Slightly Stoopid

Follow the scent of sensimilia and you’ll likely find Slightly Stoopid who have been blazing all over the US this summer on the Leagalize It 2010 Tour with fellow marijuana advocates Cypress Hill, Collie Buddz, and New Kingston Band. The coast-to-coast-to-coast tour kicked off in July in California, headed to Boston, zigzagged across the country, eventually heading back to the south east, and will wrap up Wednesday August, 25 at the Anchor Inn in Omaha, NE, a show that was rescheduled from an earlier date.

Jamfests.net sat down with Miles Doughty (Guitar, Bass, Vocals) of Slightly Stoopid prior to their set on Saturday August 14, 2010 at the Mile High Music Festival and talked about the tour, hanging out with Cypress Hill, a new record in the works, and of course, marijuana.

Here’s how it went down…

JF: Thanks for your time.

Miles: “Not a problem”

JF: How did you end up hooking up with Cypress Hill for the Legalize It 2010 tour?

Miles: “We were exploring different ideas for the summer tour and being the Legalize It 2010 Tour, we thought who better to tour with than Cypress Hill, our herb advocates. The whole thing came together and our managers started talking and they were into it, and it worked out great. And Collie Buddz and New Kingston are incredible bands. “

JF: Is this the first time you guys have worked together?

Miles: “Yeah”

JF: That’s surprising given your shared affinity for marijuana and the fact that you guys were both from Cali. I assumed you guys go way back.

Miles: “Everyone’s lives are in different directions. We’ve spent our lives on a tour bus traveling around. Our paths never really crossed. We did a show with SX-10 which is Sen Dog’s side band years ago at the Graffix warehouse. He brought it up on this tour. We were high school kids and Cypress Hill was huge at that show. “Insane in the Brain” was already out of control so it was pretty rad that he remembered that.”

JF: So what its been like to be on tour with those guys?

Miles: “Every night has been a lot of fun on the tour. They’re cool cats. We hang out everyday, we bbq, we party, we blaze. It’s been one big smokestack. The shows have been great every night. It’s great for the fans”

JF: Any crazy story you can share from the tour?

Miles: “Last night in Omaha we had to cancel the show because the stage was moving. It was gnarly. My crew was setting up for the show and the whole lighting truss moved 6-8 inches. It’s supposed to be bolted to the ground, and the whole thing was moving, we’re talking about 5 tons of steel. That was a crazy thing. We had to dip out on a show because the stage was about to fall down.”

JF: Any plans for once the tour ends? You guys working on anything?

Miles: “We already started doing some pre-production stuff with G. Love and we’re going to start recording our new record in the fall after the summer tour. We’ve already been recording. We have our own studio in San Diego and we’ve been doing a lot of different jams. We’re just trying to figure out what we want to put on the record, then we’ll hit up Big Fish Studios in Rancho Sante Fe, it’s a killer spot, and start recording.”

JF: Planning on playing any new stuff tonight?

Miles: “A couple jams, but we want to save that stuff. We’ll start playing it (the new record) in the fall and winter tours. You don’t want to play too much of your new stuff before the record comes out, then everything is already spent. Obviously when you come to these kind of places (festivals) you try to play your cuts, and you have a set guideline of jams that you want to play, then you take requests from the fans and see what happens.”

JF: Proposition 19 which, if passed, would legalize the recreational use of marijuana in California for adults over 21. How significant is this and do you think it will pass?

Miles: “Obviously on November 2nd we have Proposition 19 on the ballot in California and honestly it opens up the door for everyone. If California passes it on the ballot, It’s going to be a snowball for the rest of the country. It can generate hundreds of billions of dollars. They have been closing schools and they’re trying to cut the art and music departments out of California schools. They are trying to cut out regular PE. That’s the problem with the United States. People need to exercise, people need to play music. You want to be a math guy? Cool. But the arts are so important for people in general. Arts and athletics. You need that to sustain society, in general, in my mind. Hopefully with the legalization they can start to use that money for other things – fixing the roads, hire teachers. Put a little bit of money out there so people are happy. Legalizing herb, they say, would generate $1.9 billion in California alone, per year. It’s just unfortunate that they make such a big deal about it (marijuana). You can kill someone and get out of jail in 3-5 years, you get busted for a pound of herb you are in jail for like 10 years. It’s crazy. I don’t know anyone who smoked a joint and said, “I’m gonna go kill that dude.” I just don’t understand. Obviously we did a lot of stupid stuff when we were young, but now as you get older, we don’t get high and race down the freeway. It’s crazy that you can go buy as much liquor as you want, and how many people does alcohol kill every year? Almost a half a million people die from alcohol related deaths and zero from marijuana. Do the math and look what you can collect.”

JF: What can you tell me about the Smoke Out Festival?

Miles: “The Smoke Out Fest is going to be nuts. We were going over the lineup and it’s going to be an amazing show. It’s awesome that they (Cypress Hill) put that on every year. It’s called the Smoke Out and it’s basically going to be a smoke fest. You’re just going to see giant clouds.”

JF: Thanks, Miles. I appreciate your time.

Miles: “It’s all good, brother”

After Omaha, Slightly Stoopid has one more scheduled appearance in August, on the 28th at the Blackwater Music Festival in Live Oak, FL. Then the band heads back to California for a little r&r before hitting the studio in the fall.

Slightly Stoopid plays the Austin City Limits Festival in on October 8 in Austin, TX and then heads back to Cali to take part in the Smoke Out Festival, October 16th at the NOS Events Center in San Bernandino. The Smoke Out Festival, dubbed as “The All Day Mind Opening Experience”, will also feature a medical marijuana expo with a variety of activities, lectures, merchants, and exhibitors. For more information visit www.smokeoutfestival.com.

Be sure and watch for Slightly Stoopid’s new album coming soon and make sure you check them out when they come to your town. For more information on the tour or anything else Stoopid, visit: www.slightlystoopid.com

For More Info on Proposition 19, click HERE