New Orleans’ Kermit Ruffins talks cannabis and reefer songs | Music | Gambit Weekly

New Orleans trumpeter and vocalist Kermit Ruffins put it succinctly during a 2011 interview with cannabis magazine High Times: “I need two things to have a perfect show: reefer and people.”

Ruffins’ affection for reefer — his preferred term for cannabis — is well known among locals who might catch sight of a stray pipe or bong hanging around the Mother-in-Law Lounge. Reefer and jazz have long gone hand-in-hand, as Ruffins puts it, and his sets often include a couple of “reefer songs,” like “If You’re a Viper,” first recorded in 1936, and his own “Hide the Reefer,” written about a neighborhood wanderer who often got too enthusiastic with Ruffins’ joints.

Ruffins grew up in the Lower 9th Ward and attended Joseph S. Clark Sr. High School in Treme, where he co-founded the Rebirth Brass Band in the early-’80s. During Ruffins’ years with Rebirth, promoter and Jazz Fest co-founder Allison Miner, who managed the band, gave the trumpeter a copy of “Reefer Songs,” a compilation of music from the ’20s to the ’40s mostly focused on cannabis — among other illicit substances. With songs like “If You’re a Viper,” “All the Jive is Gone” and “Reefer Man,” the album left a lasting impact on his music, Ruffins says.

Gambit spoke with Ruffins about reefer, writing “Hide the Reefer” and his thoughts on cannabis becoming more popular. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

Gambit: Could you tell us about “Hide the Reefer”? When did you write the song?

Kermit Ruffins: There was a guy that was in the service, he was a veteran, and he was the guy that walked through the neighborhood. I think he was homeless and was a little schizophrenic, and his name was Creeper. Everybody called him Creeper.

I’d be standing on the corner, smoking reefer in front of Joe’s Cozy Corner, and every time he passed, he’d be like, “Hey you, Kermit, let me hit the weed.” I would just give him the whole joint because we would slobber all over it. Then one day, I’m standing on the corner and thought, “Hide the reefer. Here come the Creeper.”

It was time for me to write some songs, and I normally write my songs maybe a week before the recording because I get real motivated when it’s time to go in. But I ride around with a tape recorder in my truck, and I started singing “Hide the reefer. Here come the Creeper.” That’s how it came about.

Gambit: Do you know if he ever heard the song?

Ruffins: Oh, he definitely heard it because I would pull up in my truck and all the guys would gather on the corner. This was Treme. And I would blast my CD all the time. I wanted the neighborhood to hear it. When I get the rough copy from the studio, I would go on a drive and study and listen to it, ‘cause I would go back and rethink things. So yes, he definitely heard it — and he always said, “Kermit, where’s my royalty?”

Gambit: I was reading you had a CD called “Reefer Songs” that you would listen to a lot when Rebirth was out on tour. Could you tell me about that album?

Ruffins: Oh yeah, that’s right. Thanks to Allison Miner. Allison was our manager for Rebirth, and she gave me two CDs before she passed (in 1995). She gave me the CD with nothing but reefer songs, and the other one was Eddie Jefferson. And those kind of molded me, between those two CDs and all of Louis Armstrong’s work. I think I covered a lot of them too. It was maybe 15 songs.

Gambit: When were you introduced to reefer?

Ruffins: I think I was in high school. I could remember coming from the Lower 9th Ward, and I would get on the St. Claude bus to go to (Joseph S.) Clark Sr. High School, which is in the heart of the Treme. I would get off the bus and walk down Esplanade to the high school, and I’m getting off the bus and I’m lighting up a reefer before the first class, which was algebra. I think I was maybe in 11th grade — I probably was smoking before then. I had to be right around 16.

Gambit: Was it essentially anything you could just get your hands on or did you have anybody that kind of hooked you up?

Ruffins: I’m not quite sure that I had a connection, but that stuff wasn’t nothing. Until we went to New York the first time. This was in the ’80s, when I met Dan Untermyer, Ice Cube Slim. He managed the Rebirth, and he was coming in from Santa Cruz, California, where he’s from. He took us all over the world. But as soon as we landed in New York, I can remember him reaching in the bag and putting a whole bunch of reefer on the table for the Rebirth, and we never had nothing like that. Best reefer in the world. No seeds, real sticky, beautiful, shiny. You can tell it came from Planet Earth.

We had been smoking brown stuff, but all of a sudden, we saw something real green. We couldn’t understand it for a second.

Gambit: How did you see the audiences react to your reefer songs?

Ruffins: I started playing at Vaughan’s, and before you know it, I had all the Tulane and Loyola students following me everywhere like crazy because I was singing about marijuana. They were just waiting for me to start singing, “I dreamed about a reefer five feet long” (the song “If You’re a Viper”). Before you know it, all those guys — they were probably super rich — started giving us reefer all the time. I guess the students had a damn good connection.

A lot of times, people give me reefer, and I’ll give it away. I don’t like reefer that’s already rolled. Now if they gave me a bag of reefer, that’s different. But a lot of times, they’ll come up with a bunch of pre-roll stuff that they buy from California or Colorado, and sometimes I’ll smoke it and sometimes I don’t.

I don’t smoke like I used to because it’s so good in today’s world. You don’t need a lot of it no more. Back in the days, you’d smoke all day long and nothing would happen because it wasn’t good weed.

Gambit: Out of curiosity, have you grown your own weed?

Ruffins: I have had one plant in my whole lifetime, and it came out horrible. The guy just gave it to me for my birthday, and it was a little small plant. It attracts certain bugs that if you’re not aware of — these little green bugs were all over the place, just eating it up, and I really didn’t know how to care for it. But I did smoke a little bit of it, and it was pretty good.

Gambit: These days, are you still a consistent smoker? Or have you slowed down a little bit?

Ruffins: It’s damn sure every day. It might be about 10 hits a day, because I have this little bitty pipe. I have a bunch of bongs, though, so whatever I feel like that day.

Gambit: That was my next question. What’s your preferred method? Do you like a pipe or joints, vaping or anything like that?

Ruffins: The main thing I have is a one-hitter. And I love the bong. Love them to death. I have some huge, huge bongs, and I got some pocket-sized bongs. Some regular sized glass pipes. Just scattered throughout the bar. They’re sitting on display, too.

I’ve dropped a few of them, too. I had one made like a machine gun, and it fell right off the edge of the bar.

Most people try to do [a bong] too hard. But every time I smoke anything I do it with a lot of ease. That way I’m not choking or getting too stoned. Make sure I take it real, real easy.

I used to smoke joints, too, but it was probably about four years ago since I last smoked one. I don’t like the taste of the paper. It’s too harsh. You put it in a cigar or paper, it has too much of an effect on the joint.

Gambit: How do you feel about edibles? Have you checked out these THC seltzers that have been coming out?

Ruffins: Nah, I don’t. But years ago, I used to chop reefer up real fine, cook it on the stove with butter, real, real slow and pour it into a brownie and pass them out at football games I’d host at the bar or my house. But one time I was shooting a scene on “Treme,” and I ate about two brownies not realizing what it could do. I was playing a DJ in a scene, and I couldn’t drive home. I had to call someone to come get me. So I left edibles alone. I learned my lesson the hard way. The room was spinning.

Gambit: Reefer has had a long history in the jazz community. Do you have any thoughts about why jazz and reefer have had this close relationship? Is there a particular reason for that?

Ruffins: That’s a good question. When the red light district (Storyville) was there, I’m quite sure that reefer had a lot to do with the birth of jazz. I think it goes hand-in-hand.

It changed the music. I think when all those cats started smoking — actually probably already smoking, especially up North, because Louis (Armstrong) said when he got to Chicago, and they hand him this good reefer and said “Man, put that stuff down. That’s not the good stuff at all. Here’s what you want to smoke.” We didn’t have [good stuff] down South.

Gambit: Do you think there’s some connection to helping relax and prompt creativity?

Ruffins: I’m quite sure it does. But I think it’s different strokes for different folks because some of the best trumpet players I know don’t even smoke.

Gambit: Are you a little surprised it’s easier to get reefer these days or that it’s becoming more mainstream?

Ruffins: Yeah. I’m grateful, that’s for sure. I went to jail for reefer, maybe four times. I remember one time I had to stop smoking for six months and go pee in a cup and pay a fine every Friday. The craziest part is that during that time, we had a tour in California for about a month, the Rebirth. And all the guys in the car smoking, and I’m trying to hit a little cigar, trying to feel a little something. That was the worst six months of my life.

I’m thinking about suing the city in today’s world [laughs]. I gotta figure out a way to get some compensation for what they did to me behind one joint. Now we can smoke in front of the police on Bourbon Street.

I’m always dreaming about opening up a shop and calling it Ruffin’ Puff. I better hurry up and patent it. I’ve been digging into it. The first thing I’ve got to do is find a grower, somebody I can buy from.