By Morris Beegle
This story begins in the summer of 1971, in the attic of my grandmother’s farmhouse in Beaver, Oklahoma. I’m sure most folks are unfamiliar with this town, as today the population is still less than 2,000 people. It has one claim to fame, however: Beaver is home to the annual World Cow Chip Throwing Contest. Yes, this is a real thing, picking up hardened circular chunks of cow shit and flinging them like frisbees.
While I never competed in the event, this tiny town holds a special place in my heart, and it’s not because of my family heritage or this oddly unique annual tradition. This peculiar place grabbed me at the age of four as I was sitting in the farmhouse attic with my older brothers Dave and Brad listening to my very first Black Sabbath experience.
I can still remember War Pigs, Iron Man, Electric Funeral and Hand of Doom all off the Paranoid album like it was yesterday. This was my introduction to the greatest hard rock band in history, a rowdy group from Birmingham, England, that would change music history and play an important role in my life as I got older.
So, what does Black Sabbath have to do with hemp?
Inspiration, energy, and motivation to get LOUD about what I believe in. Since I’m discussing the mighty Sabbath, I’ll also throw in Judas Priest, another legendary Birmingham band. Both bands provided me with influence and imagination to pursue my entrepreneurial ambitions, first in the music and entertainment industries, followed by the hemp and cannabis industries.
This influence led me to printing hemp t-shirts, hemp hats, and hemp posters. Then to producing hemp events, hemp conferences, and hemp festivals. And most recently, to creating a line of hemp-bodied guitars, hemp-board guitar cabinets, hemp guitar straps, hemp plastic picks, and hemp plastic volume knobs that go to 11…because when you need that little extra push over the cliff, and 10 just isn’t cutting it, you need to take it to 11, and be #OneLouder!
This has been the Birmingham influence on my life, with a little extra help from the lads in Spinal Tap.
Hemp awareness, CBD, and medical and recreational cannabis are literally blowing the F up all around the globe. It certainly is here in the United States where we finally passed historic legislation that unequivocally clarifies hemp and all parts of the plant, including cannabinoids, extracts, and derivatives, as no longer included in our Controlled Substances Act, and removes jurisdiction from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
We Americans are pretty excited about this even though we still have a big battle with the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) on how this will play out in the world of food and supplements. This issue isn’t unique to the USA, as the UK and Europe and most parts of the world are struggling to figure out a path where we can free this plant in all of its forms, for not only consumption, but commercial industrial processes and regenerative agricultural practices.
This is where I have placed my efforts and intentions as I continue on my journey, one in which I get to visit a place that unexpectedly inspired me to promote a plant and a planet that both need to come together for the future of society and the future of humanity.
You can find Morris Beegle at the Hemp & CBD Expo in Birmingham, England, March 2-3, 2019, the UK’s leading hemp exposition and conference. Visit www.hempandcbdexpo.co.uk.
Morris Beegle – a veteran of the music entertainment industry – is the Co-founder of the Colorado Hemp Company, producer of the NoCo Hemp Expo, Southern Hemp Expo, Hawaii Hemp Expo, Winter Hemp Summit, Hemp on the Slope, Let’s Talk Hemp Newsletter, and with Rick Trojan, he co-hosts the Let’s Talk Hemp podcast. Check out Season 2 at www.LetsTalkHemp.com. Morris is also the founder of Tree Free Hemp Paper and hemp-made Silver Mountain Guitars.
Photos: Black Sabbath: Wikipedia; Morris Beegle: Compass Natural
