John Cassady

TALES FROM JOHN

"There was this GoodYear tire place. Los Gatos tires. I went there with a flat once, this guy workin' there looked at me and said “Hey youre Neal’s kid! “ So I said “Yeah, guilty as charged!”. Then he called all the other guys, you know, "Hey Joe, Louie, c’mere, this is Neal's kid". They all got their stories from Roy, that guy passed on stories from roy.

This guy had great stories of Neal at the tire shop. I’m goin “Come on pal, I’m here!”. My favorite one was about how Neal’d drive without brakes. Brakes were totally superfluous to him. I guess it started when he was a kid, he had no brakes on his bike, when he wanted to stop he'd just drag his feet along the ground, you know? I guess it was the same deal with these cars. He had a Pontiac Chieftain, bronze, with the hood ornament. Cool car. I couldn't see anything, they were high cars in those days, with windows way up there. I was just a kid. 8 or so, so I couldn't see out at anything.

I didnt know the car had no brakes. I mean, who would? It always seemed to stop when he wanted it to. He used gears a lot, you know, to slow down.

Roy told a story, how Neal’d come down this hill, go through the traffic lights at the bottom, it was about a half mile ride, and Neal could gauge it perfectly, he's coast down the hill and time it just right so that he'd come in the driveway, then out the long drive to the dirt yard in back. And he'd time it so that as he was going by the garage doors he'd step out of car, walk to end of garage and the car would just keep goin, the door would slam and the car would continue right up to this dirt burn, you know? And the front wheels would just clear the burn and settle into the curb. They couldnt understand how he did it. and so they placed bets that he'd mess it up one day but he never failed. How he got through the stoplight Idont wanta know. The car would park itself, you know? Like hiyo silver. "

John Cassady's stories were fantastic! With Neal Cassady for a father what would you expect? John grew up with Jack Kerouac in the house, he hung out with the Grateful Dead, the Merry Pranksters, and got his first reefer from Allen Ginsberg. Totally cool.

Carolyn, John, Neal Casssady

"Neal drove without brakes and if there was a hill he'd just turn off the engine and let it roll..."

John met Jan Kerouac in the 1970s and surprised her with a marriage proposal. "Think about it, Jack's daughter and Neal's son. We were on a mission from God here" he says.

Carolyn, John, Jack Kerouac

Great interview with John by Levi Asher:http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/JCI/JCI-Two.html

More on Neal: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1010/

John is a native Californian musician and plays with his band The Wino Albinos. He has never met Wet Willy, the great itinerant harmonica player though their paths have crossed many times in San Francisco. John, master poet and Beat scholar James Stauffer and Jack Shea staged two performances of Who Owns Jack Kerouac? in San Francisco in April 2003 despite an attempt by Gerald Nicosia to stop the screening. John and Jack jammed to some of Jack's songs.

John was filmed in his home town with the help of filmmaker Mark Bender, best known for his cult classic "The Limits of Thermal Travelling".