The Rolling Stones Altamont Free Concert
After the three-day music festival at Woodstock, Rolling Stones lead singer, Mick Jagger, began obsessing about a similar music event in San Francisco, including a filmed documentary of the event soon nicknamed “Woodstock West.”
Knowing the city lacked the infrastructure for such a mass invasion of stoned-out concert-goers, San Francisco officials quickly shut down the notion, forcing the Stones to sign a financially bad deal to host the event at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma. Pulling out of the deal just two days before the previously-announced event, roadies moved the stage and sound system 80 miles southeast to Altamont Speedway near Livermore California.
Hell’s Angels at Altamont
Due to Jagger’s long-standing dislike of police, at the behest of the Grateful Dead, the Stones hired the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang for concert grounds security, paying them $500.00 in beer to cover the event.
When the concert kicked off on December 6, 1969, to an over-capacity crowd of more than 300,000 people, the Angels turned violent almost the moment they arrived, beating back concert-goers with sawed-off pool cues, metal pipes and motorcycle chains.
To make matters worse, a batch of bad acid had circulated widely throughout the concert grounds, increasing conflicts between stoners and the openly-violent Hell’s Angels. The concert included sets by Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones, although the Dead backed out after the Angels’ unmitigated violence became amplified under the worsening effects of alcohol and drugs.
Even the lead singer of Jefferson Airplane, Marty Balin, was knocked unconscious when he tried to stop fights from breaking out between the Angels and concert-goers pressing in on the stage.
Meredith Hunter
Having already been involved in a fight with the Angels, when the Stones took the stage after dark, teenager Meredith Hunter tried to scale a speaker cabinet for a better view of the band’s rendition of “Under My Thumb.”
When he was quickly knocked off the cabinet by Hell’s Angels, Hunter drew a gun and threatened his aggressors, prompting Angel Alan Passaro to draw a knife and stab the teen no less than four times. Hunter died at the scene, and while Passaro was put on trial for first degree murder, after footage surfaced of Hunter drawing his gun, Passaro was acquitted on grounds of self-defense.