Michael Lang, one of the co-founders of the legendary Woodstock music festival that is widely regarded as having defined 1960s pop culture, died Saturday.
The promoter, whose career included managing such acts as Woodstock alum Joe Cocker, succumbed to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at the age of 77, Deadline reports.
His own fame was amplified when a documentary about the music festival came out in 1970 and included a great deal of interview footage of Michael.
Dearly departed: Michael Lang, one of the co-founders of the legendary Woodstock music festival that is widely regarded as having defined 1960s pop culture, died Saturday
Acts ranging from Joan Baez and the Grateful Dead to Creedence Clearwater Revival and Jimi Hendrix all performed at the festival in upstate New York.
The staggering lineup of 32 acts also included The Who, Janis Joplin, Sly And The Family Stone, Ravi Shankar and Jefferson Airplane.
Michael once told Variety that Carlos Santana went onstage while high on acid - which he had just taken from the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia because he was under the misimpression that he would not be going on for hours.
'He battled that guitar because he thought it was a serpent,' dished Michael, who had dropped out of college just two years before the festival.
Putting it together: Acts ranging from Joan Baez and the Grateful Dead to Jimi Hendrix played Woodstock: Michael is pictured just months before it in May 1969
Born in Brooklyn, Michael temporarily attended New York University and upon dropping out opened a 'head shop' - a store for cannabis paraphernalia - in Florida.
From there he drifted into the musical festival scene, including the Miami Pop festival he told "WNYC decades later was 'inspired by Monterey.'
He described Miami Pop, which took place at Gulfstream Park in 1968 with a lineup that included Jimi Hendrix and Chuck Berry, as 'kind of the seed for Woodstock.'
When he returned to New York State he settled in Woodstock upstate, where he became acquainted with Artie Kornfeld.
As seen in 2018: Born in Brooklyn, Michael temporarily attended New York University and upon dropping out opened a 'head shop' - a store for cannabis paraphernalia - in Florida
As Artie and Michael percolated the idea for a festival that would embody the rebellious spirit of the 1960s, they gathered more collaborators.
Ultimately it was the duo of Michael and Artie along with Joel Rosenman and John P. Roberts who devised the three-day whirlwind festival.
Michael has revealed the event was inspired by 'Saturday soundouts' that which 'took place on a little farm just outside Woodstock' and were 'the best thing I had ever experienced musically. I mean, being on a farm out under the stars, bucolic setting, listening to amazing music.'
He dished: 'Most of the talent was local, but we were in Woodstock, so local's Van Morrison, it's Blues Magoos, Ellen McIlwaine, Richie Havens - amazing shows.'
Origins: Born in Brooklyn, Michael temporarily attended New York University and upon dropping out opened a 'head shop' in Florida; he is pictured in 1976
As the hippie phenomenon, the antiwar movement, civil rights and the rise of rock 'n' roll converged in the 1960s, Woodstock became a cultural mecca.
Yet the festival took place at the farm of a man called Max Yasgur whom Michael noted 'was a Republican. He was in favor of the Vietnam War.'
Michael told Pollstar: 'It just goes to show how you can have different points of view and still move forward together. And what we don’t have today.'
'I think we were sort of empowered by Kennedy. When Kennedy was elected he really reached out to the youth of America,' Michael theorized to the "Guardian.
Fab four: The four Woodstock founders (clockwise from bottom left) John Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld, Michael and John P. Roberts are pictured months
