Terry Erickson knew Neil from Fort William, Ontario when Neil played there briefly with the Squires in the early 1960s. Terry was also with Neil on that famous last run down the long decline near Blind River, in Neil’s hearse Mort in June 1965. And Terry was the man who took Neil to Toronto on the back of his Honda 90 for the next chapter of both their musical careers.
In the first part of this interview, already published here in the Members Column, Terry talked about his time with Neil in Fort William, his famous ride in Neil’s hearse, and playing with the Squires for a few short months in Toronto in 1965. Part Two here is about Terry’s life in between and the time his and Neil’s paths crossed again briefly in Hawaii in 1983.
How did you come to be in Fort William in the first place back then?
I was born in Port Arthur, twin city with Fort William. 29th of October, 1943. They were my hometowns, later merged into Thunder Bay. So that was always home base for me.
You’re a couple of years older than Neil then, and a Scorpio as well.
Yeah right. Maybe that’s why we got on well.
When did you start playing guitar and in a band?
When I was around seven or eight. My dad was a police officer and the family got moved around quite a bit. We first moved to Kenora, Ontario, and then my dad got transferred to North Bay. When I was around 16, I was already playing in a seven-piece dance band. One night, there was a band playing out at the Red Line Inn in Callandar, just outside of North Bay. And there were two guys playing, two brothers from Nova Scotia. So I went and listened to them and I said, you guys need a bass player. So I went and got my bass and I sat in with them the next night and then ended up joining the band. We were called The Gents. We went to Toronto around 1961 and played there for a couple of years. I was 18. I had false ID so I could play in the bars with them. After that I went back to Fort William. I had my own band called Doc Tibbles’ Medicine Show and I also played with artists like Josh White Jr. when they came to Fort William.
What sort of music were you playing?
Whatever was playing back in those days. Most of the bands were playing whatever was on the radio. Just like The Squires did. It was like all cover songs. That’s what the people wanted to hear. Very few groups were writing their own stuff. That’s what made Neil different. He always had a pen and a notebook and he was always writing stuff down.
Who influenced you as a guitar player? You mentioned someone in Fort William who was important to you.
That was Ronnie Roy. He was the kind of guitar player that… he’d be on stage and there’d be a little kid standing in front of the stage watching him. That little kid was me. Big influence.
There was another guitar player that I met later when I was in the army. Chuck Tracy was his name. One of the best players I’ve ever heard. What he could do with his fingers was amazing. A lot of ragtime stuff. He taught me how to fingerpick and play in open tunings, which is what I still do today. If there is such a thing as another life, he’s one of the guys I want to meet up with again.
We covered the story of your time with Neil and The Squires in the first part of the interview. What happened after you left the Squires and came back from your solo trip to England?
I was in the army for a couple of years but I started doing too many drugs. I got out of the army and off the drugs by becoming a Buddhist monk! That probably saved my life. I spent three years as a monk, first in a monastery in Toronto and then in India where I was ordained. After that I went to Mexico to a monastery in Mexico City. That was all in the early 70s. It wasn’t really anything to do with organised religion. It was all about the meditation, what’s called insight meditation. That’s intense meditation for three months at a time. It was like a trip I went through. Even today, my mind still works in the Buddhist way.
After that I went back to what had become Thunder Bay, incorporating Port Arthur and Fort William. I was back with Doc Tibbles’ Medicine Show and we even opened for the big Canadian band Lighthouse. After that I did the festival runs for many years all over Canada as a solo performer under the stage name Doc Tibbles. After one festival in 1983 in Vancouver, I called up some friends of mine in Hawaii and went out to visit them. They lived up on the North Shore on Oahu. But I wanted to get some work, do some gigs. So the next day, I phoned information and they put me in touch with a music agent. I don’t remember his name. So I auditioned for him, and I was working the next night for the rest of the winter.
You finally met up with Neil again in Hawaii around that time.
Yes, I had heard on the radio, I think, that Neil was coming to Hawaii. He didn’t have a house there in those days, so I phoned up my agent and asked him where Neil would stay if he came to Hawaii. And he said the Hilton. So I just picked up the phone and I called the Hilton and they put me right through to Neil! I told him who I was and asked if he remembered me. And he said, yes of course. And I said, how about getting together for a chat, and Neil said okay. He had a nice suite in the Hilton and we talked for a while and I played him a few of my songs. But he is a very busy man so I didn’t want to take up too much of his time. It was great meeting him again after all those years. Still the same funny, nice guy. There’s a picture of us together.
And then?
After I came back from Hawaii I got together with another friend of mine and we went to Jamaica. Spent three months there in Negril on the west coast of the island. I always seemed to have enough money to keep me going. After Jamaica, I went to Texas briefly and then back to Thunder Bay. But I soon split for Mexico and ended up staying there for six years. Just dropping out, fishing to earn some money, and playing music. I was living in a village 10 km north of Acapulco, a place called Pie De La Cuesta. I just fished for a living and played music. That’s where I got to know Tarzan, Johnny Weissmuller and his family really well. They had a house there. But Mexico was a hard time for me. I was doing a lot of drugs and alcohol. And in the 90s I was back in Thunder Bay doing the folk festival circuit again. I played with Bill Houston, the Canadian singer-songwriter, and with Cathy Fink and Duck Donald among others. People always seemed to know about my connection to Neil. You just can’t pay for that kind of publicity! I am very grateful to him for that connection. He will always be one of the biggest parts of my life.
Did you get to hear about the Squires reunion around the time of the Winnipeg Bands Reunion in June 1987?
No, that’s sad. No one knew how to get in touch with me at the time. I was in Mexico and it was only when I came back to Canada that I found out there had been advertisements in the newspaper to see if anyone knew where I was.
What took you out west to Alberta where you live today?
There was a friend, the one I joined the army with back in 1966. We’ve been friends for over 60 years, and he suggested I move out west here to Medicine Hat, Alberta. That was in 2002. I got a job working at a military base as a security guard. Then I had a job looking after a hundred or so vending machines. I did that till I retired and I just stayed put here. But all the time I’d keep playing guitar. Still do today, almost every day. And I can’t stop collecting guitars! If you are in contact with Neil, tell him I have a nice guitar I’d like to give to him for old time’s sake. It’s a D’Angelico reissue of the 1947 EXL1. It’s beautiful but I never play it. I know he had one for his rockabilly phase. I’d like him to have it.
Now I’ve been living in this senior residence for the last 15 years, since I retired. I felt more comfortable getting my life sorted out early like that after all the changes I’ve been through!
You seem to be happy enough – friends down at the pool hall you see a lot, and still collecting guitars and playing them too…
Yes, I guess things are OK. But there’s times I get a little down. These days I get angry every time I watch the news! Life is a bit of a struggle because I’m suffering from pretty severe COPD. But now I’m on this new medicine and it’s helping a lot… I think I’m going to start doing my Tai Chi exercises again. But you know what? It’s like… it’s like I’m still moving forward in life. There’s all this stuff on the… on the ‘right’ side. But then there’s all this stuff on the ‘left’ side of the road too. I always wanted to know about the left side as well.
Thanks Terry. I really enjoyed our talks. Take care of yourself. And I’ll try to get a message to Neil about the guitar!
If you are interested in listening to some of Terry’s music recorded as Doc Tibbles, just go to
https://www.citizenfreak.com/artists/108648-doc-tibbles