[charlene]

part 2
Back then, white bands really didn't play so-called black music?

I tell you what, you had to be special. Nowadays, everyone can do it, just about. But they couldn't back then. I mean, I was looking for singers that could sound like Ray Charles. A lot of them tried, but they wasn't any good! So I didn't use them. Richard [Manuel] was the first one to sing “Georgia [on my Mind]" and make it sound almost as good as Ray Charles.

Can you account for that at all?

I don't know why. They were all from Stratford [Ontario]. There’s something in the water in Stratford, I guess, because a lot of good musicians come outta there for some reason. A dozen of mine came outta there, and every one went on to be big time. John Till [guitarist for a mid-60s incarnation of the Hawks] was in Janis Joplin’s band. That’s the Full Tilt Boogie –- he's from Stratford.

And little what’s-his-name, he's hot as hell, he's from Stratford.

Justin Bieber?

Beaver. Yeah. He's a Stratford boy. And he ain't doing too bad. He looks like he's having lots of fun. I'd like to be with him.

Once they got used to it, Canadian acts really started to take off.

I was going to be one of them Nostradamuses. I went up to Yorkville [in the mid-1960s] to see some band and it had Neil Young in it. And I said: ‘I guarantee you, there's a band that won't even get to record, let alone put a record out!' I'd never heard anyone sing that bad. [Hawkins does a screechy impression] 'Meyeh, waaay up in Ont-ar-ee-o.' God almighty. Next time I saw him he'd sold a billion records. And I've heard it so much now that I don't mind it. But back then I'd have bet everything I owned that they'd have thrown him out of any record shop he went into. They weren't in tune, and he was singing that weird shit up there, weird like not falsetta [sic], but something else. But, he did OK for a country boy, didn't he? Hell, it doesn't matter anyway because he's a Canadian, boy, and we gotta be proud of him.

Word is that the people expected to attend your Toronto show include Yoko Ono, Bill Clinton, and [mega-selling music producer] David Foster. Was Foster ever a Hawk?

Yeeeeeah. He was my bus driver! I hired him as my bus driver. But I let him play piano a little bit, too, just 'cause he was such a good bus driver. He was making $250 million a year back there for a little while. But I told him, if it ever falls through out there [in Los Angeles], he can always come back and drive my bus.

What about Bill Clinton? You're both Arkansas boys, but he's gotta be a decade younger than you. How do you know him?

We played his 65th birthday. In California. Everybody was there. Man, every movie star in the world was there. I shook the hand of an old boy, and he looked just as common as a horse turd at a rodeo, you know? Like me and you. And he gave Bill Clinton $200 million cash for his library. One guy. And he didn't look like one of 'em entrepreneurs, one of them cheaters from Bay Street, or all them stock brokers that's cheating everybody. But he had money from somewhere, $200 million! [Ed. note: This may be an exaggerated amount.]

Anyway, Clinton used to come in the club a lot [when I played in Arkansas]. I used to play for the billionaires down there. Sam Walton, Don Tyson. Billionaires. Well, I found this out over the years, but politicians and preachers sure like to hang around with rich people. Did you ever notice that?

Well, he and Hilary both was teaching law at the University of Arkansas and that's when I first met him at a party. And they wanted him to get into politics, he was so sharp. And then he went through everything, became the Attorney General. And then he became Governor. And that's when he used to come into the clubs, when I played down there.

Anyway, I was setting at a table, and this was when he was getting them complaints about girls saying he was mo-lesting them or some damn thing. And tell you something about Bill, he's a lady killer. I don't know why. I don't know what makes a lady killer in people. But the women make fools of themselves around [him] trying to get in his britches. It's unbelievable. I was setting at this table with seven or eight girls out on a break at the club when he come in, and all of these are college girls, some of 'em married, and they looked over there and said [whispers] "oh my God, there's the Governor! There's the Governor!”

Ooh, and they started talking about things, things they wanted to do to him. I'm telling you. Caligula woulda been ashamed of the kind of stuff they wanted to do to him, boys. I don't know what happens. They start twitching down there or something, and just make fools of themselves when they get around [Clinton]. I'm pissed off 'cause they won't do that around me!

Just before we got started you were showing us John Lennon's one-hitter that he left at your place back in the early 70s.

RH: He left everything! But I've given everything away to Beatles fans. I've given millions of dollars worth of stuff away. The clothes, the lithographs he left, all kinds of stuff. All the dope paraphernalia, everything. Clothes! Shoes! Hats! My daughter wore Yoko's hat for a couple years, and then sold it for big money.

I've given so much away to Beatles fanatics. I never was a Beatles fanatic –- I think they're great -- but there's people that, I mean fanatics! They'll die! I had a suitcase full of dope paraphernalia. All Lennon's. Plus, they had -- did you ever hear of “temple balls?” Well, “temple balls” is supposed to be from them monks, in these temples, they make this hash. And it’s the best hash in the world. Call ‘em “temple balls.” And they had some of that. Everything. But that's John. I mean, they were big time, boy. Big. Time.

I've given, probably, $3 or $400,000 worth of lithographs away. Only down to one, now.

Lennon was drawing a lot of erotic art around then, right? In the early 70s?

Well, yeah, it is kind of erotic; I guess you could call it that. It shows him nekid, and he drew Yoko nekid, and her big ol’ pussy showing right there in the front. So, you know. I guess you'd call that erotica. It would scare some people!

[Laughing] Well, that's about as good a place as any to end an interview!

Well, thanks. Hey, now, give me a good write-up, boy, so I might get me some pussy. Some strange pussy.

Strange?

I'm 80 years old! If I get some pussy, it'll sure be strange.