Charles Fleischer is the originator of the quote “If you remember the ’60s, you really weren’t there”, which has been widely misattributed to various other celebrities. It was the music!

Like meditation or prayer, music can lift us beyond ourselves. The sounds of the ’60s and ’70s moved both body and spirit.

The Monterey International Pop Festival, held in June 1967, signaled the dawn of the “Summer of Love” and became a defining moment in the counterculture movement. It launched the American careers of Jimi Hendrix and The Who, introduced Janis Joplin’s raw power to the world, and brought soul legend Otis Redding to a broader audience. Monterey set the stage for Woodstock and helped transform rock music into a billion-dollar industry.

At the time, Scott McKenzie’s anthem to the Haight—“San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)”—played on radios everywhere, planting dreams in the hearts of a whole generation of idealistic, searching teenagers—myself included. I didn’t make it to Monterey until I was 30, but spent plenty of time in San Francisco. I even saw Janis Joplin live in 1970, just months before her death, in a small club on Haight Street.

Christian rock exploded in the 1990s after America’s most famous evangelist, Reverend Billy Graham, began using it to attract crowds at his youth crusades.

The North Carolina preacher quickly realized that Rock ‘n Roll wasn’t just spiritually persuasive but also a lucrative crowd-pleaser.

Today, many of the country’s mega churches double as rock ’ n’ roll venues. It’s all about the music!

In an era before digital outreach, drawing such a massive crowd from across the globe was nothing short of extraordinary.

Organizers relied on grassroots methods, including ads in underground papers, national newspapers, and a fledgling magazine called Rolling Stone, which was just two years old.

Tickets were priced at just $7 per day, so Sherry and I went all in and bought passes for the full three days.

The festival was the brainchild of four entrepreneurs—John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld, and Michael Lang—who formed Woodstock Ventures, Inc. to pursue a promising investment. Though originally intended to be a profitable venture, organizers soon realized they couldn’t control the massive influx of unpaid attendees.

In the spirit of the moment, they opened the gates and welcomed all who arrived.

Day 1 leaned into a more folk-oriented vibe, offering a softer contrast to the heavier rock acts that would follow.

Richie Havens gained national attention for his powerful live performances, but his impromptu opening set at Woodstock in 1969 launched him into stardom.

Originally not slated to go first, Havens was asked to take the stage while massive traffic jams delayed other acts.

His nearly three-hour performance—extended by repeated encores—became legendary.

With no more rehearsed material left, he famously improvised the “Freedom” anthem, drawing from the spiritual “Motherless Child.”

This moment, later immortalized in the Woodstock film, marked a defining breakthrough in his career and introduced him to a global audience.

Though heavy rains transformed the festival grounds into a muddy expanse, the spirit of Woodstock never wavered. Drenched but undeterred, Sherry and I, along with thousands of free-spirited attendees in tie-dye and bell-bottoms, danced, sang, and bonded over a collective belief in music’s power to unite and uplift. The event’s unexpected spillover into a fourth day only amplified its lasting influence and the resolve of those who endured the chaos to be part of a historic cultural moment. But more than just a music festival, Woodstock became a fleeting but powerful symbol of peace, creativity, and the belief that a more compassionate world was possible, even briefly.

The festival arrived at a pivotal moment, offering young Americans a much-needed release through music. Psychedelic drug use was widespread among attendees, and some suggest it played a role in the peaceful atmosphere that prevailed throughout the weekend.

Six months pregnant and with her husband, David Harris, who federal marshals recently jailed, Joan Baez had plenty weighing on her mind, as reflected in the stories she shared between songs.

Even so, she delivered a powerful, graceful set to close out the festival’s first day, blending timeless folk tunes with country-rock pieces penned by Gram Parsons during his time with The Byrds. Her performance wrapped around 3 a.m., as the rain continued to fall.

Several major artists chose not to perform at Woodstock, including Simon & Garfunkel, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones.