At 67, Richie Havens is still proud to be part of the Woodstock generation, a symbol of peace, love and freedom. His appearance at the original Woodstock festival in 1969 and in the Woodstock film proved to be a major turning point in his career – the inspiring, electrifying performance of the song "Freedom" became his trademark. Havens will perform at the Soiled Dove Underground on Saturday night.
 
Was it an honor to open the first day of Woodstock?

"I was a single performer, but I actually had two musicians with me, a guitar player and a conga drummer. My bass player was on his way – he would have made it if we'd have gone on stage when we were supposed to. I was number five, but no one was there to go on. So they chased me for an hour to get me to go on first, and I ran like heck – the concert was at least five hours late, and I didn't want to get killed onstage. After a while they said, `Richie, please!' So they convinced me to go on. And, of course, everybody was so happy to hear anything start there."

Did your set go off as planned?

"It was totally not what was supposed to happen. I was only to do thirty minutes. I got off, and they said, `No, do four more, there's no one here yet.' Well, they did that to me six times. And the seventh time I went back up there, I realized I had sung every song I knew – every song I knew, including a couple of spirituals that snuck into the `Freedom' song, because that was a spontaneous happening. That's why that long intro is on that song – it's me stalling, trying to figure out, `What am I going to sing?'"
 
So you improvised the song on the spot?

"A thought came to me that, in fact, this was the freedom my entire generation had been looking for all through the Fifties, freedom to speak your mind. I realized that my generation was the last speak-when-you're-spoken-to generation. When we got out of that prison, we screamed. I call it the first generational primal scream, and that was rock 'n' roll!"