Had liked Benny Goodman for the lumbardos. The two brothers, they both had bands. What over two guys who had best bands . She listened to big band music in my uncle of jazz. He was always listening to jazz. Those were the influences i had. Was your mother a performer . Artie my mother became a very famous she was the founder of the freedom rise. It will blow your mind about surely kornfeld. Shes the star in my family, not me. Reporter today, you are the star. Artie i am just a representative of a dream. Reporter Capitol Records was a new concept and you took a commanding position. How did that come about . Who just good friend sold his stock in martha stewart, chairman of the board we metrds for 15 years, if you read my book, we met at Queens College night school and he had just taken over the job working for Donnie Kershner from evans kershner music. I had already had a record out when i was 16. I was signed when i was 16 so i had a record out, and it died and nothing else happened. I ran into charles and you read the book, youll crack up the story is hysterical how it all happened. On withnext day i go the demo i made and i play it for Donnie Kershner and they sign me here i am signed to brian dauphin king, wilson, jan barry, great writers. There i was. It was so simple. You wrote a song and you played it for Donnie Kershner cousin he was the b because he was the boss. If you like to come you got a contract. In those days, we went to smaller studios. I dont even remember the names, but we go to get charles. Charles. You get three hours and you do 10 songs in three hours. I dont even remember if it was two track at the time. We were cutting two track. What happened is jerry and carol put out locomotion and then hey girl. Handymancott was the and he sang hey, girl. I did a song called can i you are going to fall in love with me. Demos so good at doing that a lot of us went into producing records. Capital left capitol i had run mercury and roulette. The i was the first Vice President of rock in the musics nest history because that is the way the pr went out. Vice president of rock and that was just coming in. 1956. Out 1950 sykes it is when i signed quicksilver, stuff like that. That was the start of rock. He used to drink his own urine. He did, and he had his daughter do it soto and he thought that was the key to a longer life. Anyway, that is a private story. Sorry, matt. He lived near malibu, so thats how i knew. What was that Tipping Point im going to, create the woodstock musical arts festival. Artie i was running capitol, i was very successful. I had no budgets. The president chairman of the board loved me. I probably signed the first year where i had no limits. Nobody could say no to what i wanted to do. I was in the studio with debi at the time. Walls, was producing the linda ronstadt, things were happening in the company. Then one day and i was known as grabbing opened her for everybody. My secretary said there is a kid so iere with long hair, did have bird summer who i produced three albums with. I knew the guys who wrote hair. Said his name is michael. Does he have an appointment . Ask him if he can come back tomorrow. Hes from bensonhurst. I brought him in. His story is, i was sitting on my desk smoking hash. I hadnt even gotten high yet. Hes the one who got me into grass. John sebastian gave me a joint one time. That was the extent of my drug experimentation. , the Police Closed them down in florida. I was already living in the tallest building in manhattan, the penthouse apartment and jeansin my genes and and with my wife, i had a new baby. Everything was wonderful. The sky michael lang came in and we became friends instantly. He didnt have money so i supported him for a year and half and one night we were shooting pool, we were playing bumper pool and i was on the 40th floor and i looked out over it was the highest residential building at that time and you could look at over the whole city. Michael said you are tainted. You dont go to concerts anymore. I said michael, ive been doing this since 1956 and ive seen so many concerts, ive played so many clubs. Studio all the time and i write and you dont do that stuff. Your way of getting connected to music is to go see it. Mine is to make it. What if you took a broadway theater and had just made it free . Well use my money because you dont have any. When we run out of money, we will close it down. We will try to get the biggest acts we can and make it free. He said well, i started to work on a thing in miami called miami pop but what happened is it rained and it folded. It was called a festival. That stuck in my mind, festival. Then my late wife, me her soul rest in peace, said what if you took it outside . And then the bell went off. Then i saw the field. I said yeah, well if we took it outside, michael, suppose we had hendrix and joplin and all these people. Comedy would come . How many would come . He said 50,000. I said 100,000. My wife said more than 300,000. I swear to god, i looked up that terrorists and i saw the field terrace and saw that field. I had seen it before. I had seen it the year before. They rode in the book, michael didnt say a word. Artie did all the talking. I talked him into the 250,000. Location, location, location. We were always going to college woodstock even though there was not enough land to have it in. I had the band at capitol. There,was living up everyone was up in woodstock or coconut grove, florida or sausalito in california. Was. Was the way it location, michael did a stupid thing. He built a site can walk hill with no permit from the town. That wiped out the budget. Think i was going to sell tickets. I was shocked. Wereit was all over, we one million in debt. It cost 2. 4 million. The initial budget was 250,000. 600 over budget, i went 60 over budget. I didnt promoted very heavy. I planned it out. I knew how to promote records. Id been writing songs so many years and they were biting mice by my songs. Buying my songs. I knew my audience. I got disc jockeys talking about it. Like bruce, who lives here. He said woodstock was not your greatest promotion, Tracy Chapman was. Hes right. Woodstock was easy for me to promote. I knew exactly what to do and it wasnt me. I was a messenger, not the creator. I knew from whatever power i had in on, in, tapped knew what to do. Story is im sitting in my apartment and my cousin lived on 52nd street and had a neighbor who was a gay interior designer. Astor. Le was maxi skyt a phone call from the who says, mr. Kornfeld, i live next year cousin, lenore and my uncle has a cattle farm in new york and hes going to lose it. 600,000. Guyid michael, there is a named max yasgur. There are witnesses to this story and it is in my book. Went and met with max and made a deal for the farm. It was 60,000 originally. I couldnt believe it. I closed a movie deal and we went from warner bros. To get up there and michael says take the motorcycle. We are all over these farmers lands, 12 farm share and we got 40,000 people on the land. I said why dont you get releases . He said you have to do that. First of all, i dont ride motorcycles and second of all, you should have taken care of this. Im on the other side of the fence, in new york. So i went from doortodoor to door, i drove the motorcycle and had the right to sign for woodstock ventures. And youere from italy had your whole life invested in this farm and all of a sudden, everything was getting trampled. Woodstock ventures 60,000 to be paid within 120 days. I did that to about 16 farmers. Some were very nice, i wound up having coffee and pie. Some came to the door with shotguns. That was my greeting to woodstock. After i got totally wasted with nikki garcia. Noticed one of the things you were able to get the axe because you paid 12,000. [bleep]hats all bowl bull[bleep] there was no price on anybody. Davids manager was a friend of mine. People can say how sly got this and that, but i knew dave for 15 years before woodstock. He was in the music business and so was i. There was no set price on anybody. Thats a fable. The bands that were selected, did you have your alist and be list . Artie michael got in touch with bill graham and he got in touch with the whole San Francisco group. In reality, sweetwater and nancy nevins or the first band to get a deal out of San Francisco. They never really happened, so that brought in santana, the who am iater forgetting . The airplane at the time. And then iat group, was talking with managers i knew and producers, you know . I put in the summer because i produced him. Melody, i got her a record deal and put her into woodstock. Michael, we both had a friend named hector moralez. Singer,as a sinker, he got most of the acts. He was living in puerto rico and i dont know what he was doing for a living but whatever it was, he was in puerto rico and he had a lot to do. I mention in my book no one ever mentioned him. No one ever mentions steve cohn, who was really the stage manager of woodstock. The pressure on him was so andnse that he flipped out i had to sit with him for four hours and talking down. He lost it. The pressure got to him. He couldnt take it because when the rain hit, michaels stage wouldnt turn anymore. So to change the act because if you took too much time with that many people, big chance for a riot. You couldnt have people sitting there for 45 minutes between acts. This work, i was memory mesmerized and wanted to kiss every single one of these guys working. Lift myself. D to without the turntable and they were doing changes in 20 minutes for bigname act. That was amazing. That was really amazing. No, it is not true that jimi hendrix wanted to close the show because he was the headliner because if you listen, go into the archives and youll hear my interview with the percussionist and the band of gypsies. Theyll tell you the story of jimi hendrix. I said what do you think . They were friends of mine years before woodstock and jimi said artie, if i could have played at 9 00 when i was supposed to to have a million people, i did the best i can. It was only average. Which it was, id heard him play before. Thats what he felt and that is what i felt. With her bands you couldnt entice . Artie now. I dont know what michael was doing. I was really busy doing the wordofmouth. I was meeting with the black panthers, the weatherman, sds. I was traveling the country and making deals with every group. The only deals i made is will give you medical assistance, Legal Assistance if you are busted and well give you food if you dont have any. With all those groups and they accepted it. When they showed up, no problem. Obviously there is a fair factor of, you dont read that much about all those groups were going to possibly take advantage of that situation. Artie you dont read about it because i didnt have a pr person and didnt push that out there but it is in my book. Yeah. Such a fascinating concept. Well, i knew what i had to do. Like michael said to me on the phone this week michael, you went 600 over. Tie, ive never done one. To think about the concert, there was no opportunity for a lot of sound checks. Artie no, but when the rain hit, michaels troop came through. Michael did pull his weight. It took the two of us and my wife to come up with the idea and it did take michaels staff, because he went and bought the best he could get. Lights, was doing the doing sound, the best in the world. Steve was an incredible stage manager. John morris was a pro. Everyones top drawer. He covered himself. I was proud that it held. When the rain hit, it was such a threat to everybody and that is when the miracle happened. When the rain hit, the miracle happened because we had threat of being in jail for the rest of our life and committing manslaughter if someone died, and everyone on the field was just so up about it and when my barry bury the fish the fish, hes a lawyer now. Very great lawyer. No mored chanting rain, and the rain stopped. I even did the mudslide. I wanted to see what they are doing so i enjoyed it. I walked up on the field. I didnt go to the top. I walked to the shops. The one that said smoke shop, that was one of my best friends i played basketball with. The movie, which is iconic, you were instrumental in making that happen. Thee according to president of warner bros. , i was the only reason it happened. Honestly, thats true. Its just a fact. If i didnt produce when i they camecury, through with an act from candida and i spent 80,000 and produced his act. When i was getting ready to go up to woodstock three or four days before, i read in variety, Freddy Weintraub becomes Vice President of films for warner bros. I called freddy and he says youre not going to talk to me about that crazy thing you are doing upstate. I said yes i am, and you owe it to me. Hours and her 35 even wrote about it in his book. Freddy weintraubs book. In my book, there is a letter from Freddy Weintraub. Aftera handwritten 35 hours, it was over. Ted ashley came in. Ted ashley was my agent when i was producing the castles. They both owed me. After 35 hours, they said lets forget it. We are almost bankrupt at a warner bros. Movies are not doing anything and document is documentaries are doing nothing. I said out of nowhere, what if it is a disaster and that 100,000 kids die . This thing will be the biggest movie in history. They started laughing like crazy. Freddy just turned to me ok, ted, what do you think . Lets get a couple of secretaries down and we sat there for another 10 hours and wrote a handwritten contract. Andgned it, called michael there was no film, with 18,000 photographers and no film. For 100,000. Heck he went to new york, bought the film and started shooting the woodstock movie. Thats how the movie happened exactly. How many cap guys did you have . Camera guys did you have . Artie i think about six cameras. At the time, it was major league. Artie michael was involved in that part. We saw the maze leak stuff, the Barbara Koppel stuff. Documentarianswork. The split screen concept fascinated us. We saw some of his work that he was working on and that was it. It took a while for it to come out. Did it get caught up in editing . Artie first was the battle. They had to get through the battle i cant say anything because legality is involved but michael and i got screwed very bad. If i would have had more money, we would have won the case. Warner wanted me and michael out because i made the deal. It was 50 of the gross minus negative. Wont have to advertise because you advertised it so much we will have to spend a dime on advertising. It was 5050, i send warner bros. John and joel were rich kids. All they wanted to do was look good to their fathers friends. We raised 1 million with albert grossman, who is a good friend of mine. Tonight we came to sign, we were going to sell for them for three months to them for three months the movie and we had 90 days to get the other 400,000 we needed. We didnt know when i went to warners, they said they had to keep out of this and stay neutral. They were negotiating in bad faith which all and johns family. One of johns brothers went to college with one of the board and they were negotiating the whole time because they knew all they wanted was the 1. 4 million back. They knew michael and i would stick to the 50 and that is what happened. Broke the new, york times strike, he was after i realized my lawyer wasnt heavy enough, i went to ted keele and he said we got them. But it will take another 50,000 because ive got to get investigators to investigate this because i have the proof now that they lied to you, that they cheated you and it is going to revert back that you want 50 of the music. I didnt have the 50,000. I said to michael instead of this hitting the papers and new ruining the name of the concert, lets take a 75,000 and walk. Thats what i did. You know . I walked from that and i walk right into i am the tiger, rocking in the free world, all the records we did. Is it hard to watch the movie today . Artie hard to watch the movie . When you had that bad blood . Artie ive only watched it three times in 45 years. Is muchthe director cut better, the 40 directors cut. No, it is like my baby. It is like watching my child grow up. It is easy to watch it. Ive seen it on tv. I have a copy. Ive only played it twice. 75 platinum albums and i give them all to charity to be auctioned off. I have nothing on my wall, but i soldee my woodstock sign for 9500 on ebay. I gave it to a music Business Foundation that helps kids who are born to crack mothers and stuff like that. We raise about 200 million a year, it is that big. I run a Golf Tournament and we make about 60 million in a weekend. I give a lot of my income to the charity, you. Piper ofied woodstock, do you like that . Artie i wrote the pied piper, and it almost follows woodstock. You are always masquerading, contemplating what to do. Cant you see it is all around you . I was talking to the generation. Hey babe, what are you trying to do . It is your mind and soul that is tricking you, so form a line. Woodstock, 45 years ago. , what ishis generation the message they walk away with . Artie ive been working on the college for years now because i knew that the future of america was going to be saved, it would have to keep the feeling of woodstock and i was going to have to get into college. My internet show, 18 million , everything in the archives has over 300,000 hits. Has 2. 4 million hits. Me and michael talking got one million listening live, just me and michael talking. Im seeing what i dreamed about. This generation i said it is going to take three to five generations, but woodstock will hang around. There wast to italy, a documentary festival. It was firstclass. These kids were into woodstock. When i went to korea, these kids were into woodstock. I spoke at 12 colleges in 15 days in korea. One kid, i was speaking at one and this kidoul comes from the back waving a rolex watch saying, i love you. I want to give you a gift, i want to give you a gift. Hes waving a rolex watch. Im wearing my 19yearold Swiss Army Watch eyewear and now i am wearing my 12 watch because i am not into that kind of stuff. Down, he wasing tall and that is unusual for a korean, but that is touching. I said i dont need your watch, brother. I just love you. He was all excited that he came up. Out of nowhere come i thought he was going to stab me. Hes waving this watch. It was hysterical and there was a translator there. I have no idea what he was saying, anyway. Do you still get the juices flowing when the reaction . Yeah, thats why i do my radio show every week. Do you think at 72, it is easy to sit from 10 00 to 11 00 and try to come down in two hours . The shows are good because i have great acts on. Finally, what is the legacy of woodstock . Artie the legacy of woodstock years when they ifgot about the beatles, there are people still living, they will remember this event. Time magazine made woodstock number two of the top events of time. The greatest peaceful manmade event of all time and it was second to man landing on the moon. The legacy of Artie Kornfeld is what . Artie that im sitting with you right now, 45 minutes later. Im so thrilled. Artie i hope what i do next year will be my legacy. Yeah. Thank you. Artie my pleasure. Sunday at 9 00 eastern, a washington journal and American History tv live special callin program looking back at musicalk, the 1969 and cultural phenomenon. David farber, the age of great dreams joins us to take your calls. Drugs matter, but who takes those drugs and why they had the effect they did in the 1960s and early 1970s is something we are wrestling with as scholars to understand. Wevechnology of drugs, got David Cartwright and others who have thought long and hard of this, is imperative as an understanding of the 1960s and the production of history. What drugs we use at a given period and place have an incredible ability to change the direction of a society. Call in to talk to david farber about the social movements of the 1960s leading up to woodstock and its legacy. Woodstock, 50 years. Sunday at 9 00 eastern on cspans washington journal. Also live in American History tv on cspan3. Campaign 2020. Watch our live coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. Yourns campaign 2020, unfiltered view of politics. President trump took questions from reporters before departing moorestown, new jersey for a Campaign Rally in manchester, new hampshire. He talked about the u. S. Economy, china trade china trade negotiations, the federal reserve, and israels decision to block representatives rashida omar fromilhan entering the country. President trump tremendous retail numbers were out today. Thats a great indicator of how well our country is doing, how well economy is doing