Four decades ago, four twenty-somethings got together and created the defining moment of a generation - Woodstock. The spirit of peace, love and music from the 1969 festival lives on in so many ways. Heck, look at what website you are on right now.
Artie Kornfeld was one of those four young men who put a permanent stamp on our culture. Prior to being "The Father of Woodstock" at age 27, Artie had already had a long career as a songwriter, performer and executive in the music industry.
Recently, Artie Kornfeld's book The Pied Piper Of Woodstock was published. This book looks at Artie's childhood, career and family life. We here at Woodstock.com, recently had the opportunity to speak to Artie. After we got finished thanking him over and over again for Woodstock, we talked about his life and his music. The Pied Piper Of Woodstock is a great read and naturally we suggest you pick up a copy, and then buy one for all your friends. The book is available at http://www.amazon.com/Pied-Piper-Woodstock-Artie-Kornfeld/dp/0615325998/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255287856&sr=8-3-spell.
Also, you can, and should, check out Artie Kornfeld's Spirit of the Woodstock Nation radio program at http://www.artistfirst.com/woodstocknation.htm.
Woodstock.com: You left your job at Capitol Records to focus on Woodstock. What was your vision and expectations for Woodstock after the festival? Where did you want to take that Woodstock Ventures?
Artie Kornfeld: I knew there was going to be a movie and a record and I was too busy doing what I had to do to get the people there peacefully. Others were building the stage and the field and that stuff, I was creating a consciousness. As far as that goes, when I left Capitol, within two years at 25 or 26, I would probably have been the President (of the label), because I had a great record of signing great acts, putting my money behind the band and putting my money behind the games people played. I probably would have been the (label) President, but it wasn't that critical to me.
I didn't intend to take Woodstock Ventures anywhere. (My vision) was just to keep the music going and it just so happened that Michael Lang and I were good friends. As close as two men could be, with (my wife) Linda in there too as part of it. She has as much credit as Michael and I for the idea coming out. She was very cosmic and she picked up on the vibe. It was kids building a tree house. I was a songwriter who knew how to get words to people. That's what it was about. There was mutual trust. There was a great friendship. I never thought about going any further until after Woodstock.
I was able to raise money to start a record company, because I had already negotiated a deal before I left Woodstock Ventures for a million dollars from Atlantic Records and Jerry Wexler, but
that fell through. So, for me, it was just to keep the music going.
Woodstock.com: As a songwriter, what is your opinion of Joni Mitchell's song "Woodstock?" Do you think it was a valid interpretation? How did you feel about it at the time?
Artie Kornfeld: I really thought it was quite amazing that probably from talking to the guys - David, Graham, Steven and maybe even Neil - that she was able to come up pretty much with a great interpretation, (like) someone who was there. It was incredible and I guess the spirit reached her. I guess she embraced everything that happened and probably wished she could have been there singing at Woodstock. I remember when Michael came in and said I just got a note from David (about the song), because we were friends with David from the Grove. In fact I remember my late child Jamie sitting on Crosby's lap and calling him "Strawberry Crosby" and him laughing. When I first heard it by Crosby Stills & Nash I thought it was fantastic. I really did.
Woodstock.com: In your recent autobiography, The Pied Piper of Woodstock, it sheds light on your career and your life. People assume that Woodstock was your defining moment, but was it?
Artie Kornfeld: I think when I first looked through the glass and saw my late daughter Jamie laying there in her crib that that was the defining moment in my life. Families are important to me, that is why I talk a lot about family in my book and the accomplishments of my father, as a union organizer, and my mother, being a founder of the Freedom Rides and her commendation from the Congress Of Racial Equality. We had threats on our lives and all that stuff. My dad was a New York City cop who had to have three jobs his whole life to support us. The highlight (of my childhood) was Levittown. Those houses went for four grand. To me that was like Sutton Place compared to the huts we lived in after World War II. I didn't see my dad until I was three because he got injured in the Pacific. That's it; I'm a war baby that loves music.
Woodstock.com: What would you consider your defining professional moment?
Artie Kornfeld: My defining professional moment is right now with the Spirit Of The Woodstock Nation (radio program), because I spent forty years keeping it alive and the fact that through the radio show the spirit of Woodstock is growing and young kids are joining. I never expected my radio show to be the number one listened to show on the internet in the world. Like having P.F. Sloan, writer of Eve Of Destruction, on the show. That song has as much to do with Woodstock happening as the whole promotion and the whole Woodstock campaign. Because that was the first song that said, except for the Pete Seeger songs that intimated, that this is about our generation. "Old enough to kill but not for voting. You tell me over and over again that we are not on the eve of destruction." And right now, let's face it; we are on the eve of destruction. But that doesn't mean we can't make a difference. When I saw that walk for peace and people said, "Artie, you inspired this with all of your work on the internet and on your show." It's not just me; it's a consciousness that is coming back to light.
Woodstock.com: What message would you like to give to the younger generation that has just discovered Woodstock for the first time?
Artie Kornfeld: What Woodstock represented was not a concert. It was not the movie. It was the spirit of a generation pulling together to stop a war and to live a music culture of peace and harmony with the world. That's what I say to the younger people. Keep making music! Instead of (just putting stuff) on Facebook and Myspace, try picking out a friend and just say "here is a demo I cut, take a listen." Let's start getting music back into our culture. That leads to free thinking and expression, which is why I wrote The Pied Piper in 1963. It was about a guy who made music to get rid of the rats so the kids could express themselves and make music and dance in the streets, because they weren't allowed to. Free yourself. Woodstock happened a long time ago, but join the spirit of what Woodstock stood for. I call it the Spirit Of The Woodstock Nation. You're coming aboard, and welcome. We need you!
Woodstock.com: Each of the four original members of Woodstock Ventures has a different legacy, a different piece they contributed. How does Artie Kornfeld want his contributions to building the spirit of Woodstock to be remembered?
Artie Kornfeld: John and Joel made an investment. Joel and John put up two hundred and fifty grand. It was two wealthy kids with an investment. With Michael it was an introduction into the inside of the music industry. That was through me, because he met a lot of my friends at the house and Michael started getting accepted. I did feel that Michael and I were going to be together after. I really wanted to build Michael's name up. Not that he could match my resume, because my resume was already fifteen years of success doing music before that. Michael had this connection to the underground and that side. For me it was a fanatical thing. I already had bread from my writing and I had just sold The Cowsills for quite a bit of money before Capitol. Yeah, money came into my head, but I was starting to see more and more what it could be and it became fanatical to me.
I really went out of my way, advertising in Billboard, Cash Box and Record World and getting the articles in there. With the ad I ran on my wedding anniversary, I put that coupon on it. We got the ticket guy from the Fillmore, and I ran that ad. I knew I only had x amount of dollars to promote this thing and get the people into what it was going to be. I only put the coupon to buy the ticket on the ad to see the addresses of who was going to buy, and that ad showed me two things. One: stop advertising in the underground papers. People who read the underground papers are not going to pay for a concert. At that point there was going to be a fence, it was going to be a concert for profit. Two: I knew that I had to make that movie deal. I didn't know that Joel and John had been trying to make a deal through the agencies. I read in the paper that Freddy Weintraub became Vice President at Warner Brothers. I knew him from The Bitter End. When I was involved with the Lovin' Spoonful they played there, and I saw Dylan there for the first time. Five years before, he came to me at Mercury with an act that really would never sell that I spent one hundred grand on. He owed me one.
Thank god he was there because three days before Woodstock, and on the way up, I read he was there. I called and said I was coming over and the movie deal was made. Michael and I had did a lot of work before that because we had met with film people and we did decide that if Michael Wadleigh got his cameras up there he should be the guy. We talked with Pennebaker and we passed on Barbara Koppel. We decided if there was going to be a movie it should be Wadleigh. It was just getting Wadleigh that hundred grand, which I believe was the first check he got before it was renegotiated and the lawyers. It was just a handwritten contract which is exactly the way it should have been for something like Woodstock. And it held.
That ad I ran brought in a million five hundred thousand dollars. So in reality, the ad that I ran on my anniversary financed Woodstock. Eighteen dollars for three days of peace and music, that was cheap. I think people were already feeling this was going to be going to Mecca. Like, "we got to be there and be a part of this."
The audience is really what made it happen, the people that came. Let's face it; I really feel that I was a messenger. Every song I wrote, I was a messenger. I don't know where it came from. Thank whatever my higher power is that I am able to (write). You write songs because you really want to get inside people.
Building acts to me was the same as building the festival. It was the same formula. As I often said, taking Tracy Chapman, who was a black folk singer, to number one (was a highlight). She was first black girl to be played on FM rock radio doing a folk song. Taking it to number one was as hard a promotion, if not harder than promoting Woodstock. The same with Survivor, an unknown band with the number one selling song in history with Eye Of The Tiger. An unknown band was killer too.
Woodstock.com: What music inspires you today?
Artie Kornfeld: That's a tough question because I don't listen to the music the way people listen to it. We talked about it on the air when I was talking with Marty Balin (of the Jefferson Airplane), that the defining moments are in the studio when something clicks. That rush it gives you and the message you're getting out. I just flashed to how good it feels to be making music your whole life and actually make a living and surviving. Not that I wasn't broke and didn't know where the rent was coming from at some points in the last forty years, because I had that too. 
When I heard Drops of Jupiter by Train, being a guy that produces records and writes songs I said, "this is great." Reminds me of Neil Young After The Gold Rush, only from a younger prospective. So that stuck out. When I heard the Green Day protest album (American Idiot), I said, "now that's special."
I listen as a writer and a producer, having run three companies. I listen for quality and if it is really saying something. I even love Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One because they really were the first rap production company that made statements. Jimmy Wear A Hat; telling kids to wear a condom in the ghetto because aids was around. That was a very important message and that's why I love Boogie Down Productions. Sometimes I go to their shows. I would be in a very gang related crowd of three thousand people. But with that pass from KRS-One you were treated like one of the gang. That I liked. Some of the new hip hop I am just finally getting into, when it is slow enough that my old ears can hear it and pick up on the lyrics. If I could slow everything down I might really love hip hop. The language is different. We talked "groovy" and "right on" and a lot of hip hop is very angry. They are making a statement too, because in reality they are still being prejudiced against in this country. I believe in equality for all. It's in the constitution. Don't we live by that? I don't believe we totally do right now, but I believe in the bill of rights.
Woodstock.com: Would you rather there never be another interpretation of the Woodstock festival? Do you think it is better left alone, as far as trying to replicate or celebrate the original festival, or whatever the last two were trying to achieve?
Artie Kornfeld: To have another miracle? Yeah, there might be another miracle that may be just as important as Woodstock, because we sure need one. I sure hope one happens, but let's not have a miracle based on a generation that is four generations older than the mainstream of American youth right now. Let's have it so everybody that can make a difference is involved.
I am not going to announce concerts that are not going to happen, but I am right now negotiating with three groups of people for major concerts. They don't have Woodstock in the title, although it is connected because I am doing them. My name is going to be there.
Woodstock is not just a Barbie doll to be sold. It's a very spiritual special thing to all of us, and I am just one of the bunch.
Remember, you can check out Artie Kornfeld's Spirit of the Woodstock Nation radio program at http://www.artistfirst.com/woodstocknation.htm.
Also, you can purchase Artie's book, The Pied Piper of Woodstock at http://www.amazon.com/Pied-Piper-Woodstock-Artie-Kornfeld/dp/0615325998/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255287856&sr=8-3-spell.
Today is the anniversary of one of the saddest days in music history. It was on this date in 1980 that John Lennon was murdered outside in New York City home in the Dakota building. He had just returned to the music scene, with the release of Double Fantasy, after several years as a house husband. Woodstock.com recently spoke to Philip Norman, author of John Lennon: The Life.
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