About a week ago, I was joking with my wife, Marti about Woodstock. I told her that Melanie would be the last one standing. I was obviously mistaken as Melanie passed away a couple of days ago. I'd never really gotten to know her, although we were friends. We'd done some shows together over the years and decades. I remember the tour we did with others called "Woodstock In Europe" 1979. The 10th Anniversary tour. That was fun. Joe Cocker, Richie Havens, Country Joe, Melanie and I traveled around Europe in a tour bus - Great times.
But the one thing I'll always remember was the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival. I'd been invited to perform at Bethelwoods (which owns the original site), and also invited by Michael Lang for the event he was producing somewhere in upstate New York. Financially, these were great offers, but I declined them all. I was bound and determined to return to the original site 50 years to the day and perform for free to anyone who was there.
To make that happen, Bethelwoods promised a free stage, lights, sound system - All the stuff you'd need to do a gig. When I arrived absolutely none of those promises were kept. There was nothing but a vacant field, where 50 years ago it'd been filled with people.
I grabbed a guitar and sang a song on the original site where the stage had been. Later that afternoon we did a gig farther up the hill, where Bethelwoods had built a stage attached to their buildings (gorgeous by the way). The free show was limited to the first 5,000 people who showed up.
None of the original performers were there - Except one - Melanie. She had retuned to the site to celebrate. Seeing her there warmed my heart. Thank you, Melanie for keeping the dream alive as long as you did.