At school Phil had to pick an instrument. He first picked the trumpet but there were too many trumpeters, the same with the saxophone. He reluctantly settled for the clarinet and discovered he had a great ability with the instrument. So much so that he became a soloist with the Capital University Conservancy of Music at the age of fifteen.
This love of music took him down an even stranger route. At sixteen he did not like the school selected for him and choose a school for himself. He’d seen a poster with a great marching band and decided on that. Another weird choice. The Staunton Military Academy in rural Virginia hardly seemed the setting for the nurturing of one of the biggest rebels on the planet and avowed anti-war protester. Yet that’s where he went. Not only that but he seemed to love it. He liked the uniform, the regime and discipline and even got into weight-lifting and became more gregarious. Who could imagine? In the course of his two years in Staunton (1956-1958) he developed a love of country and western. His heroes were Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, Johnny Cash and Faron Young. During the latter part rock ‘n’ roll had burst onto the scene and Phil became swept up in that too. He was smitten by Buddy Holly and idolised Elvis Presley.
In 1958 he signed up to Ohio State University. The course he was originally signed up to remains a mystery. He’d only been there a short while before deciding that it wasn’t for him. He fled to Florida and was living rough. He was bust by the police for sleeping rough on a park bench and while in the police cell had an epiphany. He decided that what he really needed to do was to become a writer and settled on journalism. He went back to Ohio State and changed courses.
While studying journalism he was listening to rock and pop music and started studying politics with a particular interest in the situation in Cuba with Fidel Castro, Russia and the American government. This was quite a departure and eye-opener for Phil. He’d come from a very unreligious and unpolitical background not used to discussing real issues in depth. He took to politics with zeal and became obsessed like all new acolytes.
According to his brother Michael, they used to have long debates about music and politics. Phil was still into his country singers and Michael was more into rock ‘n’ roll. The one person they both agreed was Elvis Presley; he was god.
It was while at Ohio that the final link in the chain was established. It was here that he met the guy who was going to change his life – Jim Glover. Jim was a left-wing folkie and introduced Phil to the mighty musical tomes of the great Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and the Weavers. He also taught Phil how to play the guitar.