From Dave White,
Your Guide to Classic Rock.
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In the first part of our recent interview, Donovan talked about the influence of Transcendental Meditation on his music.

As he prepares for a series of US appearances on behalf of the David Lynch Foundation (filmmaker Lynch's effort to raise money to research the health benefits of TM) Donovan told us how meditation was a big part of the bond between him and The Beatles.

Donovan:
As a young man, I was very prepared by my father because he read me poetry ... and I had felt a sort of search awaken in me. I come from a Celtic background who believes in reincarnation, the bards and the troubadours of ancient Ireland that I was well aware of from a very early age, and when I read [about] Zen Buddhism it turned me on to the word meditation. I know that John Lennon and George Harrison also were fascinated when they were growing up in their Bohemian Liverpool by this word meditation, as many young people were across the world.

I saw The Beatles meet the Maharishi [Mahesh Yogi] in Wales that fateful weekend when Brian Epstein, the Beatles manager, committed suicide. Something had changed in the world. And it was extraordinary how The Beatles reacted to the loss of Brian, and Maharishi … explaining to them the Vedic science of reincarnation. I made a note to meet Maharishi if I could. His aides came to me in California during a tour, and so I was initiated and the four Beatles and I went to India.

About Classic Rock:
When you mentioned George Harrison, it shocked me into the realization that it's been already five years since he died, and it still seems like it just happened. Wasn't he a pretty strong spiritual influence on you?

Donovan:
Oh, yeah, and I on him. The generation that made the music of the 60s, we came out of very common backgrounds. Martin Lewis, the great Beatles historian, said that I had more social, musical, and spiritual contact with those four guys than any of my generation.

It's curious, you know, George would be the first to say, "I've only dropped my body. What we return to when we drop the body is what we always were." He and I had an equal passion for reading, discussing and discovering truths in Vedic science and also looking to place those truths as awakening and wakening sounds in our music, [so] that our generation could be encouraged to find the door within.

George influenced me tremendously in many social ways, in fact, because he was very serious about study and meditation and I was a little frivolous when I was younger, treating it in a gypsy fashion, and he influenced me there. His own love of sitar and my love of sitar, we were very close in introducing Indian instruments to our music, too.

About Classic Rock:
Do you still maintain contact with Paul and Ringo?

Donovan:
Paul and I are in touch sporadically over the years but we don't physically come together. Richard (Ringo) and I have seen each other more physically over the years in the work that we do sometimes with charitable events. Richard I saw last year. He was all over the place promoting his new record and I was all over the place promoting my book and we bumped into each other in a radio station in London.

I hope to be running into Paul as soon as he's gotten through this extraordinary experience he's going through right now in the press. I hope to see those two guys because we've lost John and we've lost George, but you know what? John and George would be the first to say, "Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream."
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Donovan's January 2007 US appearances with David Lynch:

• 1/12: Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City
• 1/14: Kennedy Center, Washington D.C.
• 1/21: Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles

On April 16, 2007 Donovan will stage what he calls his "grand return" to London's Royal Albert Hall, where he first performed in 1965. The concert, which is a benefit for a school in northern India, is also where he plans to announce the release of a double album of new songs.