Photo by Bev Sykes
Michelle Phillips is still smokin’
By Tara Murtha
Published: June 6th, 2008 | 3:15pm
Perhaps it’s because she was the gorgeous waif who shimmered into stardom on ethereal ribbons of the Mamas & the Papas’ four-part harmonies in “California Dreamin'.” Or perhaps it’s because she was vocalist John Phillips’ bratty teenage muse, who some say sank the band. Besides helping soundtrack the most brightly gilded era in American music history with the Mamas & the Papas, Phillips is also legendary for her romantic conquests — Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and Dennis Hopper, whom she married for eight mysterious days in 1970. Whatever the reason, it seems most people don’t realize that Michelle Phillips — one of the most beautiful women to grace a record cover — is an outspoken activist.
On a recent spring afternoon, Phillips is chatting on the telephone from her home in California about the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), an organization she’s worked with for the past seven years. It’s a fun time of year to be an advocate of marijuana policy reform. The MPP, the largest cannabis reform organization in the United States, is gearing up for the third annual fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion on June 12. Phillips will clink flutes with the likes of musical featured guest Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction and cult hero Margaret Cho.
But the issue isn’t all fun and games. Marijuana policy reform is about aiding the sick and jailing less Americans for the arbitrary criminalization of a natural substance. “People will argue that (marijuana) is a gateway drug to heroin, but I argue that cigarettes and alcohol are more gateway drugs than anything. It doesn’t take me to prove that,” she says, poking fun at her party-girl rep. This is, after all, a woman who in her autobiography described meeting Mama Cass for the first time while on LSD. As the last living member of the Mamas & the Papas, and ex-stepmother of actress Mackenzie Phillips, Phillips knows what she’s talking about. “I’ve never ever heard of anyone dying from a marijuana overdose,” she says.
Other than your work with the MPP, are you particularly politically active?
I am politically active, yes. I’m an anti-war activist, and I go to anti-war rallies. I’m sure that I’m on the (FBI’s) list (of troublemakers). If I’m not, I should be. (laughs) I try to do my part.
Are you an activist because you’re a musician or just because you’re you?
Music in general has always played a part in activism. Not the labels though, not the business side of it. But certainly musicians throughout the 20th century have always been active in the political scene; they were very active in the Civil Rights Movement and in opposing the Vietnam War.
But don’t try to pin me down to a Mama and Papas anti-war song! (Laughs)
Not at all! You mention labels and the business side, which reminds me of the article in Vanity Fair about you last year. The writer said the Mamas & the Papas were the first rich hippies, stripping folk rock of the last vestiges of “Pete Seeger earnestness.”
Yeah! It’s much more fun being a rich hippie than a poor hippie. (laughs)
I imagine so. But on the other hand, it seems like the commercial music industry interferes and changes the relationship between politics and music.
The record industry is notoriously one of the most corrupt industries in the world, I would say. Next to the arms bazaar, I think the music industry is the most corrupt and not particularly interested in politics or in social issues at all.
In the same article, your old collaborator Marshall Brickman said this about you: “There’s steel under that angelic smile.”
Oh, I love these guys! (laughs hysterically)
What’s so steely? What drives you?
I really just believe that we should have a compassionate government, which we don’t. I do believe in government, but I always believed in helping the poor, which we don’t very much. I believe in education, which we used to have. We used to have a wonderful educational system. I believe in a government that does not invade other countries. I guess I have a very much live-and-let-live philosophy. I believe in the right of a woman to choose. I believe in equal pay and the equal treatment of people of all races.
There’s been talk of a Mamas & the Papas biographical movie for a long time. Is there still a movie in the works?
Oh there’s still a movie in the works. It’s in that forever place, that forever legal-wrangling place.
Is there talk of who would play you? Who would you want?
By the time I came to a conclusion like that, that person would be so old they wouldn’t even considered for the part!
Tell me about your work with the MPP.
I really believe, and I have for years, that medical marijuana is a great natural source of healing.
Of course, major drug companies don’t want to hear this because unless they’ve already trademarked the names “Maui-wowi aspirin” or “Acapulco gold,” then they don’t ever want to see it be a legal form of pain relief.
I’m afraid that Phillip Morris has already trademarked those names anyway. And they have, by the way.
So what’s your secret to staying beautiful? Staying relaxed, huh?
Yes, and staying out of the sun. I’m a big sunblock person, and I don’t go to the beach. Well, mainly because they’re so contaminated; you wouldn’t catch me dead floating in the Santa Monica bay. (laughs)
What’s happening at the MPP party, do you know?
I’m going to have a cocktail, or five. There are a few good parties to start with, but this one I always know is a good one. So I’ll be there with bells on my toes.
Oh, I wanted to tell you about an important study that just came out in the L.A. Times. Researchers concluded that medical marijuana can help blunt nerve pain…. Patients experiencing neuropathic pain from diabetes, spinal injury, multiple sclerosis, and other conditions found they reduce pain for up to five hours by smoking marijuana. OK, I just wanted to get that out there.
Michelle Phillips MySpace
Issue #26
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