ToTheSummit ~ A Leerjet Interview & l s d On Our Minds
Enter: Welcome aboard. How ya holding up, brother?
ToTheSummit: Life is treating me well. I can't complain. Well...I could complain but it would be insincere as I have nothing to complain about!
Enter: Herein we shall commence with thy background. What cards have you been dealt in life so far? Take your time. We've got all night.
ToTheSummit: Lets see. I had a really religious upbringing, even served as a Mormon Missionary between the ages of 19 and 21! But I was questioning my faith by the time I was a young man and after some hard times (the sudden death of my Mother and a short-lived, awful marriage...all within 6 months) I started doing some soul searching. I studied lots of other religions (besides the one I was raised with) but couldn't find anything that felt right. I started to experiment with drugs and upon discovering LSD I embarked on a journey that, over the next 18 months or so, changed my life. Suddenly I looked around and I was 25 years old and in love with a wonderful woman, who has since become my wife of over a decade.
Somewhere in those turbulent early years I carved a niche for myself in construction. It just started out as an easy way to make money w/o going to college, but I enjoyed it so much I never left. Hard work and early hours have always suited me, even when I was young. I love to be up and out before sunrise and work without a roof over my head all day. And nothing satisfies me more then a long day of manual labor. I'd never make it in an office environment! I spent a lot of years busting my ass, and now, after about 15 years of experience, I am finally in a position where I no longer have to do the back-breaking work. Now I get to sit in my equipment all day, listen to the radio, and get paid good money to dig holes in the dirt! Its every little boys dream job!  And nowadays I get my fix of manual labor by hiking and backpacking all over the Western US.
The wife and I have no kids. But we got 2 cats and I'm pretty sure they believe they are human children! We got a nice comfortable little house and still live in the city I have called home most my life...Las Vegas. And no, I don't gamble!  All in all life has been good for me, and it seems to get a little better every year as long as I keep working hard and playing even harder.
Enter: The thing that can cause happiness in your heart is...
ToTheSummit: Wow, honestly, thats a hard one for me to answer. Not because I can't think of things that make me happy, but rather because I can't think of many things that don't make me happy! Does that make sense? You see, I am one of those perpetually happy people. It sometimes pisses my wife off, actually. I am always upbeat, smiling, and just generally in a good mood. I rarely have a bad day. And I tend to be optomistic about everything, even when the shit-storm is raining down on my world I just tend to shrug it off with a cynical comment and a smirk.
So i guess to answer the question, life makes me happy! 
Enter: When it's late and you're hungry you usually turn to...
ToTheSummit: Del Taco 59 cent crunchy tacos....and more beer.
Enter: The last breakfast cereal that you definitely didn't exactly enjoy was...
ToTheSummit: I had "Honey Smacks" this morning. Why don't they just go back to calling those things "Sugar Smacks"? Its like eating a fucking bowl of candy for breakfast! Gimme some Grape Nuts any day.
Enter: Who is important to you?
ToTheSummit: My wife. She loves me for who I am and is one of the most selfless people I've ever known. And my Father. Although I chose to turn my back on the path he laid out for me in life he still accepts and loves me. And he is still an inspiration and great source of knowledge. Truly salt-o-the-earth type.
Enter: Let's talk the talk. How many tabs of acid have you eaten to date?
ToTheSummit: Wow, never did keep an accurate count. At my peak use I was tripping at least 3 days a week and the dosages were usually very high. It wasn't unusual to take 25 hits at a time or more. This was from about late 1991 to early 1993. I knew little to nothing about LSD at the time. I just knew that it was helping me find solace in my life at the time and acceptance of feelings that I had harbored for many years. I got bombarded by my friends about how stupid I was. I heard all the urban legends and myths about acid. And in those days I had no internet to turn to for information and advice. But I felt safe every time I tripped, and to this day I have never had what I think could be classified as a 'bad' trip. I was just using myself as a guinea pig and luckily I came out on top. And every time someone would say I was completely fucking nuts I'd just smile at them and pop another 10-strip in my mouth!
Enter: Name a l s d print that stands out in your mind.
ToTheSummit: The majority of the blotter I got was white. Not sure where it came from exactly but my supplier was going to cali to get it. But the prints I remember vividly were red stars. The reason I remember them was because I lost my wallet in the park one time with 8 hits in it. When it was recovered the next day it had sat out in the sprinklers overnight. The ink from the red stars had run and there were 2 bussiness cards that now had a pink tint. Disappointedly I ate the hits and both bussiness cards. I was at the first Laguna Seca Daze music festival (1993, saturday show) that day and the disappointment was soon gone! Those little red stars (along with the 2 bussiness cards) made for one of the most entertaining Phish sets I ever saw!
Enter: Tell us about your very first acid experience. What happened?
ToTheSummit: I was at a party. I dropped 2 hits. When it started to come on I got uncomfortable being inside with all the people so I went for a walk down the street by myself. I found a low wall and sat down, placing my hands out to my sides on top of the wall. I suddenly heard this faint crackling sound and I looked down at my left hand. There were spider webs growing up my hand and onto my arm! My first hallucination! I jumped up startled, then I started to laugh out loud. A wave of contentment washed over me and I laughed even harder. The rest of the night is a little foggy, but I was in love with lucy right from the start!
Enter: The city you live in is like a...
ToTheSummit: ...dog turd covered in diamonds. Its really shiny and expensive, but underneath it is still a turd.
Actually, I love Vegas. It is my home. And the great thing about living here is that its just like any other town except nothing ever closes. And when you live here you don't bother with the glitz and glamour of The Strip. I can't even remember the last time I was down there.
Enter: Ever go hunting for fungi in the fields? Tell us a story if you have one.
ToTheSummit: Having spent most of my life in the desert I have never had the opportunity. But I did find some beautiful A. Muscaria on the edge of a meadow once while backpacking through the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Enter: You play bass, correct? How many years have you been playing and how many songs have you written to date?
ToTheSummit: I've been on the bass for about 3 years. I was learning guitar at the time and myself and couple friends were jamming and decided to start a band. But our guitarist has 20+ years under his belt so I had nothing to contribute. Then they said,"We need a bassist" and proceeded to volunteer me. I went out and bought one and the rest is history. I write a lot lyrics but I can only lay claim to writing music on a handful of songs.
Enter: What musicians have influenced your style and taste?
ToTheSummit: I started to learn guitar because of my love for Pat Metheny's music. He probably remains my favorite artist. But I draw a lot of influence in my playing from my youth. I like hard, fast punk-rock style bass lines.
Enter: Have you ever ingested a psychedelic while at a concert? Tell us about it.
ToTheSummit: Other than the aforementioned acid at Laguna Seca Daze....the Pub will be able to appreciate that I saw a few Dead shows here in Vegas in the early 90's while trippin balls.
Enter: I understand you were raised as a missionary. I'm not even sure where to start as far as questions. Can you just sort of tell us about the whole childhood background and what it was like? Do you have a sense of fulfillment in that you served others before yourself?
ToTheSummit: OK, A quick history lesson. I was born into a very religious family. Spent my grade school years in Salt Lake City with strict Mormon doctrine dictating most aspects of my life. My family moved to Las Vegas when I was 11 but even through the remainder of my school years and into adulthood the religion that was around me all the time pretty much dominated my life.
I rebelled a bit as a teenager (as most teens do) by discovering Punk Rock and aligning myself with that scene. This was in a bout 1981 before it was fashionable to be "punk". It did 3 things for me in those impressionable years. 1- It pissed off my parents something good. 2- It got me beat up on a regular basis (I was a little guy and punkers were not socially accepted in those days). And 3- It opened my eyes to a whole side of the world that I had never known existed. My sheltered upbringing had really put a set of blinders on me! But even through those years I never tried any drugs. I still had lots of guilt and fear of being a "sinner". Hell, I even kept my virginity until I was out of High School because of these feelings!
After High School I went away to college. This was my first taste of the real world where I could explore who I really was. I tried drugs and got laid for the first time in my life that year. But the lingering fear of God that had been impressed on me since birth was very strong. I went home from that first year of school, repented for my "sins" and filled out my aplication papers to serve as a Mormon Missionary. 6 Months later I was in Australia doing the work of the Lord.
Spent the next 2 years there. Although in years that would follow I would turn my back on those beliefs I still have to admit that it was one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. And I am still proud to this day that I was not only able to do it, but do it well. It is a grueling lifestlye. I could go into details about the rules you live by, but lets just say that you truly belong to the Church for the entire 2 years! Abuse from the public was common. I got yelled at, spit on, punched, had a dog sicked on me, and more then one car try to run me off the road (with varying degrees of success on thier part  ). But you have to smile and turn the other cheek. It taught me a lot of humility and a lot of patience. And there were great times also. I made friends who I still keep in touch with to this day.
In the end, serving as a missionary had one unexpected effect on me. It forced me to question my faith. The irony of it all is that I may have still been a religious person today if it wasn't for having been as a missionary. Strange how things work out!
Enter: The thing that can cause happiness in your heart is...
ToTheSummit: Freedom. Fredom from pain, freedom from guilt, freedom from anger, freedom from worry, freedom from jealousy, freedom from poverty, freedom from loneliness, freedom to be who I am, freedom to pursue the things I enjoy, freedom to share myself openly with those I care about. The kind of freedoms that only you can deprive yourself of!
Enter: What is love?
ToTheSummit: The ability to fart under the covers and then pull them up over her head...and then she is still there the next morning!
Enter: Good poetry is inspired thru...
ToTheSummit: Life. All my inspiration comes from my experiences. And nothing inspires me like everday life. Sometimes an event will happen at work (or the store, or hiking, it doesn't matter where) and an idea will pop into my head. By the time I can get home to start writing almost the entire structure of the poem will have worked itself out in my head.
Thank you!
Oh no! Thank You! It was an honor to be in the presence of such greatness....oh, BTW....where's this plane headed?
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You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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