Bust To Dust: The Ferret, The Neo-Nazi & The Curse Of The Lovin' Spoonful

The year 2026 will mark the 60th anniversary of “The Lovin’ Spoonful Pot Bust,” an event that significantly impacted the pop group’s standing within the countercultural community of their era that still resonates, for some, to this day. This came about because two members of one of the most successful musical groups in America during the 1960s, Steve Boone and Zal Yanovsky, were in San Francisco to perform in Berkeley at a Lovin’ Spoonful concert in May 1966 when they both “finked” on their drug supplier. After their own arrest and under the threat of deportation for the Canadian member Yanovsky, the pair introduced an undercover Narcotics Officer from the San Francisco Police Department (known as a “Ferret”) to their influential group of friends in the area. This led to the arrest of Bill Love, who would put a curse on The Lovin’ Spoonful and the subsequent uproar forever tarnished the band’s musical legacy. Bust To Dust reveals that the eventual victim of the Bust was not the first choice to be setup for arrest by the two Spoonfuls - their original choice would become a household name in America in the 1970s. While Steve Boone’s memoir has been the narrative for the events of the arrests and the aftermath over the years, with access to the archives of both the S.F.P.D. and the promoter of the Spoonful’s Berkeley concert, this investigation reveals a completely alternate timeline of proceedings. Bust To Dust exposes many new details about the people connected to the Bust including that the attorney involved in the eventual trial who was not just one of the first advocates for legalizing marijuana in the USA but also deeply involved with the leading Neo-Nazis of the 1950s,1960s and 1970s, all under the investigation of the F.B.I. A case is also made that individuals associated at the time with the Family Dog concert promotion company may have played a role in the circumstances leading to Boone and Yanovsky’s arrest. Bust To Dust also discloses that the so-called “Hippy Backlash” within the streets of San Francisco and the Underground Press community - which led to protests at the Spoonful’s concerts - was primarily instigated by a single individual, who himself had far darker secrets to hide. A lot of people converged in San Francisco in May 1966 and backed up by hundreds of photographs, numerous documents, dozens of exclusive interviews and a foreword by Steve Boone, Bust To Dust tells their story, as well as the true events behind one of the last remaining untold tales of the 1960s. “A fascinating read that takes the myth out of the 1960s and replaces it with the hard realities that every artist had to endure.” ~ Matt Williamson (Pop Goes The 60s) “Your story has all the trappings that would interest Hollywood, IMHO. What a wacky bunch of characters and situations, tailor-made for a David O. Russell flick. I’m sure many people will want to read this.” ~ Peter Lee Neff (Author of That’s The Bag I’m In – The Life, Music & Mystery Of Fred Neil, published by Blue Ceiling Publishing) “Wow, wow, WOW! I'm only about 1/3 of the way through. How on EARTH did you learn all that? I'm amazed, and really having fun, tripping down memory lane.” ~ Juliet Loughborough (Daughter of Bill Loughborough) “An exhaustive investigation into one of rock’s most controversial and mysterious incidents, also delivering a wealth of fascinating information about the Lovin’ Spoonful’s career.” ~ Richie Unterberger (Author of the two-volume 1960s folk-rock history Turn! Turn! Turn!/Eight Miles High) “Simon Wordsworth calls the Spoonful’s 1966 bust ‘one of the last untold stories of the 1960s,’ and what a story it is. With a remarkable cast of characters and a wide historical and cultural range, Bust To Dust significantly revised my view of this period.” ~ Emily Dufton (Author of Grass Roots: The Rise & Fall & Rise of Marijuana in America, published by Basic Books)