Music industry icon Edward Crowe talks his psychedelic journey, his new cigar brand, and the beauty to the mystery
By Katharina Moser
The blazing mid-day sun in the spotless, deep-blue Tennessee sky dunks the hills and pathways in dazzling waves of light. The temperatures are rising, and walking up the steep hill paths in East Nashville, you can feel that summer is almost there. But summer or not, that does not really matter here, because in the Mount Olivet Cemetery, where old trees powerfully stretch their wooden arms towards the sky and gravestones of all styles and makings weigh gravely on the damp ground, throwing feather-light shadows on blotches of bright green grass, time seems to stand still anyway. There is something peaceful, almost perfect about the way the blooming trees align with the stelae and pillars, pyramids and blocks of everlasting stone that trustfully carries the names of those who have found their final resting place on Mount Olivet.
“I love the peaceful energy of a cemetery. You rarely see any people and if you do, they are peaceful as well”, says Edward “Ounze Zilla” Crowe. We have come here to talk about his life and impact as nothing less than as an acclaimed photographer, renowned manager of the US rapper Yelawolf, innovative cigar developer, and groundbreaking mushroom connoisseur, and what better place would there be than the mystic hills of Mount Olivet? “I come down here very often, usually a couple of times a week, and just walk, enjoy the peace. Pay homage to those who rest here”, says Crowe, his eyes darting tenderly over the gravestones. “I don’t see it as a scary place. I´m not here mourning.”
The presence of death is not something that scares Crowe. “I´m very curious of death. Afraid – not necessarily. Before we were born, we may have been at the same place where we go when we die”, he says. Crowe has gathered experience with psychedelic substances for decades, and has since ventured into the psychedelic advocacy space. His psychedelic journey has fundamentally changed his outlook on existence, and on death. “A lot of these things about psychedelics are speculations, obviously. I don’t like to say this is how things are. Your mind goes to places you can´t necessarily prove to be true, but the conviction you receive is so thorough that it feels very true. And it has helped me better myself to have a psychological mirror to my own ego, and to understand the things that I believe I need to fix about myself to continue to become a better version of me.”
“Psychedelics tend to dissolve what it is we see as our ego. That is a superpower that allows me to break down who I think I am in this reality.”
Edward Crowe
Psychedelics, especially fungi, Crowe is convinced, can be an entrance point into a process of self-discovery, of navigating spiritual realms and planes, of getting in touch with entities beyond the tangible world, to connect with energies and vibrations so profound that they forego boundaries of the earthly and material – in order to understand one´s place and purpose in the world. “Psychedelics tend to dissolve what it is we see as our ego. That is a superpower that allows me to break down who I think I am in this reality and understand what I need to be doing to be on track in this short amount on time on this earth. Our time here is very short indeed. And I think psychedelics were put here in order to help us navigate through this”, Crowe says.
His journey into the spiritual realms opened by psychedelics started out years ago, with what one might call a curious turn of fate. “I used to sell weed when I was younger. One time my supplier was out on weed, but he had mushrooms. And I was excited, I saw it as a new way to make money”, Crowe recalls and laughs. “So I took two pounds, sold a couple of bags, and realized very quickly that people don’t want mushrooms every day like they want weed.” So he ended up eating most of these two pounds with some friends over a period of time. “A lot of times when you eat a lot of mushrooms, it makes you sick. But I consider it more of a purging, because it’s a different kind of sick. It doesn’t feel like when you drank too much, it feels more like you´re getting things out”, he describes. “So I was in the bathroom and I just got sick, and I went to wash off my face. At this point I was only taking mushrooms to get high, right? And then I turn around, and I see what looks like a translucent hole in reality opening up, and I see an ancient Indian goddess, with hands everywhere, and she´s dancing in this pattern that´s so rhythmically perfect. There was no flaw in her rhythm, and I could see through her”, Crowe recounts his first eye-opening experience with the spiritual through psychedelics. “I thought it was beautiful. And in my mind, I wanted be with her, and I started walking towards this portal. And the minute I thought in my own mind I want to walk in there, she let me know telepathically that if I come there, I will die here. And it scared me, and when I felt that fear, the portal just dissolved”, says Crowe. “I´ve never seen anything that realistic in terms of hallucinations again. But that for me sparked the idea of mushrooms being a sacrament.”
The use of psychedelics is not a new phenomenon. To the contrary, natural psychedelics have been used in various ancient and native cultures as part of rites and ceremonies for entering spiritual realms. The Maya and indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central America, for example, used hallucinogenic substances called entheogens to provoke an altered state of consciousness during spiritual rituals and ceremonies. Hallucinogenic mushrooms known to the Maya as k’aizalaj okox were often consumed for ritual ceremonies. Hallucinogenic plants and psychotropic stimulants performed an important role in the beliefs, rituals and divination practices of the Inca in the ancient Andes, too. Ancient Egyptians believed that the mushrooms were plants of immortality and called them “a gift from the God Osiris”. Egyptian pharaohs proclaimed mushrooms to be food reserved only for royalty; common people were not even allowed to touch them. Until today, psychoactive natural substances have remained a gateway into subconscious and spiritual.
“It frees your mind to understand the need to question everything.”
Edward Crowe
Of the various cultures and religions that incorporate psychoactive and spiritual elements into their belief system, which path does Crowe choose? “My approach is very broad. The more of these ceremonies I take part in and the more I explore the ideas of spirituality, the more I understand that I don’t know. I leave with more questions than answers, and I actually like that. How awesome is that – that this matter is so intricate that we all will never know all the answers”, Crowe says enthusiastically. “There is a beauty to the mystery, and it becomes a more intense chase every time. Mushrooms have helped me understand that I don’t necessarily have to identify with or subscribe to any one specific organized religion, I like to find easter eggs and gifts and knowledge in each organized religion or different spiritual outfit. There is a lot of important knowledge in all of these systems. But it frees your mind to understand the need to question everything.”
Personally, he prefers to experience psychedelics alone on his own, or once in a while with selected, trusted friends. For him, that is also a matter of safety – you never know what a psychedelic experience might bring out of somebody. “You never know what kind of trauma people have been through in their life. Somebody seems to have a solid mind but then you put them on nine grams of mushrooms in a forest, and then some other things come up. You can´t judge them for whatever comes out because you take somebody through the deepest depths of their mind. Anything can come up. I have had some really strange things happen, and people acting in weird ways, and I always let them know it´s okay”, Crowe says, who acts as a sitter for people who want to have a psychedelic experience. Safety is his number one priority on his psychedelic journeys. “When we do it, we put our phone as well as any weapon, anything sharp, in the trunk of a car and lock away the key in a box that locks with a timer. To minimize the risk of something going wrong or someone getting hurt.” To Crowe, that is standard protocol. “You´ll also never catch me doing mushrooms at a party or in a bar room, anywhere in front of people or in public, for that matter. To me it is a very, very sacred experience, it´s like going to church, and you have to prepare for it. I meditate before, and I like to give a blessing to the mushroom before I take part in a ceremony.”
The dangers of a psychedelic experience lie not only in the unpredictable reactions of the person. They are also related to the energies that you invite into yourself by opening yourself for the spiritual – there are not only good entities in the spiritual realm. “The moral of my story, what I have learned through these entities, is that they guide you through the trip. I go through it with respect as a student. But if you go in blindly…”. Crowe smiles warningly. “Electricity powers your light and the stove, but if you shove a guitar string in a socket, it can kill you. With the realms and entities it´s like with a Ouija board. You could invite some form of entity that is not positive for your wellbeing. But I make a point of only inviting positive energies. It´s my belief that these entities can guide you through your trip if you encounter them with respect, and they can also guide you through your life outside of that trip.”
“Whatever you put out in some capacity, is going come back to you. I always say the universe works in our favor.”
Edward Crowe
The power of such energies and channeling them can manifest itself in the most mind-blowing of ways, something Crowe has experienced first-hand. One particular story is proof of this, as Crowe recalls: “Me and my close friend Pam did a nine-gram journey. We had wanted to light a fire, but only had embers. And I suggested, let´s use just our minds to see if we can get the embers to spark a fire. I sat there and I focused intensely, and lo and behold, the fire sparked up!”, Crowe says with an incredulous smile. “It could have been coincidence, sure. To me this is a conscious reinforcement that we usually don’t use the full capabilities of our minds. The mushroom frequency put me in this mind space of not even knowing how to fail.” Mushrooms, it seems, can serve as a reminder to acknowledge the full potential of our minds – one that we don´t even know is there. It is also a question of manifestation – of steering your energy towards the realization of a goal. “It´s cause and effect. Whatever you put out in some capacity, is going come back to you. I always say the universe works in our favor.”
Psychedelics have changed Crowe´s entire perspective on the world. “Now I´m very cautious about what I allow my mind to take in. Being more conscious of the words you choose to speak, the thoughts you allow in your mind, the inspirations… amplify the positive, shoot down the negative.” It is one thing to perceive and realize the various energetic and spiritual levels of existence – but another to translate these findings into one´s daily life. “You have to take the information, download and internalize it, and live it as an example as opposed to preach it. I have noticed that when I´m in the middle of a trip and I´m trying to articulate my ideas, or what I see or I´m learning in that moment, I actually gag and I can´t say it. I´ve always felt that´s because it´s so profound, it´s not meant to be articulated in that moment”, Crowe says.
“None of us know what happens when we leave here. I love the mystery, it is beautiful.”
Edward Crowe
He has, however, found a way to put into words the experiences, ideas, and inspiration psychedelics have conveyed to him: Crowe is currently working on a book called “Hello from Another Life Time, Psychedelic Archeology or the Pursuit of Psychospiritual Understanding” with his fiancé and co-author Ashley Mingesz. Psychedelic archeology – that means taking a deep dive into the human mind and bringing back to the surface all the ideas and inspirations it reveals. For Crowe, that less means to state supposed facts and actualities, but rather to offer up new ways of thinking and understanding. “Ashley sits for me during my psychedelic experiences to ensure that everything goes smoothly, interviews me and helps curate and retrieve ideas and information we gain from my mushroom ceremonies”, Crowe describes the research process. The point zero for all they put down in writing is the insight excavated from the depths of the mind in the company of the mushroom. “Out of respect for the mushroom, we list the mycelia as an additional co-author.” Designed like the 19th century occult books Crowe likes to read, it is going to be bound in black leather, adorned with his logo, the crow foot in a triangle. “It´s not going to be something that’s going to fly off the shelf, but something that’s going to live in the back corner of an old book store. Like an occult classic. I´m focused on creating a body of work that provides the reader with true value, something that I´m proud of – for any student of the occult or anybody into spiritual curiosity.” Next to the book, Crowe is guest in podcasts to advocate for the use of psilocybin for mental and spiritual purposes. And each year on the occasion of “Bicycle Day”, he sells blotter art, to bring awareness to psychedelics, “that they are not like other drugs, that they are more a medicine.”
“Hello from Another Life Time” is not the only book of art Edward Crowe is rolling out. He and his business partner Kyro Wolf have been working on and finalizing the photography volume “The Yelawolf 51/50 Tour by Edward Crowe”. It entails numerous photos Crowe took during Yelawolf´s 2017 tour, and is designed in scrapbook-style by Kyro. “We sent the book to the legendary photographer Estevan Oriol. He absolutely loved it and is now releasing our book”, Crowe says with pride. “That´s enormous. It couldn’t be more epic than that. I shoot photography in my spare time. To have this come out under Estevan is like an artist having an album come out under Dr. Dre. He is an icon in our culture.” That the book, which is set to be published in November, is being recognized by one of the stars of contemporary photography surely also has to do with the love and appreciation for art that both Crowe and Kyro have poured into the volume, as well as Crowe´s intimate gaze on Yelawolf, who he has been friends with for decades. “There are certain rooms and emotions that Wolf might allow me to come into, that he might not allow someone else into. Or certain times when he´ll allow me to be there when he´s more vulnerable – because he trusts my eye and my selects.” In that sense, the volume is not just a portray of Yelawolf, but also of Edward Crowe himself, a window into the two artists´ relationship and friendship. “It is one of the things I´m currently working on that I´m most proud of”, Crowe says.
That is, apart maybe from another business idea that Crowe has manifested and already carries material proof of concept of in his hand: his cigar brand “Murder Cigars”, which is about to be rolled out in August via Slumerican. “The idea to develop a cigar actually started with Wolf. But he said that I´m the one of us that actually smokes cigars, so I should do it”, Crowe recalls. “It took a couple of years, checking out different manufacturers from Nicaragua to the Dominican Republic. But I finally found a reputable resource. Now the cigars have to cure for 90 days until they are fully cured and ready to smoke”, he says with an anticipatory grin.
With the various projects Edward “Ounze Zilla” Crowe is working on, the life-changing impact he has on many of his friends and partners, and the magic touch he gives to all forms of art he crafts, it is safe to say that the self-made multi-talent has found – or rather made – a space for himself in this world. And his psychedelic journey is certainly not entirely innocent of the certainty of his vocation. “I spent a lot of time contemplating what our place in the world is: Making a positive impact on this plane that we come into from birth till death for a short moment in time. Anything we can do to inspire, to teach, to make this place a little bit better. Love is important, knowledge is. High vibrational things in life”, Crowe ponders. “You can do a lot in one life time, if you´re conscious of what it is you have to do. A lot of being human comes with doing things on purpose that might not come naturally. That’s a decision I make. And none of us know what happens when we leave here. I love the mystery, it´s beautiful.”
And as we step down from the mighty hills of Mount Olivet, each of us lost in thought, the summer sun still bathing the rolling hills in bright light, not one second could have gone by since the moment we entered – or maybe, an entire lifetime.
The Wrapper 