Kansas' Phil Ehart on His New Book's Doors + Jerry Garcia Stories

If anybody is going to be tasked with telling Kansas’ story, it’s Phil Ehart.

The band’s co-founder, drummer is only one of two group members, along with guitarist Richard Williams, to appear on all of the American prog rock group’s 16 studio albums.

And since 1990 he`s also been Kansas` manager. So Ehart is nothing if not one-stop-shopping for all things related to the band, and perspective on its legacy. He knows what happened and when – and where the bodies are buried, in other words.

Ehart has now turned those stories into I Am Phil (Whirlwind Publishing House), a 335-page memoir co-written with writer, educator, entrepreneur and avid Kansas fan Paul Braoudakis.

It’s the story of Ehart’s life as well as the band’s of course, and it covers all the big moments and has more than a few revelations for fans – such as the fact an early incarnation of the band opened the Doors’ final concert with Jim Morrison during December of 1970 in New Orleans, or an encounter with Janis Joplin and an adventure with Jerry Garcia that was recounted in the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin'"

Ehart also offers insight into his family life, as well as the near fatal February 2024 heart attack that’s kept him off his drum kit save for select “guest appearances” with the current incarnation of Kansas.

It’s certainly the kind of insider’s account that will be illuminating for fans, and for any wayward sons (and daughters) who have carried on with Kansas for its 50-plus years…

What led you to decide to do a book, and at this point?

Ehart: Paul Braoudakis, my co-author, had been reaching out to me for about 14 years to write a book. I never really had any plans to do a book. But after my heart attack, he reached out again. This time, Paul suggested the importance of writing about my life and documenting my stories, so my kids and family could remember them.

My daughter was very excited about that idea, and Paul was great in how he communicated to me what topics we could talk about in a book. Paul was a friend of (longtime Kansas guitarist and songwriter) Kerry Livgren’s, and Kerry was very complimentary of him. So, it finally sounded like a good idea, and at this time I’m really glad we did it.

What was the process like? How did you go about the writing, and what kind of "research" was involved?

Paul and I have some mutual interests and beliefs we would discuss. Paul’s son is a drummer, and Paul is an avid Kansas fan. That made it fun. We had a good time and laughed a lot. Paul would come to Atlanta every couple of months to meet with me.

We’d meet at my house, and we’d go out for sushi — a lot!. We would FaceTime a few times a week, and spend lots of time on the phone recounting the events of my life. I would tell Paul stories meant for the book, and he then made an outline.

My wife, Laurie, helped me go through the garage, our attic, and storage to look for old photos and memorabilia. I called my brother Steve to recount family lore and his time in the military.

As Paul and I would finish a chapter, I’d check in with Richard Williams, Dave Hope, or other band guys to verify the stories. Mostly, it felt like hanging out with a friend. Paul was very good at conveying the story of my life and my thoughts.

Was there an over-arching sense of what the story was you wanted I Am Phil to tell?

Paul had a vision about what this book could be from the perspective of the band Kansas. But once I discussed with him my background of having lived all over the world, it kind of took him aback, and we agreed that this was not a story of the band Kansas — this was uniquely MY story. That said, it’s hard to talk about my life without talking about Kansas!

And what kind of perspective did you come out of it with? Anything you feel you learned from this, or that you view/appreciate in a different way than you did before?

Being on the road, playing in the band, and managing the band, I never had the time to sit down and look back on my life. In doing this, I realized it can be difficult to reflect on one’s life, especially when you are starting from the beginning.

Finding old photos that my mom had kept and written down when and where they were taken, was helpful to spur memories to tell those stories. The same with finding old journals and USO memorabilia.

What, if anything, did you "learn" from doing the book? Were there things -- general or specific -- that you had forgotten, or forgotten that you remembered?

Not a lot that I’d forgotten, but a lot that I’d overlooked. I’d stumble back on some information and realize, “That’s right, we did it that way,” or “That’s right, we went there at that time.”

It took a while to remember and get things lined up. What band member joined at what time, what band member left or joined at another time. There was a lot of information to put together. Paul’s encyclopedic knowledge of Kansas certainly helped.

To this day, I’m very proud of what we accomplished with all the band guys – they’ve all been great. For the USO tours, I’ve got notes and journals that helped me recall where we were going, and I remembered how proud everyone involved was of what we were doing at the time.

What were the hardest things to write about?

The hardest thing to write about was my son Noah’s autism diagnosis. It was very smart of Paul, because he knew my wife, Laurie, was very involved in that, so he interviewed her to get details that I didn’t remember. If he’d have asked me, I would have had to say, “I’m not sure, ask Laurie.”

His doing that made the story come to life accurately. For Laurie, the hardest part was talking about my heart attack; I almost died right in front of her. It wasn’t anything we expected. It wasn’t like I was showing any symptoms. I’d always been in such good shape, I’d played my drums earlier that day, had exercised by walking the golf course, and the band had been playing 50th Anniversary Tour shows two days before.

The heart attack came out of the blue. I hadn’t been having chest pains, but when I felt like I’d been shot in the back and my back muscles and shoulder hurt, luckily, Laurie called the ambulance immediately.

And what do you think will be news or revelations for fans? Something like the accountant embezzlement, for instance, was certainly not widely known, and details about your heart attack.

Well, some of these hit at a very deep, personal level, and they’re not necessarily things that you want to talk about publicly because they’re quite hurtful and unpleasant when you’re going through them. As far as the heart attack, I was very fortunate to survive that.

My dad died of a heart attack. My brother told me that only 12 out of 100 people survive the ‘Widow Maker’ heart attack that I had. The doctor told Laurie that he did not expect to see what he saw when he had me in the ER. He told her he had to put a stent in, and then another stent within that stent, to keep that important artery open. I’m very fortunate.

You take a generally light touch to personal/creative issues within the band, and substance issues that you reference. What was your feeling about how, and how much, you wanted to reveal about those topics?

A lot of stuff about the other guys had already become well-known. It wasn’t my place to talk about it because it’s none of my business. Plus, the book is the story of MY life, remember? What other people do with their personal lives, that’s their call.

I was always appreciative that the guys in the band were always very kind, mostly, to each other. Once in a while, some guys might get into an argument, and one thing would lead to another, but by and large, the guys in the band have always been very decent to each other.

We are all still good friends. There’s no reason to throw anyone under a bus – it’s just not what I, or we, do to each other. We’ve traveled the world together. We’re the best of friends. We know each other’s wives and kids. Why would we want to shoot each other full of holes? That’s as simple as I can make it.

That the early incarnation of Kansas was part of the Doors' final concert is a real eyebrow raiser. What more is there to that story?

We had met Jim Morrison at a club in the French Quarter of New Orleans where some of us were playing as part of a band called White Clover. He asked if he could get on stage with us and sing “Light My Fire.”

Um, yeah! He asked us if he could read some new poetry material he’d been working on during the song. Be our guest! He was a very decent guy to us. He was very complimentary of the band.

Of course, it was unimaginable that Jim Morrison would tell us how much he liked us. I don’t know all the details of how Jim Morrison and his manager, years later, got that early incarnation of Kansas to open that show, but he did. For some reason, during the encore, they told all of us to grab an instrument and get on stage for the last song. So, we did.

Later, we were on the road somewhere, and somebody read an article that Jim Morrison had died. That’s when we realized that the show we did with The Doors was their last show, and we were on stage with them for the last song.

There's definitely a bit of Forrest Gump quality here, with the stories about Janis Joplin, the New Orleans Pop Festival, Jerry Garcia, and "Truckin.'" What's your perspective on those people you got to meet and experiences you had on the "way up?"

My wife agrees with your Forrest Gump comparison. That’s kind of a deep question, though. We never really got to know those people that well. I walked past Janis Joplin and she said, “Hey, you — don’t ever give up!” That’s the same with Jim Morrison. Being in the French Quarter had a lot to do with that.

We came out of Topeka, Kansas, so it’s not like we were in the San Francisco music scene meeting people all the time. We were just kind of our own guys. It was a great time. My wife thinks it rubbed off on me in this way; when I spot a young kid who looks like they’re in a band, I talk to them and try to encourage them. It meant a lot to hear that encouragement from people like Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison, so maybe I try to carry that on.

What is it that you think has kept Kansas going and continuing for all these years?

I don’t know that anyone can really put their finger on it. The fact that we care about each other is certainly a huge factor. The great music that Kerry and Steve wrote, and that other band members have written as time has gone on, is huge. Also, the fans – the Wheatheads – have been fiercely devoted and sustained Kansas for more than 50 years.

You discuss this a bit in the book, but Kansas is a band that has really created a template for how groups can continue even without some or all of its original members. How did you go about achieving that, and why do you think it's important?

I’m not sure we created the template, because other bands have been doing it for a while. For Kansas, though, the last time all the members who were on the photo of the back cover of the first album played a concert together was in 1981.

That’s 45 years, 12 new band members, nine studio albums, and thousands of concerts ago. Kansas has never been about any one or two members or a singular personality. Kansas has always been about the music. The music is the star of the show. We are very fortunate to have a deep catalog of music that has sustained, and even grown in popularity over time … and people want to hear it performed live to this day.

On our very first album, we declared, “Kansas Is A Band.” As I mention in the book, some members have left, some have returned, and then left again. But through it all, we’ve been very judicious about who we’ve asked to join the band. The vetting process is ridiculously high. Kansas music can’t be performed by just any musician. The musical expectations to be in Kansas have always been sky high, and we will never, ever change that.

Over the past few years, especially Kerry, Dave, and Robby’s widow, Cindy, have all been incredibly supportive of the current incarnation of Kansas . And during those times when Richard, Dave, Kerry, and I can all perform on stage – we all have fun doing so!

For those people who can’t bring themselves to come to a concert because X person isn’t on stage anymore, I respect that. They still have their old albums they can listen to. But there are hundreds of thousands of people, or more, who still love to see Kansas live each year, because we’re still Kansas. Kansas is still a band.

Faith and spirituality clearly have been a big part of Kansas' world. What is your feeling about its importance, and how has that contributed to the band's longevity?

I can’t speak to how it’s contributed to the band’s longevity, but, yes, there has been a spiritual thread running through a lot of our material, primarily through Kerry’s influence. As the main songwriter for the band, he would naturally write lyrics reflecting his personal journey. “Dust in the Wind,” “The Wall,” and “Hold On,” are good examples of various stages of his personal journey, and they all became hits. But at the end of the day, we never considered ourselves as anything more than just a great American rock band.

Finally -- any thoughts about who should play you in the movie?

If he can play the drums, I think Brad Pitt would be a good choice, LOL. Seriously though, it isn’t anything I would even think about.