Business
Chief Greenbud
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap radius”]I[/dropcap]n 2005, an unassuming small business owner was arrested in Tennessee for cannabis possession. The prosecution and ordeal that followed would become a catalyst, and super hero origin story of sorts, for one of the cannabis legalization community’s most beloved and popular members of late, Chief Greenbud. Though the Chief’s music is thoroughly rooted in his Southern home’s country, roots and Americana traditions, he brings into it a wit and comedic sense which often finds him drawing more comparisons to Cheech and Chong than Willie Nelson. It is with that humor that allows Chief Greenbud to loosen up his audiences, just like good cannabis music should, but also allows his message of legalization and tolerance to become extremely accessible and travel far and wide. Recently, Chief Greenbud released his fourth album of cannabis themed music, appropriately titled, Volume 4, which is already drawing rave reviews from both within the legalization community and outside it.
CULTURE was able to catch up with the Chief to hear all about the new record, what inspires him (Hint: It’s natural, green and smells like skunk), and his passion for activism.
You just released your new album, Volume 4. Can you describe it to us?
It’s a CD! And it’s got music! It’s round and shiny! Sorry, I joke around entirely too much. Basically, I’ve done some parody songs in the past, but this CD, much like the first CD, is 100 percent original songs. The songs on this one are really good, and, actually, I like more songs on here than any others I’ve put out so far. However, like the other CDs, this one has kind of a mix of styles. I live in Tennessee and I have a country voice, so there’s no changing that. But, we have one song that’s a bit on the reggae side, one song that kind of sounds bluegrass-y, there’s one tune that’s a rock song with a little ska, so there’s a nice variety.
Was it your intention to be a bit more stylistically diverse on this record?
No, not really. I write about what I feel, things that I’ve heard, things that have happened to me or about things that have happened to other people whose stories have been related to me. When I write, I never know what I’m gonna write, and I generally start with a chorus and then fool around with chords, progressions and feels. So, I never try and write a country or a bluegrass album, I just write what I write. It just ends up being a nice blend, a little something for everyone.
We’ve read that it was a cannabis-related arrest that inspired you to begin writing some of these songs. But, was cannabis always something that inspired you musically?
Well, I’ve smoked for a lot of years, and it’s not necessarily that I smoke 100 joints a day or that I’m stoned from the time I get up to the time I go to bed, but it’s always been around. When I was young, my parents used to go to these music parties out in the hills of West Virginia, and everybody would be playing music and cannabis was part of that culture. So I was always around it, and I never heard any of the negative things about it, except when I was in school from the D.A.R.E. program and things of that nature. So, it’s always been around me and, actually, two songs on the first CD I wrote years before I ever thought about doing the Chief Greenbud project. I mean, “Grandma’s Getting Into Grandpa’s Ganja,” came from a guy I knew coming up with that song title and him saying to me, “Hey, if you can write that song, I’ll give you an ounce of weed!” and I was like, “Done!”
Is cannabis something that helps you with your creativity in writing these kinds of songs, and tunes of other topics?
I do write a lot of other types of songs as well, and, yeah, I really think it does. I think a lot of people trying to be creative will tell you that. It does alter things so that you can get a different perspective. And I’m not saying that people who don’t smoke and create art are any less creative. But, hell yeah, let’s fire one up and write a tune!
You’re also involved in a large amount of cannabis activism, what are the things in the activism world that have you the most excited at the moment?
Seeing initiatives placed on the ballot for recreational marijuana in all of these different states. I think there are something like 16 states this year, that have legislation coming up to change real laws. That is in direct relation to everybody’s hard work going out there and collecting the signatures required to change laws, or at least get it to where the voting public has the right to make those decisions.
There has obviously been a great deal of progress made on the legalization front over the last few years. Is it a bit surreal to you to think that someday soon there may never be another cannabis arrest in the United States, and that what happened to you won’t happen to anyone ever again?
Well, that is the goal. When I was growing up trying to find pot here and there, before anything was legalized, I thought you’d have to go to Amsterdam to smoke weed legally without fear of arrest or prosecution. I’m 46 years old now, and to see this happen in my life time is incredible. And I can’t say that I haven’t thought about moving to a recreational state, but I just keep hoping that my state is going to say “OK!” And that’s actually a lyric from a song called “iBake” which is a tune on the new album.
