. And I had so much fear about getting on stage, and I found that alcohol took that fear away, which was great. And I was working two jobs at the time. I had two kids, and I was married to my first wife, and somebody had given me a bit of speed that I didn’t know anything about. And I went, “Oh my God, I have all the energy in the world now.” So I got kind of into that. Is this more information than you wanted?

Jan Garrett [00:11:37] I love hearing this because I think it applies to a lot of us in the sense that, you know, we’re looking for something, right?

Bobby Mason [00:11:45] Well, the drinking did take care of the fear. But what I found out when I got sober, which I was 46 by the time I got sober, was that I loved my music, and I loved creating, and I love that emotion that comes up. But alcohol and the drugs take the fear away, but they also take the emotions, the feelings that we have away. And I didn’t realize that until I quit. And I was singing one of my favorite songs, and I started crying. This is about three years sober, and I started crying. I went, “Oh my God, I missed that.” I missed that part of it. So anybody that thinks that it helps, it doesn’t help. It just numbs you, you know? And numb does not work for creativity, I think.

Jan Garrett [00:12:48] Right. And I think since then, you’ve also, you’ve written some great songs. I know that.

Bobby Mason [00:12:55] Well thank you so much.

Jan Garrett And recorded…

Bobby Mason [00:12:59] Yeah. I was writing a lot when I was living in Hollywood. I was playing… before I came to Aspen, I was playing at PJ’s, so I was writing songs back then. But when I came out to Aspen, I started writing more songs, and some with your husband, J.D. Martin, which just blows me, my favorite. So anyway, I started to write all these different songs and everything, and I thought they weren’t quite good enough, you know? And it’s really funny to get to the age I’m at now and listen to them, going, “Well, that’s really nice.” I’m really starting to appreciate what I did…

Jan Garrett [00:13:45] That’s good.

Bobby Mason [00:13:46] …going, “Oh! I like that. That’s a great line,” you know. So anyway…

Jan Garrett [00:13:52] Right. Yeah. So along with the songwriting and the just sort of creativity in general, one thing that I just want to bring up is that… this was, and I think this was after you got sober and a few years after that, we began to come together in groups around a book written by Julia Cameron called “The Artist’s Way.” It’s a wonderful book. It’s like a 12-week course. And, you know, her whole thing is that, like, we’re all artists. You know, you don’t have to be a painter, you don’t have to be a musician. You could be… your art could be, you could be a great cook, or, you know, you could be a great grandmother, whatever. But that there’s a way of getting into that and sort of jumpstarting a person’s creativity. So can you talk a little bit about “The Artist’s Way”? At least our group?

Bobby Mason [00:14:48] I would love to. I think it was, at first it was just people that did music. And then we brought in a wonderful friend, Kim Nuzzo, that wrote poetry. And he was having a time getting it across that he did poetry. I don’t think he was comfortable in that until he got into the group, and you know, we started to really appreciate it. And he got to grow with that. And I think I grew from that in the writing, you know, and I still use “The Artist’s Way” things for when I get stuck on writing, start writing the morning pages, and stuff like that. So it really opened up that artists go through emotions, you know, and sometimes I’ve felt that I was so alone in that and realizing that all artists go through emotions. Not the similar ones, but… and that’s all we’re dealing with. I like things that touch me here {indicates his heart}, when I’m doing that and saying, “That’s my level. That’s my scale there, that does that,” you know.

Jan Garrett [00:16:13] And there’s something so wonderful about having people to share it with, you know, getting into a group. Julie Wyckoff was in that group too, and me and J.D., and I think we were in that group for 10, 12 years, at least.

Bobby Mason [00:16:27] Hundreds of years, yeah. {laughter}.

Jan Garrett [00:16:30] Exactly. It feels like it.

Bobby Mason [00:16:32] It was a long time. And I don’t… I might be wrong. Did we ever finish the book?

Jan Garrett [00:16:39] No, we never did. We abandoned the book. It was a 12-week course. I think by the time we got to the 10th week or something, we were like, “Ah, let’s just go from here on our own.” And it was lovely. So, is there anything… we’re going to begin to wrap this up, this part of this… is there anything that you want to tell people or…? Just there’s so much to say about you and what you’ve done and who you are. You know, anything else you want to put out?

Bobby Mason [00:17:10] I would like to say: don’t question your life because all your questioning is “What’s going to happen?” I don’t have a clue, especially getting older and saying, “What am I supposed to do now?” Whatever you want to do. Follow your heart. What do you want to do? So now it’s like, it’s pretty much… I don’t think I’ll play that much anymore, I think, and all of a sudden I’m playing again. I got a new guitar, and I’m going, you know… so just following that. I’m still working, I’m still doing “The Artist’s Way” as into the “be here now” thing, and my life is… I have a broken hip, and it’s healing, but it’s healing really, really, really slow. And it hurts, and I really have gotten to the place going, “I love my life right now,” instead of saying that this is driving me crazy or I don’t feel that energetic. No, I don’t need to be energetic. I’ve done, I’ve climbed out of the Grand Canyon and walked up Ajax, and I can’t do that right now, which is fine. I get to talk to Jan…

Jan Garrett [00:18:39] Yeah, and to whoever else is listening.

Bobby Mason [00:18:44] …and right, with her husband, and have my wonderful life with Jane. We’re running around the country, not running around the country, we’re traveling around the country. We don’t have a… we don’t put a time limit on ourselves when we’re traveling. We go maybe for 3 or 4 hours at the most, stop for 2 or 3 days. That’s the hurry part. So we don’t have to be anywhere, and I love that in my life, you know, until we say, “Let’s do a communication with Jan.” And I love that too.

Jan Garrett [00:19:23] Yes. Thanks for being here. This is really… And I hope we get to do more.

Bobby Mason [00:19:27] I hope so, too. And Jane and I send our love to everybody in Aspen, so… and I hope you enjoy this.

Jan Garrett [00:19:37] Yay! Thanks so much.

Bobby Mason [00:19:42] Mwah. {kiss} Love you.

Jan Garrett [00:19:42] Love you too.

Bobby Mason [00:19:44] Thank you.