In the mid-1960s, he left television to open the first “headshop” in Los Angeles. He then became the Los Angeles correspondent for "Rolling Stone" (1967-1969). He wrote features and columns for alternative newspapers, MC’ed the first love-ins in Los Angeles, edited a collection of material from the underground press, "The Hippie Papers" (1968) and wrote a history of rock and roll, "The Rock Story" (1970).