![\"Grace](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Grace-Slick-1968-1971-RCA-Records-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
(Credits: Far Out \/ RCA Records)<\/p>\n
Sun 28 December 2025 2:00, UK <\/p>\n
There is perhaps no event in musical history quite as mythologised as Woodstock Festival. It feels biblical, iconic \u2013 looming in a way where it\u2019s hard to even see a clear picture of the event through the glow of the rose tint. Every music fan wishes they were there, but Grace Slick<\/a> actually was.<\/p>\n She was there, and she\u2019s not even sure if she\u2019d recommend it. \u201cWoodstock was fun. If you\u2019re 18 and you don\u2019t care about sitting in the mud, it\u2019s fun,\u201d Slick famously said once as her band, Jefferson Airplane, were on the iconic lineup. However, by now, it\u2019s unlikely any group would be willing to play a festival set at 8am on a Sunday morning after no sleep.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t meant to be that way, though. Jefferson Airplane were billed as the Saturday night headliners, but the festival was famously marred by major delayed due to a huge rainstorm in the middle of the day. Or, more realistically, things were delayed due to the looseness of the entire operation.<\/a><\/p>\n Santana was due to perform at 1pm on Saturday, but was too busy tripping on mescaline and wasn\u2019t mentally there yet. So instead, they brought in someone else, shuffled him to 2pm and thus began a whole day of push-backs and hold-ups, eventually leading to bands playing throughout the night and Slick only hitting the stage as the sun was rising.\u00a0<\/p>\n The only thing bands could do was surrender, and so that meant one thing: drugs. \u201cOur road manager had a box with about 16 little segments in it, and he had different drugs in each of the little segments. And we took what we thought was cocaine \u2014 snorting it, not shooting it \u2014 snorting it backstage just before we went on,\u201d Slick recalled as the band thought they were doing their typical routine.\u00a0<\/p>\n They were mistaken, though, as they quickly realised that the white substance was the wrong one. \u201cWe took it out of the wrong box, and we took LSD<\/a>. So, about 15 minutes into the set, we looked at each other and went, \u2018Oh boy. Oops.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n That was very much the vibe of Woodstock. While recalled as one of the most important musical events in history, the actual event was pretty sloppy, and by all accounts, apart from a few bright moments, the music itself was almost too loose to be good, as a heavy majority of the acts were busy tripping out of their minds.\u00a0<\/p>\n As Slick remembered, it was a mud bath. The national guard had to be brought in to bring supplies, as the festival hadn\u2019t expected this many guests and was wildly unprepared. With way more people than planned for, the facilities weren\u2019t up for the job either, meaning that there was just mass filth everywhere from leaking toilets and overflowing bins. A lack of clean water was the cherry on top, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the end of the day, this was a festival \u2013 and a completely and utterly overrun one. So when Slick heard Joni Mitchell\u2019s take on the event, writing of Woodstock like it was a glorious, spiritual, and clean event, she was confused.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Woodstock](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Woodstock-1969-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Woodstock Festival 1969. (Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube \/ James M Shelley)<\/p>\n