I was a rock promoter in Toronto at the time and very well known in the business. I got a call at my office in July from a Michael Lang, inviting us to come to his festival the following month. There were a lot of festivals that summer and I didn't think anything of it at the time. Then on the Friday of Woodstock I was driving up Yonge St. in Toronto with three co-workers when we heard about the festival on the radio and realized we had been invited to it the month before. We all looked at each other and said, "we gotta go." So we just headed there and of course arrived at a N Y State thruway rest stop about 50 miles away from the festival about 2 am where all traffic was stopped and about a thousand or more people just like us were hanging out partying and listening to the broadcasts on the radio.
So being promoters we knew there would he choppers going in and out of somewhere getting the acts and supplies in. I called the N Y State Police and told them I was a roadie for one of the acts, don't remember which, and needed directions to the airport where the choppers were flying from.
The guy asked for my location and then proceeded to direct us back on the thruway the other way to the next exit and then literally gave us a mapquest version of directions on back roads to the Monticello Airport where we arrived about 4am. My receptionist who was with us was too scared to go any further and as she and another friend had gotten VERY close in the car ride down, they decided to get a motel room nearby and watch the festival on TV. So that left two of us, myself and Hugh Curry, a top FM DJ in Toronto to try and get on a helicopter. We approached the guy dealing with them and he just flat out told us to piss off, that no one was getting on a chopper unless they were an act or support staff. Then a cab pulls up and a guy gets out and starts yelling that he has Jimi Hendrix's guitar and that he needs to get on a chopper right away. The chopper guy tells him the same thing, that he isn't getting in on a chopper until Sunday evening since Jimi is closing the show and right now it is only Saturday morning barely. So Hugh and I start chatting him up, his name was Eric Barret and he was a really loud little English guy but quite affable. Next thing we know some guy in a greasy baseball cap and overalls who seemed to be chewing something, sidles up to us and says in a real hillbilly accent, "You boys wanna go that big hippy show?"
We looked at him and then he says, "Fifty bucks...(pause) each." So Eric pulls out some money and says OK and Hugh and I look at each other and figure what the Hell we came this far. So we three get into this guys station wagon and off he goes down the dark country road. Within about a hundred yards he all of a sudden jerks the wheel and drives straight into the woods. We all scream and grab for things to hold on to but soon realize as we crash into branches and things flashing off the windshield that the car is in some ruts and appears to be going along fine through the woods. We drive for a while and then emerge into a field where the ruts seem to be as well and after a few minutes we see this guy is heading towards more woods at about 20 miles an hour. We all start screaming for him to slow down but he just starts laughing and the next thing we know we are crashing into the next woods and the same thing, branches flying off the windshield but we are getting through. The car emerges once again into a field and we go for a few minutes until after cresting a slight rise we drop down right into the backstage area of the festival. Hugh and I look at each other like "unbelievable'. The car pulls to a stop, security people rush over and Eric jumps out screaming, "Eric Barrett, I've got Jimi's guitar, where's me laminates and me trailer?" So security pulls out laminates and we say, "We're with him." and they give us all laminates and direct us to the food tent and him to a trailer. We were in, backstage, with all access laminates. Whew.
So many crazy things happened. Amongst them Janis kicking me off the stage when she came out to perform and found her guitar player, (my friend John Till from Toronto) and I smoking a joint behind the amps. She had to turn around and saw us and came sceaming over yelling, "Who the fuck are you? What are you doing with my guitar player? Get the fuck off my stage." At which point security pulled me away and told me to cool it while she was on.
I was whacked on shrooms at one point and after Sly's set I walked almost off the stage (50 feet high) into the darkness but a stage crew guy, one of many the wonderful Chip Monk had hired for just such a reason, alertly saw me wobbling towards the edge and literally grabbed me under the arm as I stepped out into the void. Lifesaver. Thank you man whoever you were.
I was standing right beside Abbie Hoffman when he decided to run over and grab the mic and start yelling "What are we gonna do about John Sinclair?" during the set by The Who. Townsend ran up and clobbered him unconscious with his guitar, roadies dragged him off and the set continued.
So we stayed for Jimi and were on stage for the National Anthem but soon enough it was over and we stood there backstage wondering aloud, "Where's that guy with the station wagon." Of course he was nowhere to be seen, but up on a rise of farmland about 100 yads away was a National Guarad helicopter with its rotors slowly turning and a uniformed kid standing next to it. I motioned for Hugh to follow me and quickly we made our way over to the chopper. I came right up to the guy and said, "We're with the promoters and we need to get to Monticello airport right away. Can you take us?" he looks at us and says, "Get in." he loads us in and up we go, over the festival, over the adjacent farms strewn with trash and still many cars and soon we swoosh down onto the taramac at the Monitcello airport where our two friends are standing in the cold by Hugh's car. They see us get out of the chopper and freak. We share our story with them and all pile into the car and drive back to Toronto. Whew. What a weekend. Never been anthing like it since. :) Johnny Brower..
PS We brought John & Yoko and Eric Clapton and The Plastic Ono Band to Toronto the next month and it was great but there was and never will be ANYTHING like Woodstock 69. xoxoxo
You can hear me tell this story on youtube if you just do a search under my name or Woodstock Story, PEACE OUT