Episode 5: Jenny Boyd

Culture is the output of community.

Few people understand what this means better than our next guest, Jenny Boyd.

To explain who Jenny is, it's best to actually just read the bio from the jacket of her book, Icons of Rock. It reads, "Jenny Boyd is a former 60s model and the younger sister of Patty Boyd, who was married to George Harrison and Eric Clapton. Married to Mick Fleetwood twice. Jenny has been immersed in the world of rock and roll since her teens. As a rock star muse, Jenny even inspired Donovan and Mick Jagger to write songs about her, including Donovan's famous hit, 'Jennifer Juniper'. A good friend to The Beatles, she worked at their retail venture, Apple Boutique in London. In 1968, she accompanied sister Patti on the band's visit to Rishikesh in India, where they studied transcendental meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Hiyogi. Jenny co-wrote two songs for the band Fleetwood Mac, although the group's manager gave the writing credits to her husband, Mick Fleetwood. She earned a PhD in psychology and spent many years running an addiction treatment center in England. Jenny's critically acclaimed memoir, Jennifer Juniper, was published in early 2023."

We came together around the release of this book, Icons of Rock, because we share an interest in the inquiry of this question: Where does creativity come from? As Jenny has shared her story with me, that has been a bit of a through line for her. So in this conversation, I'm digging into the community level - the human level elements - of the creation of a culture that is absolutely mythic to me.

I grew up as a musician with a band striving for rock stardom. That entire story is one that was really burst into being by the story of the Beatles, by the story of Fleetwood Mac. And Jenny was there. That trip to India is the trip that created the white album. I mean, that is a monumental piece of art and culture. Her sister, Patti, is supposedly the inspiration behind the song, 'Layla'. That is my sister's name. So there is something deeply synchronistic in our coming together and having a conversation.

But for Jenny, these are her friends, her family. For so many around the world, the idea of these things as culture creates a distance from the humanity of what it is that created these inspirations for us. For Jenny to be a part of these scenes, a part of these communities throughout all of her life, and then have the wisdom to pursue a PhD in psychology, to do clinical work for addiction, and to then become an author asking these questions is an absolute gift to all of us.

She is providing us with a North Star to understand how does this happen? How do great art and great culture get made? And in this book, Icons of Rock in Their Own Words, is transcriptions of many conversations that Jenny herself has had with incredible luminaries asking them, what is it that's taking place for you on stage, in the studio, in the writing process? Where does that creativity come from?

That is her gift to all of our benefit. So drop in, give this conversation a listen.

This is Jenny Boyd.