Steppenwolf’s Magic Carpet Ride Glides to Lobero

It’s almost unbelievable. It’s been nearly six decades since Steppenwolf scored its first hit single with the generation-defining rock anthem “Born to Be Wild,” and only now is there a documentary film about the band. As it is, the 2024 film Born to Be Wild: The Story of Steppenwolf won’t yet be available at cinemas or streaming anywhere online in the USA. That’s because the 2024 movie, a co-production of Germany and Canada, doesn’t yet have American distribution. 

But locals only have to saunter over to the Lobero Theatre to watch the movie in a special screening on Saturday, August 23 – only the fourth time the film will have been shown, and just the second showing in the U.S. Credit Earl Minnis and John Kay, the latter the band’s legendary frontman. Steppenwolf gave the world “Born to Be Wild,” two more Top 10 hits in “Magic Carpet Ride” and “Rock Me,” and 10 additional Billboard Hot 100 singles. John Kay and his wife, Jutta, have lived in Montecito for almost 15 years. 

Born To Be Wild covers expected territory, such as how “Born to Be Wild” was already a massive hit even before it appeared in the opening scenes of the cult classic film Easy Rider, launching the band to bigger fame and launching the song into legendary status. NASA made notable use of “Born to Be Wild” – with its revved up first line of Get your motor runnin’. The song was used to awaken the space shuttle crew, and as the accompanying soundtrack to launching the Mars rover on the red planet. Born to Be Wild has appeared in around 100 movie soundtracks over the years. 

The song was also among just five that were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 in the new singles category called “Singles that Changed the Course of Rock Music.” 

But the film is also a lot more than a traditional rock doc as it traces Steppenwolf’s journey from World War II-torn Germany to Toronto and then Los Angeles, where the band brought the heavy metal thunder to psychedelic rock in the late 1960s, scoring hit after hit. Beyond the inclusion of a dozen of the band’s iconic songs, there are interviews with Steppenwolf members Kay, Nick St. Nicholas, Michael Monarch, and their families; “Born To Be Wild” songwriter Mars Bonfire; and a number of contemporaries and those influenced by the band, including Alice Cooper, Taj Mahal, writer-director Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous), Klaus Meine (Scorpions), and Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), among others. There is also never-before-seen Super 8 mm footage amid other gems from the deep-dive archives.

“[Director] Oliver [Schwem] did extraordinarily well,” Kay said. “I was expecting a straightforward linear telling of the Steppenwolf story. But there were a lot of things that totally took me by surprise, which made the film far more than I had reason to expect it to be. It’s very accurate, and really engaging and enjoyable to watch.”

Kay has another reason beyond the movie itself to be thrilled that it was made. The creation of Born to Be Wild: The Story of Steppenwolf led to a reunion with Nick St. Nicholas, the band’s former bassist, who Kay hadn’t spoken to in more than 50 years. 

That happened when the frontman fired the bassist after St. Nicholas appeared at a gig wearing nothing but rabbit ears and a jock strap, his flamboyant stage attire flying in the face of Kay’s leather-clad image. 

“We were very different personalities, but that held us up to ridicule, turning Steppenwolf into a circus act. So I decided that was his last show with the band,” Kay recalled. “We never spoke again.” 

The band broke up shortly afterward. Kay moved on and only returned to performing under the Steppenwolf banner in 1980 – rescuing the moniker from the bad reputation it had acquired over time as a growing army of bad musicians sullied the Steppenwolf name through rampant unauthorized use of it. Kay permanently put “Steppenwolf” to bed in 2018 after a 50th anniversary tour. 

But not long before the documentary premiered in Canada, Kay decided to bury the hatchet and ring up St. Nicholas, who lives in Ventura. 

“I called him a week before and told him I’d been very angry for a long time. But we are both 81 years old, so it was time to let bygones be bygones. Whatever time we have that remains, let’s rekindle our friendship that went way back to the beginning of The Sparrows, the Canadian band that later morphed into Steppenwolf. He was very happy.”

The two saw the film for the first time together in Munich, then went up on stage, arm in arm, for the Q&A to thunderous applause, Kay said. 

“It really reignited our friendship. So all is well in Steppenwolf World again.” 

Not that there will be any musical reunion. Kay has stayed true to his commitment to retiring the band and hasn’t performed any full-set John Kay & Steppenwolf band gigs – save for two. These were early, and lucrative, Legends of Rock cruises, where – in front of 5,000 people – they shared the floating stage with the likes of ZZ Top, Gregg Allman and others. 

Kay has appeared at a few more cruise gigs, but they’re one-offs with the singer-guitarist fronting a house band for just five of Steppenwolf’s hits. The high-paying shows help to support, alongside his wife, Jutta, his nonprofit, the Maue Kay Foundation, formed in 2004 to support individuals and organizations engaged in the protection of wildlife, the environment, and human rights. The Lobero show also benefits the foundation. 

So, despite patching things up, Kay and St. Nicholas won’t be bringing along their instruments for an on-stage jam following the screening, although they will participate in a Q&A session followed by a VIP reception in the theater’s courtyard. But in less than a month, people will have the chance to hear Kay get the crowd’s motors running when he hits the stage at the 2025 One805LIVE! concert on September 20 at Kevin Costner’s Carpinteria estate. 

It’s a gesture of payback for the help his family received when their Butterfly Lane home flooded during the freak 2024 rainstorm that dropped almost two inches of rain in an hour and shut down the 101. 

“The first responders were in my work room, which was under six feet of water that destroyed everything in it,” Kay said. “They were with us from eight at night till three in the morning.” 

Kay will be playing “Born to Be Wild” with Sammy Hagar and his band, and might also work up another song or two. 

“I remember when he was in [the band] Montrose and we played shows together. Hagar had a kick ass band,” Kay said, adding, “This will be my tiny little motion of gratitude to the first responders.”