Report: Why LED ZEPPELIN Skipped Woodstock
August 16, 2009, 15 years ago
LED ZEPPELIN fan-site Lemon Squeezings is reporting:
Forty years ago, the Woodstock Festival of Arts and Music took place on Max Yazgur's farm in Bethel, NY. As we know, Led Zeppelin did not play at Woodstock. But it is seldom understood why this was the case.
It is often printed that Led Zeppelin was at one time booked to play Woodstock but later opted out. This is not the case, says Woodstock organizer Michael Lang. Led Zeppelin was never booked to perform at the festival.
In a conversation with Lemon Squeezings last week, Lang remembered talking with Led Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant, in 1969 about booking the band for Woodstock but was unable to obtain a commitment. "Their manager [Peter Grant] said he didn't want them to be just another band on the bill," Lang recalled.
It's an odd explanation, given that Led Zeppelin played similar festivals near Seattle and Austin two weeks before and after Woodstock, alongside many of the same acts that were at Woodstock. But when it came time for the three days of peace and music, Led Zeppelin took its serving of 'Whole Lotta Love' elsewhere.
Woodstock was the second gig for a supergroup called CROSBY, STILLS & NASH. It was the breakthrough gig for a San Francisco band called SANTANA. JIMI HENDRIX made an iconic appearance, turning the 'Star-Spangled Banner 'into an expression of how an abandoned generation felt about the war and the establishment. THE WHO played its genre-bending rock opera "Tommy."
Led Zeppelin, meanwhile, chose to play four gigs over the weekend Woodstock was taking place.
- The first was a headlining gig over Jethro Tull and Sweet Smoke on Friday, August 15, at the Hemisfair Arena in San Antonio, Texas.- The other three, however, were a short driving distance from Woodstock.
- Two on Saturday, Aug. 16, took place at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park, N.J., with Led Zeppelin headlining over Woodstock act JOE COCKER.
- The weekend closed with a Sunday night performance at the Oakdale Musical Theatre in Wallingford, Conn. Led Zeppelin was the only band on the bill that day.
Read the entire report here.
