I was still thought of as a kid actor even though I was in my mid twenties.

There was this little shaggy dog on it, and Frank Weatherwax was working the dog. One day we were all sitting around, and Frank said, listen, my brother Rudd just got the rights back from MGM for Lassie, and said have your agent check into it. I did, and I went for a screen test.

Yeah, dog was this man's best friend, for sure.

We each had to spend a week out at Lassie's ranch, and whoever got along best with the dog got the part.

I had always turned it down-to me, smoking pot was absolutely the worst thing in the world. I thought of it as an addiction, and all my friends who smoked it, I felt they really needed help.

Marijuana. Boy, I thought that was just terrible. How could this great man do this to his life?

There's a big difference between somebody who does acid on weekends and somebody who takes downers every day.

Then l learned to play guitar and l started writing songs and my mother formed for me a publishing business, so we started publishing and managing artists.

It was the worst period of my life. I had all this gigantic acceptance as a kid, and all of a sudden there was this monumental rejection.