There was this little shaggy dog on it, and Frank Weatherwax was working the dog. One day we were all sitting around, and Frank said, listen, my brother Rudd just got the rights back from MGM for Lassie, and said have your agent check into it. I did, and I went for a screen test.

Acid wasn't getting a whole lot of bad press at the time, and as I saw the whole bad-press thing happen, I became aware that the government had done a whole lie on all the other benign drugs as well. It became clear to me that the government wanted no real drug education.

Well, I went to school with Jan and Dean, Ryan O'Neal, some of the Beach Boys we all use to party together.

I wanted to have a normal childhood. Normal relationships.

I had always turned it down-to me, smoking pot was absolutely the worst thing in the world. I thought of it as an addiction, and all my friends who smoked it, I felt they really needed help.

There's a big difference between somebody who does acid on weekends and somebody who takes downers every day.

We each had to spend a week out at Lassie's ranch, and whoever got along best with the dog got the part.