VI: Tell me more about your musical beginnings.
    SA: I began playing the guitar, because that is the instrument my father played. He was a music reader and my mother's family were intuitive musicians who played by ear. I think I inherited both qualities. I listened to T-Bone Walker, Little Richard, Hank Williams, Chuck Berry, Ivory Joe Hunter, Charlie Parker, Fats Domino, Chet Atkins, Paul Desmond, The Moonglows… and on and on, such great musicians. I always loved all music.

VI: San Francisco became musical center of USA in mid 60's and you were part of that scene. Prior to forming Big Brother And The Holding Company, did you play in some other bands in the area?
    SA: I played saxophone in a small band in Marin County which is just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. In this band I played with John Cipollina, who later helped form The Quicksilver Messenger Service. We did some silly songs and had a lot of fun. I also played jazz on the guitar and joined up with people to play in clubs, but this was sporadic and unorganized.

VI: In Irwin Stambler's “Encyclopedia Of Pop, Rock & Soul”, it is stated that you met with future Big Brother members Peter Albin and James Gurley at a Victorian mansion where Chet Helms also was. How did you get together, did you share the same ideas about music and who gave the name Big brother And The Holding Company?
    SA: I heard Peter Albin playing one day in a beautiful Victorian house in San Francisco. I climbed the stairs to his room, introduced myself, and said:”Let's form a band”. This was before Chet Helms or James Gurley were there. When Chet came to hear us play in the basement, he brought James Gurley to be in our band, and he brought a list of names. One was Big Brother and the other was The Holding Company. We put them together.

VI: Did you play any of your songs then or were you just jamming or something?
    SA: I always wrote songs, even when I was a small child. So, when Big Brother started, I had a lot of songs for the band. We also played covers, songs done by other bands.

VI: I understand that at the time San Francisco had hundreds of great bands, tough competition indeed. How did you manage to get to the top with names like Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe And The Fish? Was that quality of the band, good material, manager, circumstances or combination of all these elements the reason for your success?
    SA: There weren't many bands at first. Not many at all. We thought there were maybe four or five bands when we started: The Charlatans, Jeferson Airplane, The Great Society, The Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe. That was about it. We were one of these bands before we had Janis Joplin. We played without her for about a year, we were known in San Francisco… as known as these other bands. I think”circumstances” would be the right answer to the question you're asking.”Circumstances” and “manager”. For success you need talent, timing, hard work and good people to help you. Many people had a lot of talent, but not many have all four of these things. Hard work and timing (circumstances) may be the most important things.

VI: When did you meet Janis Joplin, how did she become a member of the band, who “discovered” her, some of you or somebody suggested to check her out? Was she also in San Francisco at the time or she came from somewhere?
    SA: Chet was “the big brother” in Big Brother. He was probably the main reason for our early success. He named the band ( I was there and I helped with that). He brough James Gurley to the band. He brough Janis Joplin to the band. He had known Janis at The University of Texas where they both went to school. He knew we needed a singer, so he sent a friend to get her and bring her to San Francisco.

VI: With janis in the band, was there any change in musical policy of Big Brother? Who was in charge of material for playing?
    SA: When Janis came to the band, our music became more “normal”, conventional and regular. We did not have a band leader. I was the one who knew most about the music and I did the arranging of the songs. When it came down to business, Peter Albin, the bass player made most of the decisions.

VI: Which time period do you personally consider as most satisfying for you as a musician?
    SA: I like them all. I like the energy of the 60's. I enjoyed going back to school in the 70's and learning harmony and counterpoint and writing classical music pieces, especially string quartets. I played jazz in the 80's on saxophone, and I really liked that. Then in the 90's I wrote a lot of songs and played as The Sam Andrew Band with a lot of very talented people. I have enjoyed all of my time as a musician.

VI: You've played numerous concerts, big festivals, do you have some special recollections, fond memories?
    SA: It was fun playing in Albert Hall, London. One night I got drunk in Stockholm with Mayor. That was good. Janis gave me her Gibson Hummingbird guitar and I think of her when I play it which is all the time.

VI: You've also played and shared the stage with many rock and blues legends, could you name some special names for you? Any musicians that you wanted to play with, but for some reasons you did not?
    SA: I was good to be close to Jimi Hendrix and watch him play. He was a very quiet man and he gave a lot of thought to his music. B.B.King was very special to me. He was alsways our guitar hero, so it was a privilege to play on the same stage with him.
    I wish I would have met John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. They had such an influence on me.

VI: What are your memories of Janis? Were you close frineds, what was she like as a person?
    SA: Janis was very intelligent and funny person. We wrote a lot of songs together and we had a lot of jokes and laughs. She was very quickwitted and you could count on her to say something very striking, funny and true almost all the time. She enjoyed life, but she had a certain cynical view of it too.

VI: Do you have any regrets about those days, something that you wanted to do, but didn't?
    SA: My main regret is that I left Big brother to join The Kozmic Blues Band. I don't think Janis and I should have left the band when we did. It was a big mistake. She could have left later, if she wanted, and I think she would have been happier. Also,

I wish I would have written more songs, and maybe more in different styles.

VI: What is the current line-up of Big Brother?
    SA: Peter Albin – bass, Sam Andrew – vocals, guitar, Dave Getz – drums,Tom Finch – guitar, Lisa Mills – vocals.
    VI: You still play a lot, do tours throughout the world. How do you manage to do it after so many years, is music still your guiding light to go on and on?
    SA: Music is always exciting. Maybe on fourth of the time, I find something new in what I am playing. I am not in the race to be the fastest guitar player in the world. I want to find something really new in the melodies and bring that out for people while playing something they want to hear. Since I will never accomplish this completely, I can never be bored with the music. It's always a challenge.

VI: Beside playing some old favourites, I suppose you write also new songs. How is public reacting to your new material? Is your musical direction still the same or you're trying to break new grounds?
    SA: Yes, I write new songs all the time. The public seems to like them. I think my musical direction changes all the time. In each song, I try to do at least one new thing.

VI: What could you say about the current music scene around you, is it comparable to the sounds of those days. I think you're the one who could tell it best?
    SA: Musicians are better now. They have better technique and they have better education. They are probably more disciplined too, than we were. But I don't think they have the same inspiration that we did. There is not that wild sense of promise in music now that there was in the 60's. And having that feeling is very important for an artist. It gives a focus and direction to the music. But I think this feeling can come back to music any time.

VI: Are you/band in control of Big Brother releases through the years, numerous compilations, unreleased concerts, live tapes, etc?
    SA: We are in partnership with Janis' brother and sister who inherited her share of what we did in Big Brother. Sony Music has most of the recorded material that we did (aside from bootlegs) and they will release it all in time. Usually they talk to the

brother and sister first. This is strange for us, since the brother and sister didn't really have anything to do with making the music in the first place. They were just children when we played with Janis. But the brother and sister are good people and we all try to get along, love each other and work for the same goal.

VI: I wanted to ask you about the record covers of your releases, especially the one made by Robert Crumb. Do you remember how it happened? Also about other covers, who had the final say?
    SA: When it came to decide on a cover for Cheap Thrills album, we were all reading those great underground comics, but especially Zap Comics. We knew all the artists, Victor Moscoso, Wes Wilson, S.Clay Wilson, Gilbert Shelton, Mouse and Kelley, but the eminence grise was of course Robert Crumb. I think we decided on having him do the cover because we wanted to get to know him better. Janis wasn't the one who made this decision, although she was enthusiastic about it once we all agreed. Crumb came to where we were playing… the Fillmore, I think… and he watched us all for three hours or so. The idea was that he was going to make our album cover like a high school yearbook and it would show our photograph and then have a little biographical blurb about us. For the original front of the album he drew a yearbook cover. We really didn't care for that front (although, don't I wish I had that drawing today!) and we put the “back” cover on the front. That “back” cover really looks like a back cover if you know it was supposed to be a back. It's basically a series of credits for who did what on the album.
    The amazing thing about Crumb is that he could come and look at us for such a short time, and in his drawing of us he revelaed who we were, or who we were trying to be. The image of James Gurley shows him to be spaced out holy man, The Saint James, Archfiend of the Universe, that he is today. The drawing of Dave doesn't show him at all, and that too is a revealing portrait. I have often thought that the other name for Big Brother And The Holding Company should be “Where's Dave?” because he

constantly wanders off and is nowhere to be found. He is really lost. Janis looks, in Crumb's drawing, exactly as she wanted to present herself and anyone who knows Peter Albin knows that he is the person in Crumb's drawing. I was at that concert where Crumb came to look at us with a couple of good friends of mine who are still good friends of mine. They were blond and they were having a really good time. We all enjoyed being with each other and they were intelligent, articulate and fine women. Crumb drew me surrounded by blondes and he captured a certain smirk (better than George Jr. Bush's) of self satisfaction on my face. It's just a portrait of who I was at the time, but the blonde women were friends and not fans. The Kozmic Blues Band was almost a corporate band and its cover reflects that. That cover was done by the art department at Columbia Records. They copied the Crumb Lettering. All of that cover was their idea. Janis had very little to say about the design of that cover. We did two albums after Janis died. One of those covers is anti art and it is by Bob Seidermann (who did the famous Blind Faith album cover). The other album is done by Dennis Nolan who is an excellent artist. He just did a silhouete of us, but it shows who we were at the time, silhouettes of musicians trying to make it into the early 70's.

VI: Is there anything you'd like to say to your fans in Macedonia, especially those who knew you from the beginning and still keep your old records and love you?
    SA: Yes, of course. I would like to say thank you and I wish I could meet each person in Macedonia. I am sorry that we didn't know each other before, and I would like to come to Macedonia and see what your life is like and be with you. This could be very interesting.

VI: Who knows, maybe we'll meet in Macedonia some day?
    SA: You don't know how much I wish this were true. Let's make it true.

    More data about…
    – There are at least three films about Janis Joplin in the works and one or all of them will reach the theatres in the next year or so.
    – Sony Records has a live CD of Janis and Big Brother

(live at Winterland 1968) in the stores now.
    

– Big Brother's “Do What You Love” CD (The present band) sells well at concerts.
    – Our songs “Combinations Of The Two” and “Ball And Chain” are featured prominently in “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas” starring Johnny Depp.
    – There are numerous television shows currently running about Janis and Big Brother (BBC, VH-1, E-Channel).
    – Legend Records in France has released a CD documenting rehersal sessions of Big Brother in the early seventies.
    – We are touring internationally:Russia, Japan, The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Mexico and Canada, and now I say Macedonia!
    – We have a website at www.bbhc.com/BigBrother.htm
    – Rolling Stone (Katie Holms on the cover) did a good piece on the Live At Winterland CD (page 29).
    – We have recently entered the school and art cinema market with a series of videos and lecture/question sessions. This has worked well at Columbia University in New York, Marquette University in Millwaukee and at the Lark and Roxie Theatres in the San Francisco Bay Area.
    – Jeanne-Martine Vacher has published “Sur La Route De Janis Joplin” in Paris. Probably the best writing on Janis' career so far, there are no plans as yet to bring it out in English.
    – “Cheap Thrills” is out on CD and sells well. “Cheaper Thrills”, a recording of our California Hall concert in 1966 is on the Market in Europe.
    – Big Brother was on the cover of DISCoveries Magazine for their June 1999 issue.
    – Goldmine Magazine has done a complete cover story on Big Brother's entire career (23 Sept 1998).
    – Vintage Guitar Magazine published a two part interview with Sam Andrew… Big Brother's Minister of Propaganda.
    – Sony Music has released “Box Of Pearls”, a compilation of Janis's four albums plus outtakes. This includes the first Big Brother And The Holding Company album originally on Mainstream Records. Sam did the liner notes for the Mainstream CD.
    – Sam is the music director of “Love, Janis,” a play based on Janis' letters home. This play has been mounted in Denver, Austin, Cleveland, Chicago and it will soon go on to New York and London.
    – The Martin Scorsese-Nicholas Cage film “Bringing Out The Dead” uses our song “Combination Of The Two” in a very creative manner.
    – “Piece Of My Heart” … a great song by Bert Berns and Jerry Ragavoy… played by Big Brother and sung by Janis… has been used in a couple of recent films: “Home For The Holidays” (Holly Hunter, Dylan McDermot) and “Boys On The Side” (Drew Barrymore, Mary Lousie Parker, Whoopi Goldberg and Anita Gillette). Whoopi sings “Piece Of My Heart” at the beginning of the film.

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