Previous

Next

Photo: Tucker Ransom/Getty

Carlos Santana

I'll never forget the way the music sounded bouncing up against a field of bodies. You never forget that sound.

For the band as a whole, it was great. But I was struggling to keep myself grounded, because I had taken some strong psychedelics right before I went onstage. When we first got there, around eleven in the morning, they told us that we weren't going on until eight. So I said, "Hey, I think I'll take some psychedelics, and by the time I'm coming down, it'll be time to go onstage and I'll feel fine." But when I was peaking around two o'clock somebody said, "If you don't go on right now, you're not gonna go on."

We stuck around that whole evening, and I got to witness the peak of the festival, which was Sly Stone. I don't think he ever played that good again — steam was literally coming out of his Afro.

Next: Bob Weir

Check out Rolling Stone's
essential Woodstock coverage

Previous

Next