The Canned Heat came to Detroit to do a gig at the Masonic Temple and got busted by the real heat.
Canned Heat’s drummer Adolph De Laparra was charged with being a disorderly person and the group’s equipment manager Ron Stender was charged with possession of grass. They and 25 other persons were arrested Feb. 20 in a Southfield home. The charges range from disorderly persons to sale of LSD and possession of marijuana.
It was a typical pig roust led by anti-dope fanatic Frank Mothersbaugh of the Livonia Intelligence (sic) Squad. Frank and his boys had been watching the house for weeks and used that particular night to make the raid picking up the Canned Heat people in the process.
The police broke into the Southfield house at 10:30 pm and stayed for the next four hours arresting everyone that came to the door on disorderly charges. One guy came in smoking a joint and when he saw the pigs bolted out the door cramming the evidence down his throat. The cops caught him and tried to retrieve the joint by strangling him, but the brother hung on and only got busted on the lighter charge.
Stender was sleeping on the couch when the raid began and was rousted to his feet by the police who arrested him for possession when they discovered a roach at his feet.
Although both of the Detroit dailies ballyhooed the police action as a big drug raid all that was found was 16 caps of acid floating in the toilet and eight roaches laying on the floor.