Check out this EXTRA special episode of This Is Happening! Co-hosts Eric Morris, Doug Budin, and Georgie Leahy interview John Morris about his incredible career producing rock concerts beginning with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, opening the Fillmore East with Bill Graham, heading up production at Woodstock, opening the Rainbow Theater in London, and more!
Full disclosure, John is Eric's uncle and we talk about the new documentary CREATING WOODSTOCK on which they collaborated with director Mick Richards and which comes out in August to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Woodstock. Check out www.creatingwoodstock.com for more info about the film.
John has led a fascinating life and tells great stories about managing the Fillmore East - including helping Jimi Hendrix with a wardrobe malfunction onstage, plying Janis Joplin with Southern Comfort when she was freaking out about having to follow an electrifying set by BB King at her first NYC show, pranking Jim Morrison by stranding him in the rafters as payback for the Doors playing a show for a rival concert promoter, and much more.
John also talks about how he got involved in putting Woodstock together and how it became "a free concert from now on" as he announced from the stage in August 1969.
John regales us with other adventures including the Grateful Dead spiking his Coca Cola can with acid at a Central Park concert and seeing Eric Clapton return to performing supporting Leon Russell at London's Rainbow Theater after a few years away. And he talks about shifting out of producing rock concerts and into producing art shows, including:
Objects of Art at El Museo in Santa Fe August 8-11:
www.objectsorartsantafe.com
and The Antique American India Art Show Santa Fe at El Museo August 13-16:
www.antiqueindianartshow.com
If you're near New York, you can see John speaking about Woodstock following a screening of CREATING WOODSTOCK at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts - on the site of Yasgur's Farm, the site of the original Woodstock festival.
https://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/events/producing-woodstock-panel-and-film-the-people-who-created-the-festival
Or if you're in Los Angeles, CREATING WOODSTOCK is screening at the Grammy Museum in DTLA on August 12 followed by a panel including John, along with Woodstock producer Joel Rosenman, artist coordinator Bill Belmont, and CREATING WOODSTOCK's director Mick Richards and producer Eric Morris.
https:/www.grammymuseum.org/events/detail/creating-woodstock
Enjoy!
