well as i scour the world looking for shit to post for you ......mostly annoying shit....... and the truth and some bizarro crap too ...........well i do not spend too much time .......just cut and paste fun shit .....i would be better if those jack off paycheck whores at face book .........would not be so weak and leftist .......however ....here is some woodstock shit for you ....like it or not
THE MESSED UP TRUTH ABOUT BEING A PERFORMER AT WOODSTOCK
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BY CHANDLER STARK/DEC. 17, 2022 5:30 AM EST
The Woodstock Music Festival, held in August 1969, was one of the most iconic events of the '60s. Originally advertised as "3 Days of Peace and Music," the Woodstock festival has far outlived anything its founders could have imagined five decades later. Its story has been told so many times that it's now practically public domain.
As History explains, coming off the heels of the successful Miami Music Festival the year prior, Michael Lang, John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, and Artie Kornfeld together came up with the Woodstock Music Festival to be held in Woodstock in upstate New York. Though only 50,000 fans were supposed to show up, soon nearly half-a-million hippies were clogging the arteries of the New York highway system, causing one of the most memorable traffic jams of all time. What followed was three-and-a-half days of music, unity, and quite a bit of chaos.
Even the performers at Woodstock were not insulated from the debauchery. From scheduling problems to cash flow issues and a lack of transportation, it was a miracle the festival even went on at all. But luckily, it did, and the stage was graced by some of the biggest legends in rock 'n' roll history, like Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Carlos Santana. This is the messed up truth about being a performer at Woodstock.
PERFORMERS DIDN'T KNOW WHERE WOODSTOCK WOULD BE HELD UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE
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Even before Woodstock started, chaos abounded the organizers and potential performers. According to festival organizer Michael Lang in "Woodstock: The Oral History," he and his associates (pictured above) were set on holding a festival in upstate New York in the town of Woodstock. Yet, they still needed to find someone with a place there to actually host the festival, which proved to be easier said than done.
Immediately, there was opposition among the large landowners in Woodstock about letting their land be used for a festival. Lang's associates once found a site they deemed suitable, but he shut them down after surveying the area and not liking the vibes. Bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Canned Heat, and Jefferson Airplane had signed contracts with the festival organizers by the end of April (via Kevin Hillstrom's "Defining Moments: Woodstock"). Yet, they had no idea where the actual music festival was going to be held.
Lang and the rest of the organizers finally secured the now-famous site on Max Yasgur's dairy farm less than a month before the festival was set to start. This gave the performers and their management very little time to set up arrangements for things like accommodations and flights. Some performers like Tommy James even backed out when they heard the festival was going to be hosted at Yasgur's "pig" farm, a choice they soon regretted (via Kyle Meredith).
IT WAS AN ADVENTURE JUST TO MAKE IT THERE
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For many of the performers at Woodstock, the chaos of the event started right from the beginning. As Kevin Hillstrom explains in "Defining Moments: Woodstock," the massive traffic jams that snarled the highways getting to the Woodstock site were also a huge hindrance for the performers. The festival was scheduled to kick off on Friday, but starting on Thursday, hundreds of thousands of concertgoers started arriving in and around Woodstock. Barely any of the musicians were actually able to get to the site grounds before the festival started.
Locked in at hotels and motels with the highways basically shut down, the majority of the scheduled performers had virtually no way to get to Woodstock. With time running out as the festival crowds started to pile up, one can only imagine the perfuse sweat that organizer Michael Lang must have worked up worrying that the bands would not be able to arrive and perform.
However, in the end, the Woodstock organizers were able to save the day. Realizing that trying to drive on the highways was impossible, the organizers arranged for helicopters to fly the musicians from their lodgings directly to the festival. Though there were still massive scheduling issues, at least the bands had a way to arrive — even if some were very late.
SCHEDULING WOODSTOCK PERFORMERS WAS ROUGH
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The massive traffic jams that prevented performers from making it to Woodstock on time made a complete mockery of the originally planned scheduling. The scheduled opening act and their equipment were delayed and didn't arrive on time, so a new act had to be put in their place, which led to a late start (per Kevin Hillstrom's "Defining Moments: Woodstock").
To make matters worse, the weather added to the difficulties the traffic presented. Rainstorms saturated the area over the weekend, causing abbreviated and delayed performances. Some bands backed out of playing altogether due to the bad weather, causing last-second replacements to be slotted in where needed. On the second day of the festival, the lack of bands onsite forced the organizers to add even more people to the lineup, and they also had some of the Sunday performers play on Saturday, too.
The biggest tragedy of the bad scheduling, however, happened to Jimi Hendrix's "Gypsy Sun and Rainbows." Even though the festival was supposed to conclude on Sunday night, scheduling delays pushed things so far back that Hendrix did not come on stage until 9:00 a.m. the following morning. As a result, many of the attendees were too tired to stay for his set or thought the festival had ended the night prior (per John McDermott's "Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight"). Of the nearly 450,000 Woodstock attendees, just over 20,000 saw Hendrix perform due to poor scheduling.
RICHIE HAVENS SAVED THE DAY
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One of the most memorable acts to perform at Woodstock was Richie Havens. Havens, a black folksinger, opened the Woodstock festivities with one of the best sets of the entire weekend, punctuated by his incredible performance of the song "Freedom." However, Havens actually wasn't supposed to open Woodstock at all. Originally, Michael Lang had scheduled the band Sweetwater as the festival's opening act (via Kevin Hillstrom's "Defining Moments: Woodstock"). But when they were not able to arrive on time, Lang instead turned to Havens to get things started.
As Havens recalls himself in "Woodstock: The Oral History," he was initially terrified of the idea of being the opening act. He was reluctant to face such a large crowd, and his bass player was still stuck in traffic on his way there. Luckily, his bassist arrived just in time and Havens ended up playing the most famous set of his career.
In order to fill up time, Havens played his entire catalog (and then some) and came out for numerous encores. One of the organizers kept pushing Havens out for more encores because they had no one else to follow up. Out of ideas, he came up with the largely improvised song "Freedom" while on stage, which was a total stroke of musical genius. Havens saved the day with his early and extended performance, getting Woodstock off on a solid musical footing.
SEVERAL WOODSTOCK PERFORMERS WERE UNDER THE INFLUENCE
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It's no secret there was ample use of substances at Woodstock, considering it was at the height of the hippie era in the 1960s. Yet, most people don't realize just how much excess was involved on the performers' side. As The Who frontman Roger Daltrey wrote in his autobiography "Thanks a Lot Mr. Kibblewhite," pretty much every drink in the backstage area was laced with LSD — even the ice cubes. Daltrey accidentally ingested some when he drank a cup of tea, and he was still flying when he went onstage at 5:30 a.m. that morning.
Grateful Dead bass player Phil Lesh also recalled (via his autobiography "Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead") taking LSD at Woodstock, which he claimed was actually made in Czechoslovakia or the modern-day Czech Republic. He was also still under the influence when the Dead went to play, and their performance was marred by miscues and technical difficulties.
Carlos Santana was given mescaline by Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia on Saturday afternoon, thinking he had several hours before he was going to be onstage (via his autobiography "Universal Tone: Bringing My Story to Light"). However, immediately after taking it, he was forced to perform due to the various scheduling changes. On stage, Santana's guitar turned into an "electric snake," which Santana had to coax to stay straight. Still, his performance was incredibly memorable and helped put Santana on the map.
THE WEATHER MADE THINGS DANGEROUS
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While Woodstock was certainly memorable for the incredible music and vibes over that August weekend in 1969, it was also notorious for something else: the weather. Even beginning on Friday night there were issues with rain storms that caused set delays and cancellations (via Kevin Hillstrom in "Defining Moments: Woodstock"). According to organizer John Morris (via Joel Makower's "Woodstock: The Oral History"), things didn't get any better on Saturday, and there were even gale force winds that afternoon.
The stage itself started to move with the wind, and the massive speaker towers started swaying, too. Soon lightning kicked in, and the stage had to be briefly cleared of all electronic equipment. During the Grateful Dead's infamous Woodstock performance that night, the performers kept getting electric shocks from their microphones and instruments (per Dead bassist Phil Lesh's "Searching for the Sound"). The wind also picked up again and people backstage began shouting about the stage collapsing in on itself.
Much of the Dead's electrical problems stemmed from the lack of adequate ground and the fact that the band was playing
"high-impedance instruments," as Lesh noted. Coming very close to a horrifying mass electrocution, the band was close to getting lethally shocked just by plugging in. Luckily, nothing happened and the Dead got through their set, though it was relatively poor by their own estimation.
WOMEN PERFORMERS WERE UNDERREPRESENTED AT WOODSTOCK
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Looking back at Woodstock 50 years later, it's safe to say that it was a very male-dominated event. Of more than 30 acts to perform, fewer than a third included women members (via the Bethel Woods Center). However, even though they were underrepresented, the women of Woodstock put on some of the most memorable performances of the entire weekend.
Joan Baez performed one of the most legendary sets at the festival to close out Friday night, full of civil rights-themed protest music like "We Shall Overcome," which enthralled the audience (via Kevin Hillstrom in "Defining Moments: Woodstock"). Another highlight of Friday was singer-songwriter Melanie Safka. Safka was filling in for The Incredible String Band, who wouldn't go on during the thunderstorm, and immediately became a sensation. The performance jump-started her career, even though she performed for just under 20 minutes.
Legendary vocalist Janis Joplin also performed with her band Big Brother and the Holding Company. Though she was intimidated and heavily intoxicated, Joplin still performed a very well-received set. Her soulful and passionate vocals alternatively rocked and soothed the massive audience, forever linking her with Woodstock. Not to be outdone, Cynthia Robinson and Rosie Stone followed Joplin as part of Sly Stone's Family Stone Band, wowing the audience with their funky renditions. Though they weren't in the majority, the women of Woodstock certainly rocked just as hard, if not harder, than the men.
THE CROWD SIZE WAS INTIMIDATING
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For most of the performers at Woodstock, the nearly half-a-million large crowd was the biggest of their professional careers. Though many of them had become savvy veterans of the rock 'n' roll touring industry by that point, even Woodstock presented new challenges due to the incredible crowd size.
The opener of the show, Richie Havens, was nervous about being the first person on stage (via Joel Makower's "Woodstock: The Oral History"). He practically begged the organizers to put someone else up, as he had seen the crowd below when he flew in on a helicopter, and he sensed they were becoming unruly.
The Grateful Dead's performance was marred by technical issues and miscues, and according to Dennis McNally's "A Long Strange Trip," the band felt like they were under an enormous amount of pressure due to the crowd size. They also knew that Woodstock had spread beyond the confines of the close-knit hippie community, and was being written about and talked about by practically everyone in the country. Many formerly small-time bands felt very out of their element at Woodstock, but most of them managed to put their nerves aside and perform well.
CASH WAS KING FOR WOODSTOCK PERFORMERS
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While today we look back on Woodstock as one of the most monumental music events of the '60s, at the time its impact was much less certain. According to Kevin Hillstrom's "Defining Moments: Woodstock," the Woodstock organizers offered bands twice the normal rate to get them to agree to come. Two of the biggest paydays belonged to The Who and Jimi Hendrix, who were able to cash in big on their performances.
At some point, word got around that the organizers were low on cash flow, and two of the biggest bands, the Grateful Dead and The Who, both refused to go on stage without cash in hand, according to organizer Joel Rosenman's "Young Men With Unlimited Capital." Both of them demanded their remaining fee of $7,500 before stepping on stage, and Rosenman was worried that if word spread, soon everyone would be demanding cash right away — something they didn't have.
In the end, as Rosenman notes, he had to fly in the branch manager of the local bank by helicopter to get funds at the last minute. Or did he? According to The Who band member Roger Daltrey's autobiography "Thanks a Lot Mr. Kibblewhite," Rosenman made up the entire story about the helicopter adventure and simply wrote them a check. Either way, it's lucky they came to an agreement, or else Woodstock might have ended then and there.
NOT EVERYONE SCHEDULED TO PERFORM AT WOODSTOCK CAME THROUGH
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For all of the chaos and confusion of the day, it's a miracle that Woodstock was able to function as well as it did. The organizers had their hands full from the very beginning, as they quickly became responsible for the health and well-being of close to half a million hungry, thirsty, and mostly intoxicated hippies. While the festival went on for the most part without major issues, not every performer had the same experience, and some of them didn't even make it to Woodstock at all.
The massive traffic jams prevented several acts from arriving at the farm, including Iron Butterfly. According to Pete Fornatale's "Back to the Garden: The Story of Woodstock," Iron Butterfly was scheduled to perform at the festival and actually made it to LaGuardia Airport in New York City. The band sent festival organizer John Morris a telegram demanding to be picked up, to which Morris responded with a carefully crafted acronym of an expletive. Needless to say, Butterfly never arrived in Bethel.
Other groups were supposed to play at Woodstock but disintegrated before the festival could be held. The most famous was the Jeff Beck Group, which Beck purposefully broke up before Woodstock started, leaving them unable to play (per Annette Carson's "Jeff Beck: Crazy Fingers").
PERFORMERS WERE RELUCTANT TO BE FILMED
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Sensing that the Woodstock festival would be important enough to document, the organizers of the festival hired filmmakers Mike Wadleigh and Bob Meurice to videotape the event (per "Young Men With Unlimited Capital"). According to Wadleigh, filming the performers was easier said than done. For one, they had signed the contract with the Woodstock organizers close to the start of the festival, leaving them shorthanded in terms of both crew and film (via Rolling Stone).
Because of their lack of film, Wadleigh and Meurice wanted to prioritize filming certain songs from each performer. Yet, even when they tried to work out a potential set list with some of the bands, it all fell to the wayside as soon as they got on stage. Another issue was the filming of the musicians, as some of them were very reluctant. Pete Townsend of The Who physically cleared the stage of Wadleigh early in their set, and it was only through luck that their iconic performance of "See Me, Feel Me" was captured.
Both The Band and Janis Joplin reportedly demanded exorbitant amounts of cash to appear in the film, sensing they had the upper hand. But in the end, it caused them to be cut from the movie altogether. Most performers ended up signing a release to appear, and the Woodstock movie ended up taking home an Academy Award upon its release.
WOODSTOCK PERFORMERS DIDN'T ALWAYS PLAY NICE
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Woodstock was billed by the promoters as "3 Days of Peace and Music," and while that worked out for the most part, there were still some tensions. The audience at Woodstock was a confluence of anti-war protestors, civil rights activists, and young men and women looking to experience the music and unity of the era. They did not all see eye to eye (per History).
Though their set was known for their incredible performance of their rock opera "Tommy," The Who's set is also infamous for a few other reasons. According to organizer Michael Lang in "The Road to Woodstock: From the Man Behind the Legendary Festival," at the beginning of the set, guitarist Pete Townsend kicked filmmaker Mike Wadleigh to get him off the stage. But things didn't end there.
Halfway through their performance, prominent anti-war activist Abbie Hoffman got on stage and started talking about the Vietnam War and the recent arrest of John Sinclair for marijuana possession. While Townsend did not necessarily disagree with Hoffman's rhetoric, he had already warned everyone to clear the stage following the Wadleigh kick. When Hoffman came up and started his diatribe, Townsend smacked him with his Gibson guitar, sending him flying off the stage. It wasn't exactly the peaceful message the organizers had in mind, but it did clear the stage and allow The Who to continue to lay waste to the 400,000-odd fans in attendance.
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THE MESSED UP TRUTH ABOUT THE 1970S MUSIC INDUSTRY
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BY MARTA ZABO/JULY 11, 2022 2:59 PM EST
It's no secret that the 1970s were filled with sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll — at least as far as the music industry goes. The Beatles' gently skirting the edge (as Rolling Stone notes) in the late 1960s was cute in comparison to Iggy Pop's performances with The Stooges in the 1970s. The music was louder, heavier, and less forgiving. Tragically, so was the whole music industry at the time. Managers and producers scammed their bands, musicians struggled with substance use, and several men partook in the abuse of very young and even underage women.
As NPR reports, a teenage Lori Maddox was assaulted by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, who hid her at L.A.'s Hyatt House hotel to keep the fact hidden. Big figures in the music industry were protected while their victims were quiet and helpless. When Badfinger's Pete Ham took his own life, he left a note reading, "Stan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me" (via Far Out). While the 1970s were filled with exceptional music breakthroughs and style developments, they remain ridden with stories of abuse.
The following article contains descriptions of addiction, sexual assault, and suicide.
JACKIE FUCHS WAS ASSAULTED BY HER MANAGER
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In 1975, Jackie Fuchs was 15 years old when she was spotted in L.A. and invited to music entrepreneur Kim Fowley's apartment. As Huffington Post reports, Fowley was just in the process of creating an all-female band, and he had sent Rodney Bingenheimer to collect young, pretty women. This is how the Runaways were formed, and their manager was the man that posted this ad in Back Door Man magazine in June 1975.
Fowley had a pattern of assault — that same year he assaulted and abused an 18-year-old young woman and a 14-year-old girl. Sadly he would focus his attention on Fuchs at a 1975 New Year's Eve party, held in a motel following a quasi-successful Runaways show. Fuchs was force-fed multiple Quaaludes and raped by Fowley, too weak to fight him off. She just remembers the moment she realized what was happening: "I remember opening my eyes, Kim Fowley was raping me, and there were people watching me."
Because none of the bandmates even addressed the situation afterward, Fuchs felt she couldn't speak up as no one would back her: "I was going to be the one that ended up on trial more than Kim. I carried this sense of shame and of thinking it was somehow my fault for decades."
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
UNDERAGE GROUPIES WERE THE NORM
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Sadly, the Runaways' story isn't a stand-alone atrocity in the 1970s music industry. This was the decade when R. Dean Taylor released his song "Shadow:" "Body of a woman, mind of a child / Shadow, you sure do drive me wild / You're only 14 years old." Men having relationships with underage girls (and sexual intercourse with underage groupies) was so normalized at the time, that no one batted an eyelid over lyrics such as Taylor's.
As per Rolling Stone, Jimmy Page famously dated groupie Lori Maddox for a few years. Maddox was 14 years old when she met Page — he knew this, and he tried to hide this. According to NPR, Page kept Maddox locked in his room at the Los Angeles Hyatt House hotel, all too aware that he was committing statutory rape. Still, although the couple eventually became a common sight at Led Zeppelin's parties, Page was never held accountable for the relationship.
Then there was Elvis Presley. As Vice reports, Presley had always had a penchant for pursuing underage girls. and in 1959, he met 14-year-old Priscilla Presley was only 14 years old when she met him in 1959. Following their divorce in 1973, Presley went on to date another 14-year-old, Reeca Smith.
OVERDOSES WERE ALMOST EXPECTED OF ROCKSTARS
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In the fall of 1970, Janis Joplin was working on what was going to become her best-selling LP: "Pearl" (via History). Four years before, she had come to San Francisco and quickly turned from a drifter into a prolific singer, too loud or brave to stay with her first band, Big Brother and the Holding Company. As per Society of Rock, on October 4, road manager John Cooke went to check on Joplin after she had failed to turn up to a meeting. Cooke found her dead as a result of a heroin overdose. Less than a month before, Jimi Hendrix had also died of a drug overdose. He asphyxiated on his own vomit in his sleep, following yet another night of combining dangerous drugs.
The 1970s continued to be ridden with overdose deaths in the world of musicians. On July 3, 1971, The Doors frontman Jim Morrison died inside the bathtub of his Paris apartment from heart failure, with many believing he accidentally overdosed on heroin (via The Washington Post). In 1977, Elvis Presley was found dead in his bathroom as well. As per Society of Rock, an autopsy revealed he had 14 drugs in his system at the time of his death. And these are just a few of the rock artists who overdosed in the 1970s.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
SID AND NANCY
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The Sex Pistols put the "sex" in "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll," but their frontman Sid Vicious did much darker things, too. Tragically, Vicious' mother was a heroin addict, and, according to The Independent, she supplied him with the drug as well. Just as he was climbing the ranks of the music world in 1977, Vicious began a relationship with a groupie, Nancy Spungen (via the Los Angeles Times). Their relationship was tumultuous, to say the least — they would burn each other's arms with cigarettes, abuse substances, and physically fight, reports The Independent.
It all culminated on October 12, 1978, when Spungen was found dead following a stab to the stomach. When the police arrested Vicious on suspicion of murder, he said, "I did it ... Because I'm a dirty dog." He then retracted his statement and went with another story instead — he had taken 30 Tuinal tablets, so he was fast asleep when Spungen died.
Altough he was bailed out, Vicious never recovered from Spungen's death. Spungen's mother remembers Vicious saying he had lost the will to live, and on one occasion, he tried taking his own life by slitting his wrists, as per the L.A. Times. As The Independent reports, on February 2, 1979, Vicious died of a heroin overdose. He was 21. Although the full reality of Spungen's death will never be known, the famous couple's story is a dark lesson.
SONNY AND CHER ENDURED A HORRIBLE MARRIAGE FOR THE CAMERAS
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When Cher met fellow musician Sonny Bono in 1963, she was 16 years old and he was 12 years her senior (via Biography). Cher's own mother told Ladies' Home Journal in 1975 that Bono was a father figure before he was a lover to Cher. But the two became a star couple following their 1965 hit single, "I Got You Babe." By 1971, two years after getting married, they had their own variety show, "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour." The TV program showed the couple's family life, and it would end with them singing "I Got You Babe" to each other. It was a hit, and the couple needed it badly — by now, they had a child and financial issues as a result of a failed movie project.
But the show was selling a lie. Cher told Vanity Fair in 2010 that Bono was a not a very good partner. "I wouldn't have left him if he hadn't had such a tight grip— such a tight grip." But Bono had double standards: He often cheated on his wife, and, by 1973, he was living with another partner (via Biography). But he and Cher endured a few more years of the toxic marriage for the sake of their show. Eventually, they got divorced in 1975 — as expected, the interest in their show plummeted quickly.
QUEEN WERE SCAMMED BY THEIR MANAGER (AND THEY WEREN'T ALONE)
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Nowadays, Queen are known as one of the most prolific rock bands in history. But although they produced hit tunes from the very beginning, in 1975, they were broke. Why? As per Far Out Magazine, drummer Roger Taylor commented that they could barely afford buying new drumsticks: "You see them [the management] running around in stretch limos and think 'hang on there's something not right here!'"
Indeed, something wasn't right. Trident Studio owner Norman Sheffield, who was Queen's manager at the time, was making a lot of money off Queen's tracks and finding ever fresher ways to get out of paying the band. When the reality of Sheffield's fraud dawned on Freddie Mercury, Queen left Trident Studios. Frustrated and bitter, Mercury wrote an exceptional song for the "A Night at the Opera" album — "Death on Two Legs." Its lyrics are pretty obvious: "You've taken all my money, and you want more / Misguided old mule with your pigheaded rules." However, listeners didn't know who the song was dedicated to until Sheffield himself came out of the shadows and sued the band for defamation. A settlement was reached outside the court, but as a result of the lawsuit, Sheffield became the master of his own demise –- people knew him for what he was. Unfortunately, Queen weren't alone in being seriously scammed by their managers in the 1970s.
BADFINGER'S MANAGER TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THE BAND, WITH TRAGEDY FOLLOWING
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If there is a contest for the worst band manager ever, Stan Polley probably tops Norman Sheffield. In the mid-to-late 1960s, Badfinger (at the time known as the Iveys) became the first-ever band to be signed by Apple Studios after The Beatles (via Louder). Paul McCartney particularly appreciated their style and took the band under his wing, to the extent that Badfinger became known as "the new Fab Four." McCartney wrote Badfinger's "Come And Get It" — the song would reach No. 4 in the United Kingdom after its release in 1970. But the United States was overall more enthusiastic about the band.
Excited about their popularity in the U.S., Badfinger entrusted their finances to manager Stan Polley. Polley was not just greedy — as Salon reports, he took away all the band's money and left behind a contract that made it impossible for them to make any more money without him. As Louder notes, Tom Evans wrote the songs "Hey Mr Manager" and "Rock 'n' Roll Contract" to channel his frustrations.
But on the morning of April 24, 1975, frontman Pete Ham died by suicide. He had a pregnant wife and a freshly bought house that he could not afford. On his suicide note, he called out Polley for his wrong doing. Indeed, Polley tried to cash in Ham's life insurance afterward, according to Salon. Eight years later, Tom Evans died by suicide as well, after repeatedly saying he wanted out as well.
THERE'S A CHANCE JIMI HENDRIX WAS MURDERED BY HIS MANAGER
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Jimi Hendrix sadly joined the 27 Club (the infamous list of musicians who died at the age of 27) on September 18, 1970, as Society of Rock reports. The story was quite clear: His girlfriend Monika Dannemann had found him unresponsive in the morning, after a night of overindulging in illegal substances. But according to Louder, the story behind Hendrix's death is much murkier than that.
In 1973, Hendrix's former manager, Mike Jeffery, was chatting to roadie James "Tappy" Wright when he made a very disturbing confession, as remembered by Wright: "As we are talking, Mike began to get very agitated and pale. 'I had no bloody choice, I had to do it. ... You know exactly what I'm talking about. It was either that or I'd be broke or dead.'" Jeffery then went on to say something along the lines of getting some nasty friends to pour "booze down the windpipe." In an even creepier twist, the following month, Jeffery was found dead. It turns out Jeffery had ties to the Mafia, and debts that he had been threatened about before. Although his confession was never investigated or officially connected to Hendrix's death, it definitely adds a tragic layer to the rockstar's story.
GRAM PARSON'S BODY WAS STOLEN
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Singer-songwriter Gram Parsons died from a heroin overdose in September 1973, as All Music confirms. But the tumultuous rock 'n' roll life continued to haunt Parsons after his death, in a very strange way. As per Louder, on September 20, two drunk men wearing cowboy hats stole Parsons' corpse and drove it to Joshua Tree, California. These were Phil Kaufman, Parsons' manager, and a friend of his. As he confessed to Louder, "He was en route to Continental Airlines at LAX, from where he would be shipped back to his step-father in New Orleans." But Kaufman was adamant Parsons would not have wanted to be buried in Louisiana. A few months before Parsons died, he told Kaufman, "If I die I want somebody to have a few beers, take me out to the desert and burn my body." The two made a pact that night: They would make sure the other would get buried in the desert.
So Kaufman drove Parsons' corpse to Joshua Tree and set his casket on fire. Needless to say, this earned him a fine of $300 (via The Current). However, as there was still no law against stealing a corpse, Kaufman and his friend were only fined for stealing the casket.
RACIST SLURS COULD BE HEARD AMONG MUSICIANS
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On March 15, 1979, the Stephen Stills Band and Elvis Costello happened to stay at the same Holiday Inn in Columbus, Ohio, after both of them played shows that night (via Ultimate Classic Rock). At its bar, Costello got intoxicated and started picking on the members of the Stephen Stills Band. Eventually, the band left the bar except the backing singer, Bonnie Bramlett. As she taunted Costello, he showed an even uglier side, revealing his feelings on race in America. He yelled out racial slurs against James Brown and Ray Charles. Yep. Twice in a night. Soon enough, the two got into a brawl.
After Bramlett went to the press, Costello offered an excuse, but not an apology: "It became necessary for me to outrage these people with the most offensive and obnoxious remarks I could muster to bring the argument to a swift conclusion and rid myself of their presence" (via UCR). He also said he was drunk and tired from touring, but that is hardly an excuse for being racist.
GARY GLITTER WAS A NOTORIOUS PEDOPHILE
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The 1970s music industry, unfortunately, was full of criminal and vicious characters. One such character was Paul Gadd, stage name: Gary Glitter. As per National World, Glitter abused three young girls between 1975 and 1980. Unfortunately, this was not discovered until 2012, following a U.K. investigation initiative after the Jimmy Saville scandal. Detective Chief Inspector Michael Orchard commented on Glitter's callousness (via Rolling Stone): "Paul Gadd has shown himself to be a habitual sexual predator who took advantage of the star status afforded to him by targeting young girls who trusted him and were in awe of his fame. His lack of remorse and defense that the victims were lying makes his crimes all the more indefensible."
In 2015, Glitter was convicted of one count of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault, and one count of sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Read More: https://www.grunge.com/1134714/the-messed-up-truth-about-being-a-performer-at-woodstock/?utm_campaign=clip
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