I was asking him how long he had been vegetarian, what his reasons were, etc. He made a curious comment: "I could never eat a cow. Mostly because of their remarkable sense of aesthetics." I must have looked puzzled. He explained with the following story.
"A few years ago, back in Texas, some friends of mine were recording an album in a little shack in the middle of a cattle ranch. I spent a couple weeks there hanging out and recording saxophone tracks for their record. We began to develop a real rapport with the cows. We would moo, and they would moo back. One night I went out to have a cigarette and I had my saxophone with me. I played one note, kind of a low note, and the three cows nearby immediately looked up and mooed back. So I played a little more and they kept mooing back. Then I started really playing-- like, a song. I looked up and saw 200 head of cattle stampeding toward me. When they got within ten feet they stopped and just stood there, transfixed. I ended up doing an entire 30-minute concert for them. Some of them started having sex while I was playing. To them, it was like a rock 'n' roll party. When I finally stopped they turned and walked away, back out into the field."
"And that's why I will never eat a cow again. I would rather eat a cat than a cow."
THE END
