That car show launched his artistic & biker career. Riding his customized Harley with his painting tucked under his arm, Dave entered the ’63 Kansas City Custom Car Show. At the same time he created his first painting, “Hollywood Run.” It represented the wild, unleashed, Hollywood outlaw lifestyle. He was immediately hooked.ĭave Mann returned to Kansas City and bought his first new bike, a ’48 Panhead, for $350. They projected freedom, power and mobility with every chromed curve. While cruising the seaside community he stumbled across Bay Area Muffler, an area custom car house, and there discovered completely insane chopped Harleys. The wild allure of the West Coast drew Dave and buddy Al Burnett to Santa Monica, California. His crude sketches opened the door for Dave’s first job, pinstriping cars for Doug Thompson and Ray Hetrick’s custom car shop in Kansas City. In 1957 he first drew pencil sketches of hot rods while feigning attention in high school. The younger Mann was born in Kansas City, Missouri. They’re incredible.ĭave Mann’s dad was a lifelong illustrator and active member of the Society of Scribes in London. Yeah, there’s other stuff in there too that a kid shouldn’t see, but I was fascinated with the illustrations by Dave Mann– and still am. I was not invited to a lot of sleep-overs either.Įasyriders magazine was a part of growing up, and exposed me to a lot of… you know, art. Let’s just say it wasn’t a typical childhood, and we got a lot of stares. We didn’t exactly fit into the norm, nor did we to care to. Sounds cool, but like a lot of things– you tend to idealize it when you’re on the outside looking in. 44 magnum strapped to his leg “for all the honest world to feel” (as Townes Van Zandt would say). He rode a classic ’79 Harley-Davidson Lowrider, and his little friend was always along for the ride– a. “We’re setting the stage for this brand,” he continued, “a beautiful gem that’s just being polished.My stepdad was a biker, and not exactly a warm and fuzzy guy. “We’re gonna survive and, yes, things will change, but this magazine has been around for 50 years, and it will be around for another 50 years.” “At the end of the day, the world has to go on, it’s not going to spin off its axis up into Pluto,” Foster said, referring to widespread business closures amid the COVID-19 crisis. But at the top of his retail wish-list revs the granddaddy of American motorcycles: Harley-Davidson and its 1,000 stores across the US. He’s currently looking at weed dispensaries, pharmacies, and high-end clothing and luxury stores to carry the Easyriders brand. Facing bankruptcy just after taking over the magazine, Foster decided to expand Easyriders from a single print publication to an entire lifestyle brand.Īccording to his interview at WWD, Foster plans to roll-out the new Easyriders hemp products in the near future, particularly whenever these coronavirus lockdowns start to ease up nationwide. Second, the magazine’s revenue stream from advertisements got screwed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Why is a biker magazine countersteering into the nation’s nascent cannabis space, though? First off, bikers were a crucial part of America’s early marijuana movement, toking, wheeling, and dealing herb across the US alongside the hippies, the beatniks, the street activists, and the rock ‘n’ rollers. The movie’s title likely inspired the magazine’s name, given that Easyriders first hit the news presses in 1970. Though, to be fair, there is a California-based weed brand named after the late Dennis Hopper, one of the stars of the iconic 1969 biker film Easy Rider. The partnerships include Easyriders and two US cannabis companies - Oregon’s Big Top Farms and Tennessee’s Hemp2Lab - to make and distribute CBD and CB G products derived from hemp.Įasyriders’ products will include items like topicals, salves, tinctures, lip balms, and lotions, and each will bear Easyriders’ logos and gothic typeface, making these weed products the first (and so far, only) marketed directly to America’s biker community. On Tuesday, the new owner and president of Easyriders magazine, Pepper Foster, told WWD that he finalized a deal worth “well over” $30 million. One of America’s oldest and most iconic motorcycle magazines is officially jumping into the weed game.
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