Doobies manager Cohn uses vineyard to help veterans

<p>At 61, Bruce Cohn -- vintner, Doobie Brothers manager, olive-oil maker, ex-goat milker -- is the same age as many combat veterans who served in Vietnam in the late '60s and early '70s.</p><p>Cohn did not go to Vietnam, though he lined up to go. Rather than wait to be drafted as the war expanded in 1965, he enlisted in the Navy.</p><p>A moderately defective left elbow had never slowed the would-be sailor, who was born in Chicago but spent his wonder years as a perpetually active Forestville farm boy. Even so, induction docs took a look at the elbow and how it shortens his leftward reach, and exempted him from military duty.</p><p>"I didn't think it was a problem, but they did," he said.</p><p>The Southeast Asia war still raged when, in 1970, Cohn left a fledgling career as a TV engineer to manage what was to become a very big Bay Area-born rock band. Almost four decades later, he runs a renowned Glen Ellen winery bedecked with gold and platinum records made by the Doobie Brothers.</p><p>Cohn has amassed some terrific stories, as you might imagine. A pretty good one recounts how the band rose from the dead to help struggling war veterans and their families, a unique chapter in rock 'n' roll history that continues in October with the Doobies' next benefit concert at B.R. Cohn Winery.</p><p>Cohn didn't set out to be rock-band manager or a winemaker.</p><p>He was born to classically trained musical parents in Chicago. His folks gave California a try from 1956 to '62, and for most of that period young Cohn lived the country life on the short-lived family farm on Martinelli Road.</p><p>"I was raised milking goats, at 4:30 in the morning and 4:30 in the afternoon," he said. "My brother and I milked 115 goats by hand."</p><p>He briefly attended Montgomery High before his parents moved the family back to Chicago. He scooted back West after high school, studied media and broadcasting in college and found an engineering job with a San Francisco TV station.</p><p>Cohn quit in 1970 when his brother introduced him to the members of an upstart band that had won a recording contract. The rockers invited him to travel with them as their manager and mixer.</p><p>They did pretty well. In fact, the Doobie Brothers became one of the hottest California rock bands of the '70s and early '80s, selling more than 20 million albums.</p><p>Manager Cohn was 28 when, in 1974, he used some of his earnings to buy a former dairy on Sonoma Highway near Glen Ellen. Inevitably, he became interested in growing grapes, an avocation he had more time for when the Doobies angrily broke up in 1982.</p><p>By '86, when Cohn released his first wines, he had every reason to believe the defunct band had sung its last song. But that same year, former longtime Doobies drummer and Vietnam draft evader Keith Knudsen read a book that rocked him.</p><p>It was "Captain for Dark Mornings," a soldier's memoir on the psychological injuries suffered by many neglected Vietnam veterans. Knudsen felt driven to contact the book's author, Floyd "Shad" Meshad, who was working then to launch a veterans services foundation.</p><p>The two of them clicked.</p><p>Knudsen told Meshad in the summer of '86 that he would ask the scattered ex-members of the Doobie Brothers if they would reunite -- just one time -- to play a benefit concert for Meshad's group, the National Veterans Foundation (www.nvf.org) and its help hot line, (888) 777-4443.</p><p>All 12 former band members agreed to come together for a benefit show. Cohn signed on, too.</p><p>He booked the Hollywood Bowl for a 1987 concert and waited to see if anyone would come. More than 19,000 tickets sold in the blink of an eye.</p><p>The Doobie Brothers were back.</p><p>In the glow of the success of that benefit concert 21 years ago, a corps of original Doobies and more recent additions patched things up and agreed to resume touring and recording.</p><p>The band's still playing, and Cohn remains its manager. A recurring Doobie Brothers gig is the two-day giveback festival at B.R. Cohn Winery that benefits the veterans foundation and myriad Sonoma Valley causes.</p><p>Among the those who accepted Cohn's invitation to perform at this year's festival Oct. 4 and 5 are Kris Kristofferson, Todd Rundgren, The Turtles, Dave Mason and Robert Cray.</p><p>When former drummer Knudsen died three years ago at 56, Cohn and the band assured Meshad that the band and his mission for struggling vets are bound like brothers. So far, Cohn and Meshad said, the concerts and proceeds from the sale of specially bottled "Doobie Red" wine have brought the vets' group about $2 million.</p><p>"Literally, their support saves lives," said Meshad, by now one of the greatest fans of the Doobie Brothers and Cohn.</p><p>"He has a wonderful life, and he gives back," Meshad said. "Every corporate person should do what Bruce Cohn does."</p><p>Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.</p>