Prince Stash Pt.1: Beatles, Bowie & a 1300-Year-Old Castle

Lee : So, Prince Stash, welcome to Mindcake.

Prince Stash: Well, thank you for having me.

Lee : Well, I'm very excited about this. the only problem I have got is that I'm not sure where to begin. You were a friend of the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, a flatmate of Paul McCartney. Am I right in saying you modelled for a Playboy magazine?

Prince Stash: No, it was a spoof on Playboy. I see a spoof on Playboy, photographed by a famous photographer, James Bias, and with the help of some luscious creatures. And we did, we wanted to, to just make fun of the American would be Playboys of the Hefner ilk. Because we found it so, you know, amateurish, let's put it this urban stance and the whole, the whole thing, you know.

Lee : Am I right in saying that you, you were featured as Harry Styles dad in a Gucci campaign?

Prince Stash: Yes, well, the, the. There was a very elaborate sort of concept to the whole thing and they spent a great deal of money on doing this thing. And so I expected, you know, there was a storyboard and there was a, a whole storyline and I was, we were the. Harry Styles was my, you know, was my son as it were in. I was the patriarch of this sort of glorified hippie commune type of thing. And that's within the context of of a campaign called Memoir du Nordur. That Gucci did very lavish. They only. They did use some splendid shots that appeared on buildings all over the world. I mean massive, massive, 20, 30 storeys high of this one image. And then there was I think I was for maybe two or three seconds in this thing that took a week to shoot.

Lee : Oh really?

Prince Stash: It's Dance in the Castle, upper courtyard of my castle.

Lee : I was coming on to that. So we haven't even done the intros yet. You turned down a lead role in the TV series the Monkeys and now live in a 1300 year old castle

Prince Stash: in Italy and in a beach house in.

Lee : And in a beach house in California. Yeah, so that's just the intro and I, I feel having read quite a lot on you, that that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Prince Stash: Yes, yes, very much. The outer outer layer.

You played in a band with legendary rock star Vince Taylor

Lee : Okay, well let's, let's get into it before, before we get into you meeting the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. You played in a band with a close friend, Vince Taylor, who I believe was wildly charismatic leather clad icon, the inspiration for David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. But obviously he, he had a very public psychological breakdown. And looking back at that now I wonder how witnessing Vince's trajectory changed your views on the potential dangers of sort of rock stardom.

Prince Stash: Vince Taylor was. Was a great artist and a great performer and a very imaginative guy. But like all artists there is a fracture in. In the psyche that there could be a possibility that it you know some one would lose balance. And it's a razor's edge between madness on one side and Satori on the other. Let's put it this way. Vince Taylor went into a kind of religious madness, you know where he. He no longer But. But he was still extremely charismatic and he did You know people expected him to be this rock star and to perform and indeed it was at It was very unfortunate when it happened because we were. We were performing for his brother in law, a big time tycoon in the entertainment world. wanted to invest heavily into the band to go you know, during the. The British invasion of America. We would in the next big thing as well. And we were a great stage band, really extraordinary and very visual and so on. And he had Left behind The kind of black leather rocker type. He had His initial image That made him a star was that he was a sort of Elvis, Slash Jean Vincent. A very good looking Brit who was Raised in America from childhood and you know had gone. Had been in California. So he was He was an. He had all the best of the American and the English combined. And at the time There was P.J. proby. I don't know if that name rings a bell. He was a marvellous singer and a great star in the. In In the 60s in. In England and he. He had influence. He had a ponytail and so on. And so Vince was very influenced by the. The whole new scene in London, The. The sort of mid-60s Pop scene. And had into his Persona injected that with my influence because I, I had this kind of extra extravagant mod neo romantic Persona with A dash of utter extravagance, with wearing A stripper in Paris and had given me some glitter. And so I was perhaps I can claim to be the first person to have ever used glitter on my face

Lee : and well they would you not. Were you not known as the Peacock?

Prince Stash: No, that's, that's an appellation that the press bestowed.

Lee : Oh is it right? Okay.

Prince Stash: Not at all. Nobody ever thought of m such a name but you know it was that kind of thing. Yes. later on Brian Jones and I were often described as dandies. Whereas I always reprove people saying no, no. Dandy's was The beau brumel type of thing being so fastidiously elegant. But as to be practically invisible. so elegant that there's nothing that you can. Whereas That you can actually identify. Whereas we were more like. You know. Those were people in the late directory before. Before Bonaparte takes over and. And son and becomes the poet Napoleon there. The empire and so on. But that late period in reaction to the French Revolution, to the Terror and everything in the aristocracy led people to To great sartorial extravagance. And that's in a way What. Without wanting to do it. What. What. The closest movement in fashion that you could relate it to.

Prince Stash: Much more than to the dandies.

Lee : Yeah.

Prince Stash: Because we would go Deliberately looking for transgender clothes. Not to make a statement about transgenderism as it would be today, but to look for ways to Diversify the And make mediaeval tunics and things like that out of girls dresses and things. You know.

The Brian Jones drug bust was a farcical,

And this. You. You get that in Brian and wearing those type of. Those types of clothes and Monterey, Myself, In. In our second court appearance wearing extravagant, totally extravagant gear.

Lee : When you'd say your second court appearance.

Prince Stash: Because we.

Lee : Is it. Was that to do with the drug. The Brian Jones drug bust?

Prince Stash: Yes, it was. That was a farcical, Completely trumped up charges that were brought about because the establishment. It was a deliberate campaign in England by the establishment to Eliminate the Rolling Stones who were perceived to be a danger to society. So they thought if they got. They. They had Mick. Mick and Keith had been busted at Redlands and Keith's house in Sussex in farcical circumstances. And They were up on trial the day that against all reasonable odds they came to arrest us thinking that well, if they got Brian Jones, who was arguably one of the most popular figure and the founder of the Rolling Stones, they would decapitate the band which left with. With just The rhythm section would dissolve and if everybody went to jail that would have been the end of it. Instead it backfired. Except in the case of Brian Jones where we went three times to court. The first one was a completely farcical type of thing. Especially the arrest of The day. The whole thing was completely surrealist. Surrealistic. But the second court appearance was a little more chilling because we witnessed These corrupt drug squad people. And we were so naive and they under oath gave a totally Erroneous and false account of what had taken place during the bust. So we were so appalled, that in the end it. It really got. Pushed Brian into a paranoid sphere. it. He got very alienated. He started to take refuge in. In the wrong, the wrong sort of things. He was told by his legal team not to frequent the other stones because there was, There was an attempt. Be careful basically was the attempt idea not to get. They, they. They had a very tenuous case so nobody wanted to be, That they could consolidate it as it were. But we ignored all those type of things make Keith, myself, Robert Fraser, all these. Everybody was mutual support society. And Brian, slightly, you know, he came to see me but he didn't see the other people. And he was very. He got And then he was persuaded in October of that same 1967 year to plead guilty to charges he was absolutely not guilty of. Worst thing was that they dropped the charges against me, which meant that in actual fact the case was falling down. Some misplaced sense, of God knows what he wanted to atone for vis a vis his, his parents or something. He then decided to plead guilty which was really the first couple of nails into his coffin because he would not live two years after that. He would die, you know, in 1969, less than two years later.

Lee : Well, that was going to be one of my questions.

Jim Hendrix went to stay with Paul McCartney after being arrested

It must be very difficult when, when something like that's going on to mentally compartmentalise I guess who you are from who the media and who the external. You know, how did you separate the two? I mean, I know. Am I right in thinking that you went to stay with Paul McCartney after that?

Prince Stash: Well, while it was, While this happened the first, the day we were arrested, which I said is just one of the most bizarre days that ever occurred. You know, with the press being told, with a TV camera crew, having been told to set up at the right angle to see us coming out of the building eventually under arrest. all that had been coordinated by the police having announced what they were going to do. And so the press kept calling and we couldn't believe that such a thing was even in the offing. And that in a sense was Was made the whole thing ridiculous anyway to make a very long storey short. when after you know, this media circus that occurred at Chelsea Police Station, we had the Brian's Rawls brought to the front, all the report on, at least, who knows, tens of reporters and photographers were around it and the cops Sort of called a black cab and put us in the black cab in the back of the station and we rode to the Hilton Hotel, rode the elevator right up to the penthouse apartment where Alan Klein was staying and in the presidential suite. And there we saw ourselves on TV as we stepped out of the elevator, right you know, on the six o' clock news or whatever it was, you know, was absurd. And so Alan Klein pulled big time rank on the Hilton management to force them to give us rooms. They wanted to throw us out as soon as they heard we were in the building. And Alan Klein, much to his eternal credit was threatened all kinds of sanctions against Hilton. And so they relented, gave us rooms there. And the next day Paul McCartney rang up and also that same evening they tried to rearrest us going to the West End to something in Brian's calm. And then Paul McCartney rang and I, I thought that he was ringing Brian. And he said no, no, I'm calling you. I'm worried about you and I want you to, I'm sending a car and a driver to pick you up. You're coming to my house because you know what, they're going to try and rearrest you and if they want to arrest you, they'll have to take me as well. And we are going to And so the Beatles formed a real alliance. I, I was suddenly in an incredibly privileged situation of being a protege of the band and being able to record with them and all that because they wanted to do things for me. And Paul McCartney was extremely generous, you know, having me there for, for quite a while. And so we had amazing adventures and, and it was, it was extraordinary. And it wasn't a flat, it was his Cavendish avenue house in St. John's Wood.

Lee : I just wonder what that safety and friendship looked like behind closed doors when, when, when the world outside is chaos. That must have been.

Prince Stash: Well, it was wonderful, you know, because the, the Beatles were such zany and wonderful and greatly creative people and we had a fabulous time. We're just riding around in John Lennon's psychedelic rolls Royce's Phantom 5, you know, was just amazing and we had many, many extraordinary expeditions and adventures and so on that were in fact the inspiration to Magical Mystery Tour to a lot of things that, yeah, much watered down versions of what, what actually took on. m. What, what I mean to say is that whilst you know, there was the situation was very bleak in that I was suddenly cut off from my own family, from. Fired from. I mean, unable to report for very important film assignment in Hollywood. left, without means of, You know, so everybody took care of me and I'm most grateful to this day to how I was treated, you know, by Jimi Hendrix, by everybody. It was amazing. You know, I was everywhere received as an honoured guest and, and everybody rallied around me and it was very hot. So yes, there I was, you know, without the passport, without the possibility of leaving the country. But yet in this highly privileged situation.

Do you mind if we talk alchemy? It's always difficult without platitudes

Lee : Do you mind if we talk alchemy?

Prince Stash: It's always. We can, but it's always difficult to talk alchemy without going into platitudes about, About a very profound subject which in fact the rooms that I'm in in this right now are full of mytho, hermetic iconography in the frescoes. And so very fascinating because it's early, 15th century, early 1400s.

Lee : Uh-huh.

Prince Stash: So 600 year old, you know. And so what fascinated me at all times was the expression of those ideas into pictures and how a pictorial language inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphics with a very, romantic notion brought about by the discovery of the Oropolo hieroglyphica, on the island of Andros in the early part of the 15th century. In 1422. Yeah. It was brought. 1419. It was brought to Florence in 1422. So that brought about a real extraordinary renaissance of. And gave birth to the emblem. eventually into the following century it became the whole emblem and tradition and so on.

Lee : You studied Eastern wisdom traditions, I believe, and underwent tantric initiations in the Kathmandu Valley.

Prince Stash: I did, but before that I was Lama Govinda's, I studied Tibetology with lamagovindam, in, at the Casa Devi Ashram in the Kumon Himalayas. And how I got there in the most extraordinary way. And Lana Govinda, he had written some very important books, Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism. And But the book that really inspired me to leave the rock and roll life behind and to go on a journey to the east was a book called the Way of the White Clouds. And And so it was amazing how that was meant to be, how I wanted to be like Sir Richard Burton, you know, who went to, who went to Mecca in mufti. I wanted to do the same thing, going to Tibet as a deaf mute sadhu, with, with a caravan of, of sadhus. And when I got to the, to the rendezvous point, the man who was organising the whole thing Had. So it, it happened that I was in a Himalayan resort. Lama Govinda lived on a ridge not accessible to vehicles in a in a house given to him by Wy Evans Wentz who wrote all those books about and had translated all the fundamental Tibetan texts. So I ended up there and then I went to, I went on to Nepal and to, to various places. yes, and I had, I was the acolyte of the Trini Lama and lots of adventures there too I can imagine.

What do you think Westerners miss when it comes to meditation

Lee : And what, what do you think is the biggest lesson that Westerners miss? It's probably another complete podcast episode on its own. But is there any sort of the biggest lessons that you think that Westerners miss when it comes to finding peace and mastering the mind? Because we get like these again, I was going back to Tick tock and, and what have you. We get these little sound bites but the reality, and like you said, what you've experienced I would imagine is very, very different from the watered down version that we get in the West.

Prince Stash: Well, Tantra for a start is there's something now which is there's a fundamental dichotomy between what it became when it was transformed into a money making yoga by somebody I knew very well popularised a form of Tantric yoga. But it had very little to do with, with the kind of with Vajrayana as it were. And Vajrayana practitioners in America face terrible troubles because tantra is not for the faint of heart nor is it for the sensitive little souls. You know, it's, it's a very on the face of Western relationships that are based on, you know, people think oh it's a better way to intimacy or things like that. It's got nothing to do with any of that. if it uses sex, it, sex as a purely almost you could call it an abstract device to achieve certain things. Nothing to do with strictly speaking pleasure or intimacy. So the partners that are used ah, are literally you. It's, it's usage for a specific purpose. And Western devotees, especially female ones were extremely put off if chosen by a Tibetan master to be their consort. But they, what they didn't realise that it wouldn't give them a special relationship into that master's eyes. He, it was just a convenience and they would switch to somebody else as you would at a party, speak to one person and then speak to the next person. And if the person that you'd been speaking to originally took offence that you no longer paid attention to them because you were withdrawing your attention. This is just the kind of misunderstanding that occurred and the entire Tibetan, circumstance of life. What this thing came from is also came from polyandry. You know about polyandry? When a woman has many husbands.

Lee : Yeah.

Prince Stash: For reasons, not dividing the land and so on. So you can imagine that only very young people are employed. So all this now in this 21st century with all its pressy neo puritanical way, is an absolute, No, no, to, to most people, they can't, they, they, they, they see it as. It's some sort of demonic, predatory, practise. And you can't speak about these matters very well to people because there's a complete confusion in levels.

Lee : I feel that we're scratching the surface here, but I know that we're going to get cut off in about four minutes.