The Ozark Music Festival, Part One: The Festival Becomes a City—Woodstock and Altamont Had Nothing on Sodom and Gomorrah in Missouri

The Ozark Music Festival: Missouri’s Forgotte

0:12 sabbatical with Doc G and the Disgustants. Here, nothing is accepted simply because someone said it was so. And if you're easily triggered, or just use that word, or words like it, We don't expect anybody's going to be triggered on a Friday. That's the day we set aside for cultural conversations. And none of us, I don't know, get run out of here for any reason, or we don't try not to run any listeners away. So welcome. Good luck on that. That's what I was thinking. Yeah, that's what you're thinking.

1:19 Well, I guess we can just chop off the first 30 seconds of the show then. and start over again. It's backstage with the discussions and we have really a great couple of shows coming up for you. We're going to talk about some rock concerts, actually rock festivals. Woodstock, Altamont. There was a little festival, and I'm putting that in quotes, little festival in the center of Missouri once upon a time. Back in 1974 end of July July 22nd, I believe when it may have no July 1920 and 21 Oh, well, I missed it all together giant 19.

2:04 This is why the professor is doing this is because So 1920 and 21 and just of really a couple weeks before the Missouri State Fair, which is sort of important that we lay it out that way, so. And also the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival was happening somewhere in there. Was the Ragtime Festival a thing back then? The Ragtime? Yeah. Well, anyway, there was an article in the paper at the time, I believe, I think I saw this, and it said Festival a Joy. And I thought Festival a Joy? That's for someone who heard anything like that about this Ozark Music Festival.

2:51 It's just been a put -down from the word go. Then I read the fine print and they were talking about the Scott Joplin Rectime Festival that was, I guess, happening, part of it at the same time as the Ozark Music Festival. And they were, that's the festival they were calling a joy. Yeah. Well, that's news to me. I thought that was a relatively new phenomenon, or a relatively new festival. But this festival was extremely notable. Now, there's more knowledge. People have done some things around this festival, but it's really sort of under -reported and under -studied, I think.

3:33 So let's just put a modern spin on this just for a second. So the latest, like, disaster. in festivals was like the fire festival was a disastrous 2017 luxury music event that was supposed to take place in the Bahamas in fact it did but it actually collapsed into a massive fraud lawsuits global pop culture phenomenon was just The first event promised high -end villas and gourmet food, major headliners on a private island. Attendees arrived to find disaster relief tents, no running water, and plain cheese sandwiches a long way from the gourmet food they'd been promised.

4:20 Billy McFarland was the entrepreneur who did that and Great Exuma was the Bahamian Island location where stranded ticket holders faced chaotic conditions and cancelled the performances before they even started. Jarrul was another person that was involved in that. So, you know, there's a long history of music festivals sort of biting the dust. He went to jail, right? No one, I don't believe, got prosecuted for that in the end. And that's not unusual for these types of events either. Just to set the stage just a little bit, let's get in the time machine and head back to Sedalia, Missouri in the 1950s.

5:06 Yes, this is Sedalia's story. And if there's a better community in the United States to work, live, enjoy life and raise a family, Sedalia people simply haven't seen it Yeah, so the Sedalia sort of thought of itself back then as permanently stuck in the 50s one of the greatest places on earth to live and then this Festival sort of started to loom on the horizon the music productions proposed this musical productions, the name of the company, a bluegrass and a pop rock crafts, electronics, jewelry, an old time fiddler show and a Sunday religious service, a long way from an extreme rock gathering.

5:59 The scale of this thing was supposed to be about no more than 50 ,000 people and they leased the Missouri State Fairgrounds for around $40 ,000 with approximately 375 Wells Fargo guards represented as the security plan. We'll talk about that a little while later. That turned out to be some kids who they threw some t -shirts to. So the weekend was presented as an educational and cultural experience. After Woodstock and Altamont, promoters understood that the words giant rock festival could end the deal pretty quickly.

6:40 Let's take a look and see what the promoters had to say. We were thinking, well, you're really an extreme rock show. Probably won't be what is on everybody's epitaph, especially in the Bible Belt and Sedalia. Now, what everyone in Sedalia will tell you is they said it was going to be a bluegrass festival and they snuck in rock bands. And that's not quite the case. So the original plan, Fritz told Jefferson, was to cater to the region. bring in bluegrass with some rock and roll acts. That's where we came up with the name Ozark Music Festival.

7:13 We were looking at like nitty gritty dirt band and Earl Scruggs. And there was bluegrass music. This was where one of Chris Fritz's partners really came to shine. Bob Shaw, a master advertiser. He was good at pitching a youth festival concept in a way that was appealing to state officials. He was a great salesman. Shaw was the one most everyone knew. So while Chris Fritz was figuring out which musical acts to book, Bob Shaw and other partners on their team hammered out the contract. And we should linger just a moment on that contract.

7:46 It's significant. Because while they were going back and forth agreeing on the money and defining terms like adequate security, the promoter's lawyers made sure the contract also contained one key provision. They snuck in a bit that said this cannot be canceled until the day of the festival, which of course By then everyone's there. This contract became a big issue for the Missouri Senate subcommittee during their investigation after the festival. So there's a little foreshadowing for you. That was sort of how it was sold.

8:18 The promoters involved these reports from Kansas City PBS reporting that the Missouri Senate had a special select committee that was assigned by the governor at the time to look into the festival. As we go along here, we're going to tell you why. There is a lot happening, and there was a lot happening in the weeks leading up to this thing. The professor was there for every second of it, and not only was he there, he's a fine photographer from great photography equipment, and if I'm... not mistaken, even flew over the festival at different times.

9:10 Is that right? You are correct, sir. I started each of the three days in my airplane, flying around over the fairgrounds, taking pictures of the crowds below. The sky was crowded, too. There were usually a couple of helicopters up and two or three other fixed -ring aircraft, so probably lucky we didn't have a mid -air collision over the festival, but... Anyway, yeah, photographed it each day and then took the plane back to the airport, went to the festival with an acquaintance, and then we went ahead and just walked around and observed from that point on until the wee hours of the morning, all kinds of stuff going on, a very attractive lady in a huge sombrero and nothing else, completely naked with a huge sombrero.

9:59 I thought, oh, I want to get this picture, so I aimed the camera at her. And she bent over to where the huge sombrero covered her, but she had her hand out flipping me off with the middle finger as I took the picture. So I didn't get her bod, I just got a sombrero with flipping me the bird in front of it. And then we had another, it wasn't exactly similar, but in the same vein and way, there was a big burly black man who was using a shop broom to sweep one of the asphalt lanes in one area. He was out there sweeping.

10:32 He was completely naked, but he didn't mind my taking his picture. I don't think he even paid any attention. So there was extensive nudity everywhere. In fact, there was so much nudity that I became imbued with it to where I lost interest in the opposite gender. I lost interest in sex for a few days. I was just so overloaded and overdosed with boobs in my face everywhere that it became normalized, to use a current buzzword. You mean it was normalized? Oh, yes, it was normalized.

11:06 And of course there was music. So what exactly do you remember about the days leading up? I mean, do you remember, what do you remember about the advertising? What do you remember about the way the thing was promoted? And what was the buzz? It seems like, it seems like, I'm not sure about this, but it seems like those were the days when Wolfman Jack was on WLS in Chicago. I'm not sure about that timeline. But anyway, Wolfman Jack was putting out advertisements for this festival. And I don't think he was couching it as a bluegrass festival.

11:46 I think he was more or less laying it on the line and truthful to all of his listeners. And I can't remember. I don't have any audio copies of that. We happen to have audio copies of the Wolfman doing just that. I don't have it handy right in front of me. In the next segment, I believe it's scheduled to come up here pretty quick. But we have the way it was promoted. We have the lineup, those sorts of things. But there was a whole lot of stuff that kind of happened before. this this thing actually went down with you know the night before traffic was lined up the highways the the arteries leading into the municipality were clogged I think backed up and not moving at all and some of the people were out of their cars and they'd started campfires and were preparing food and that this and that and just hanging out and listening to music but everything was in a standstill it was just an overwhelming crowd of people a glut coming in from all directions really That was Thursday, the 4th.

12:51 What a great

The Lineup and the Festival Before It Began

12:52 segue for the next segment. When we come back, we'll talk a little bit about the lineup and how things looked before the festival. You're listening to Doc G and the Discussants. We're backstage on sabbatical. A brief interruption, nothing more while we're away. stopby .gandthediscussants .com Choose your favorite discussant, leave a question, make a comment, register a complaint, or even pay us the occasional compliment. We can handle all of it. We'll be right back. People around this table have a lot in common.

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16:18 Reach out. Find more information at va .gov slash reach. That's va .gov slash reach. Brought to you by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and the Ad Council. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your State Forester, and the Ad Council. Well, we're back and we're talking about the Ozark Music Festival, which took place in Sedalia, Missouri in 1974. Speaking of unnecessary drama. Yeah, really. But what was mostly surprising about this thing was that it just got huge out of all proportion.

17:08 When people talk about Woodstock and Altamont and some things that were really scary, what happened in Sedalia got even scarier. And we don't want to build this up because we've got another show where we're going to really get down to details. But when the acts started to get booked, it started to look a little bit different than the promoters. sort of said, and the vibe changed. And as the act started to get booked, the vibe started to shift. It just started organically growing into kind of a different event.

17:46 Harder rock acts like Leonard Skinnerd, The Eagles, Ted Nuget, even a few up -and -comers like Aerosmith were joining the bill. And together with Bob Shaw, the ad guy, they started selling this broader, more hard rock lineup nationwide. First, putting an ad in Rolling Stone magazine. And of course, everyone read Rolling Stone that was interested in this sort of stuff back then. So it was the show to go to. Wolfman wasn't just reading ads, they also booked him to MC the festival that weekend. So the Eagles, America, Leonard Skinnerd, Bob Seeger, REO Speedwagon, Aero Smith, Joe Walsh, Ted Nugent...

18:35 Let me quote Mr. Nugent. So if a house gets in my way, baby, you know I burn it down. Did these people actually go? These people being... These acts. Did they show up? Oh, the acts. Yeah, Ted Nugent was there when... I guess he still was with the Amboy Dukes. I know he appeared at night. Everything was dark for a minute or two, and then all of a sudden the spotlight comes on, on Ted himself up on stage, and he says, Jesus effing Christ! It wasn't effing, I misquoted that deliberately. Later I was talking to a church pastor.

19:21 prolapse like I do, like I want to do, occasionally. And I told him about that quotation, and the pastor said, well, what does Christ have to do with it? But anyway, yeah, Mr. Nugent was very much there in answer to Sarah. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah, it was sold again at about 50 ,000 people, but the Missouri Senate record later said 230 ,000 tickets were actually printed. They were planning on a few more than 50 ,000, and 176 ,000 buttons and armbands were ordered for the festival. Figures that just are irreconcilable with the 50 ,000 person representation.

20:09 As we look down a little farther, national advertising turned a Missouri Fairgrounds concert into a destination. The event being sold to rock audiences was no longer the event described to Missouri. And as people started to descend, people in Sedalia started to get nervous. In the weeks leading up to the festival, the people of Sedalia were getting nervous. It was not prepared. Tamra Pendell Crouch was 20 when the festival came to town. There were people that actually packed up their kids and left Sedalia for the weekend.

20:48 The town people freaked out. A lot of people in Sedalia wanted this thing stopped. In a letter to the local newspaper, The Daily Democrat, one reader, counting himself among the quote, God fearing people of Sedalia, said he was sure the whole thing would be a wild, sinful masquerade. And it's hard to blame them. Rock and roll kind of had a bad reputation. Woodstock happened five years earlier in the summer of 69, and though it's often remembered fondly, it also had a dark side. Some people died.

21:21 There were assaults, hundreds of overdoses. Festivals could be dangerous, and people knew it. Also, just a year before the Ozark Music Festival, there was a smaller festival in rural Missouri that was shut down midway through after reports of numerous drug overdoses and an assault on a 15 -year -old girl. It was quite a festival and we haven't even opened the gates yet. People are just starting to come into town. As Kansas City PBS has reported, people started to get nervous and actually were leaving town.

22:04 What do you remember about that, Professor? I know my anticipation of a good time was growing along with the other people's nervousness. As they were leaving town, I was headed out to the fairgrounds. So actually, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. There were some moments like I was using a had a 35 millimeter camera I was using and for whatever reason at some point I think it was a borrowed camera but it failed and it just locked that couldn't take pictures so we we left the festival and we we rushed over to a house of a person that we knew had a an old unused bathroom or toilet area in the basement that was kind of about as big as a phone booth in the old days so we rushed down there into that little toilet area and closed the door.

22:55 It was pitch black and in there I was able to take that roll of 35 millimeter film out of the defective camera and move it into a camera that I knew was good. Of course all by touch and feel and then we immediately headed back to the festival to resume shooting that roll of film. That's one little thing that happened. It was kind of mildly amusing. How much film did you use? What did you think you'd use? And, I mean, did this necessitate trips to the store to get more film? I mean, did you realize you were in the middle of something crazy as you're taking pictures?

23:35 I mean, when did it dawn on you that this, the approved festival, just wasn't what this was anymore? And did you realize the moment that the approved festival ceased to exist? Well, yeah, that moment had nothing to do with taking pictures. That moment when I realized, wow, this is going to be something, was the night before that Thursday night when the highways were all blocked coming into Sedalia. As far as film goes, regrettably, I shot it in black and white. I mean, that's OK. You look at the pictures, and it kind of lends itself to, wow, this is a long time ago.

24:12 However, I wish I'd used color. The reason I went with black and white is because I was going with a buddy who was in the Air Force and his main job in the Air Force was working with cameras and film and developing them and that kind of stuff. So he just had an unlimited supply of black and white 35 millimeter film. So now there was no hassle about amount of film. We had plenty. So what did the tickets and advertisements and the word of mouth promise. What did you think you were getting into when you went into this thing?

24:47 I thought I was getting into exactly what it was. All the traffic the night before, as I said, at that point I realized this is going to be something special. This is going to be big. It had kind of the air of Woodstock about it. And I, so there was, I had no doubt about what I was getting into. There'd be a lot of music. a lot of drugs naked ladies everywhere you name it god knows what else so there were no surprises you described earlier getting into the plane in the morning to fly around in the sky being busy which hadn't even thought about but I'll bet it was but it was really busy and we're not talking about a very big metropolitan area and then when you're talking about the fairgrounds you're talking about even a very small area so I didn't really think about how busy the air we're talking about like two helicopters and at least three fixed -wing aircraft about during the time I was out there so and plus I guess I'm guessing that some of the aircraft would have been from the highway patrol State aircraft as well?

25:56 Likely the helicopters were however I don't know that as a certainty. And so then about what time do you get in the airplane in the morning and then land it and then head out to the fairgrounds to start with your picture taken? Well I was probably in the airplane I'm it's been a few years back I'm kind of guessing it but I think I was probably in the airplane around noon or maybe 11 a .m. just before noon right in there flying around or the festival midday and Then it seems like by the time we found ourselves actually on the site.

26:32 It was probably no Mid -afternoon, I don't think was even quite late afternoon. So we were there from that point on until Probably after midnight. And that was something that you were repeating, that you decided, well, I want to fly again tomorrow over this thing. Why? I mean, were you watching the crowds grow huge or what were you thinking? Yeah, it was just fascinating to see just such a swarm of humanity down there in the racetrack infield. That's back when the fairgrounds had the one -mile track besides the half -mile track.

27:07 And so I think it was the north end of the mile track that... encompassed the stage area. But the infield was so full of people. Of course, most of the people probably, well, most of them were actually, of course, toward the northern end of the track in the stage area. But, I mean, there were so many people that it went ahead and extended at least half or two -thirds of the way south of the north end of that mile racetrack. Everyone observing the stage. And of course, there were superstructures set up.

27:40 with lighting and sound equipment that kind of thing too that people were clambering all over. So then did you take the time to then fly north and south to see the traffic, the traffic jams, get an idea of just how far traffic was backed up outside of Sedalia? I didn't do that. I don't think the traffic was any special problem. the days of the festival I mean a lot of people of course coming and going but the only time there was really a clog was at Thursday at night before seems like Friday Saturday and Sunday the traffic was moving it may have been there may have been a lot of traffic but it was moving I don't think there was anything that was stopping it at that point like that first night so people didn't abandon their cars and just take off to the festival Boy Sarah, I can't answer that.

28:35 I'm not aware of an example of that. I don't know if anyone just left his or her car on the roadway and walked off and left it. I don't know. I'm doubting that, but I don't know. It certainly could have happened. I don't know. We're talking about one of the least known huge rock festivals in the history of rock and roll. I'd never heard of it. And it was bigger and more... insane compared to Woodstock and Altamont. You ain't heard nothing

When the Crowd Overwhelmed the Fairgrounds

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34:03 of the most incredible music festival that ever went down in the history of rock and roll. We're not kidding here. Woodstock... Everybody knows. Everybody knows what went down at Altamont, like one death there. I think at the concert we currently have under consideration, the festival in Sedalia, there was a death as well, but a whole lot of heat -related problems, a whole lot of problems at the hospital, and we want you to be patient because we've got a whole other show. dedicated to each segment to some of these questions and ideas.

34:45 But by Thursday of this particular festival in 1974, traffic was clogged for miles. Travelers left cars wherever they could and continued on foot. Sedalia streets and surrounding property became extensions of the festival grounds. So the professor was there. He has one of the most extensive collections of pictures of that festival in existence. And if you're interested, I wanted to make sure to say that you can email us and ask. your questions for next week so we can help address those things. But the professor there was there for every day.

35:29 As he said, he flew over the festival, which is a unique view of this thing from the air and from the ground. Plus, his interest in rock and roll has been with him since, probably since he can remember. He's worked in rock. Hey, Doc G, Doc G. Yes sir, yes sir, yes sir. Here's an interesting little tidbit from the festival that came to mind. I had a couple of, I'd call them buddies, maybe they weren't, it wasn't that heavy, maybe they were simply acquaintances, and they also teamed up with three or four other guys, maybe a gal, and they'd set up a beverage stand at the festival selling pop and soft drinks, this and that, and I took a picture of that beverage stand because I knew a couple of the guys that were involved in it, just, I was taking pictures of everything, and no big deal at that point, and then later, I find they put up a sign on that beverage stand, and they are now advertising wine.

36:24 And I didn't have a picture of it with the wine sign up. And then when the festival's over, I have one of those guys contact me and say that he'd been indicted by a grand jury for selling wine unauthorizedly on the fairgrounds. something like that. And they actually actually picked him out of all that for selling wine. Right, right. And so what he wanted of me he wanted to know if I had a picture of the of their beverage stand that did not have the wine sign on it. And sure enough, that was the only picture I actually did not have a picture with the wine sign only a picture without it.

37:07 And so he needed that photograph for the grand jury. So I pulled that photograph, I had some prints, I pulled that one and lent it to him, and I think it stood him in good stead, so to speak, legally, because there was a wine stand, there was no advertising for wine, I just didn't happen to take it later on when there was, but anyway, he wanted the negative, too, for that photograph. I would not give him the negative, didn't want to go quite that far, and then when the whole thing was said and done, he refused to get my photograph back and so i thought what an ass you know here i i think you're from the grand jury and you're not going to get my photo back thank god he wouldn't give it back i mean what kind of pettyness is that and so i at that point of course i wish i hadn't even helped him i didn't know he was such an sob but uh...

37:59 the thing is i did keep the negative and uh... another print made and also since then i'd had the negatives another guy knew had him take the negatives and put them in his computer and make discs, CD photo discs of these photos. So, all ended well. Everybody was happy. It ended well and he got off on his charges of running an illegal wine stand. But all it did was kind of destroy an almost non -existent relationship anyway. I mean, this guy that did this was never really anybody I ran with or anything.

38:35 He was just... distant acquaintance. And even more distant now. I was in a bar one time with my girlfriend and this other lady was talking to us. Turned out she was a small world coincidence. She was a sister of this guy that wanted to borrow my photo and wouldn't give it back. And she had no idea who we were and she was telling us about how clever her brother was. What he did here, he was, I guess, smuggling in wine from a distant city, Kansas City, you know, a hundred miles west of where the festival was going on, and then reselling it or selling it at the festival.

39:17 How cool was that? So I told her the story of how uncool and uncool. And how un -clever he actually is. So she was going to have a discussion with him. I mean, he lived in another town at that point, but I mean, none of it amounted to anything. It was just one more little... from the Ozark Music Festival. Well, the governor of Missouri didn't think so at the time. Law enforcement and law enforcement on the highest level, it was on their radar screen. On July 8th, just 11 days before the Ozark Festival was set to begin, the governor of Missouri, Kit Bond, met with law enforcement officials.

39:57 Part of the reason for the meeting was undercover agents observing flagrant drug use and bad security at a festival on Chuck Berry's farm outside of St. Louis. Supposedly, the Chuck Berry attendees were heading west to Sedalia. And those people all pretty much walked down I -70, you know, the highway patrol called Sedalia apparently said, they're coming your way. Officials were worried about even more drugs in Sedalia. Hence the question posed in that meeting in the governor's office, can we cancel this thing?

40:28 But after taking a second look at the contract and its cancellation clause, they came to the conclusion that legally they couldn't. Yeah, so that contract that we referred to a little bit earlier where they made sure that the festival couldn't be canceled until the day before comes back. to haunt them in the way the promoters wanted it to haunt them. There was no way they could cancel it. But at the highest levels of government in Missouri, the idea was we wanted to cancel this thing. Also, there was a little bit more.

41:04 There was a lot more activity. But this recollection from a Missouri highway patrolman. The festival was set to begin on July 19th, a Friday. But it actually kind of started earlier. Ticket holders started setting up camp all that week, and undercover agents with the Missouri Highway Patrol went to the campgrounds to first confirm that illegal drugs were being bought and consumed, and then to make arrests. And it did not happen. According to Jim Mays, a highway patrolman Jefferson interviewed for his documentary, things didn't go as planned.

41:42 We drove in there. We got out of the car and we started these people and there was probably I want to guess two to three hundred of them over this campgrounds and they started after us. The crowd started throwing things at the officers. Stones, pieces of pavement, pretty much whatever they could get their hands on. Jars of canned fruit, vegetables. They were just beaten by car pieces. The officers ended the night with 17 arrests, four beat up cars, and a question. This was just a few hundred people.

42:15 Can we keep doing this when there's tens of thousands? Their conclusion? They decided to leave security up to the promoters and stay off the grounds.

42:43 Oh, it seems like I remember an occasional guy wearing a shirt that said security. I didn't pay much attention. These guys didn't seem like they were very official or threatening, thank goodness. It just seemed like they were there just to provide, what would you call it, an official involvement in this atmosphere. So yeah, I remember security shirts. I don't necessarily remember Wells Fargo specifically, but there were a few dudes hanging out. with security shirts. They didn't, they seemed harmless.

43:16 What it looked like was about 250 to 400 people throwing rocks, cans and pavement on July 15th. And of course, Governor Bond, at the time, getting concerned and talking with officials about trying to cancel this show, as we just heard. There was only one fairground gate that was initially open. More gates came too late and so the fences were breached. Ticket control collapsed and the paid festival became an uncontrolled gathering. Did you happen to be there when the dam broke? Well, I was probably there when it broke but wasn't aware of it or probably didn't care.

44:06 There was a guy, I won't name him because Lord knows what kind of legal ramifications, but the name was in the newspaper, but there was a guy there, let me say allegedly, reportedly too, that had a hook hand and he had stationed himself at one of the areas where there was a huge hole cut in a fence, supposedly, and he was charging people at an extremely cut rate admission to get into the fairgrounds at that point. If you were in his proximity and you tried to go through and didn't pay, you would get injured pretty severely.

44:42 And he did. He put some people in the hospital with that hook hand. So I think he was finally arrested. But once again, one more little aspect of the festival. Speaking

The Festival Finally Gets Underway

44:52 of. And these things are we haven't we haven't really visited. This is the lead up and even started here. Really haven't even started yet. But we already have an ominous tone. And we're talking about some serious heat and this is all just sort of building up to the festival actually getting underway. You're listening to Doc G and the Discussants. We're talking about the Ozark Music Festival and you're backstage with the Discussants. The discussion continues in just a moment. While we take a break, go to docgandthediscussants .com.

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49:03 This ain't the place for you. Now here's Don Key. We're back backstage with the discussions Friday where we just talk about fun stuff. If this can be categorized as fun stuff, the professor certainly thought for it. There for every minute of it. You said there was an ominousness presence and that's very true and I think that is One of the qualities that made it fun, at least for me personally, it's kind of like, now I'm not in this group, but there are some people that like some kind of radically hot, peppery, spicy stuff in their food, too, that'll seemingly burn their tongue and throat, and they get off on that.

49:48 And so I kind of considered the prospect of ominousness or hazardousness or maybe even danger arising somewhere possibly in any given minute at this festival as being the spice that made the thing actually. more fun than if it had been. placid and innocuous. Yeah, we talked about that when we did the Rolling Stones interview not too long ago, and how much fun it was to go to a Stones concert back in the day when you just never knew what might happen. A feeling of menace in the air. Right, and especially after the Altamont show where the Hell's Angels killed a person.

50:29 They had been hired by the Stones for security. For God's sakes, they... They hired the Hells Angels. I don't know what they were thinking at the time, but. Then ever afterward, it seemed like a stone show was something that you better be, you know, have your head on a swivel about. And that's how I proceeded with it. But it always made things seem like it was a little higher in the ante when you went to see the rollers. And so for me, that was sort of part of the fun. The last time I remember feeling something sort of similar to that was like an Alice Cooper concert.

51:09 I want to say like 86 or so when Alice was still kind of Oh, out there, sort of like a Marilyn Manson figure. You know, before there was Marilyn Manson, you'd go into a show and it'd be extremely dark and the people would be extremely weird. I mean, they were living the Alice Cooper experience, not like the Stones, but still, you know, a feeling of menace and ominousness that sort of made the thing fun. Well, that's what was going on in Sedalia in 1974. There was only one fairground gate. that was initially open, as we just discussed, more gates came too late, the fences were breached, ticket control collapsed, and paid festival became an uncontrolled gathering pretty quick.

51:58 The estimates range from about 160 ,000 to 350 ,000 or more. The precise count became impossible, but we did say that plenty of tickets were printed beforehand, and it was. One of my biggest takeaways from talking to a dozen or so people who went to the festival was how young they were. I was 19 and she was 18. Uh, 19. 16. Too young to be doing that. I had just turned 15 years old, man. What else do you remember about that time? Nixon had just spoke at graduation. We'd actually protested, and that's when someone said, hey, have you heard about Sedalia, Missouri?

52:56 When I saw the list of bands, which was so phenomenal, the lineup was just unheard of. Even though the concert's in Sedalia, Missouri, this must be legit. It's in Rolling Stone magazine. I don't even know where Sedalia is. Okay, peace, love, death. Let's go hitchhike there. What's the worst that can happen? So we're tripping on Mescaline. We're looking at the stars and we're on our way to Sedalia and we had no idea what we were about to witness or be part of. And what about when you got there? Turns out we didn't need tickets anyway.

53:28 All of a sudden, a girl said, hey, you want in? And the fence was loose and she just pulled the fence down. They're just people letting you in and they have shirts on that say security. They said just go ahead. We just walked right in and man let the crazy stuff begin. It was wall to wall people. I had never seen that many people. It reminded me of Woodstock. The crowd almost went out of sight. I mean it was a sea of people. As far as the eye could see. Some people say maybe more than 350 ,000. I've heard stories, Professor, of the Beatles actually landing out at the Ramada Inn at the time to take a look and decide whether they wanted to become involved.

54:14 I've heard the same thing about the Rolling Stones. I heard that there were people who came to take a look to see whether they wanted to become involved, but didn't. I mean, that's part of the lore surrounding this thing. But now we're talking about a huge crowd. What do you remember? What do they look like? What did it smell like? I know there was a tunnel, a tunnel you would go through to get from the normal fairgrounds proper into the infield of the then one mile racetrack where the stage was set up.

54:42 You go through this little tunnel that's several yards long, kind of a quaint little structure that's long gone. But in that tunnel, there were people that set up impromptu booths. There'd be like, for example, a paper plate, just a regular white paper. plate propped up that would say weed $15 or LSD $10 or whatever. So you had kind of a drug mart or bazaar that you could pick up whatever you wanted. I don't recall anything. I don't recall any heroin for sale, but weed was everywhere and LSD was everywhere.

55:18 So that was available if you wished to participate with one of the vendors. So was it still you know at some point was it love and peace to begin with or was it always ominous and You look like maybe you were taking a chance when you came in Yeah, the latter it always seemed like it was just a little bit frenetic. It seemed like hop on in guys and gals and Gals take off your clothes and then right get music from the stage and here pass this joint around And no cops were visible. If they were there, they were in so -called civilian clothes.

56:02 And there was just that feeling in the air that, wow, I wonder what's going to happen. Is everything OK? I wonder what's going to happen next. This is so cool, but what's going to happen next? That was a feeling I got. I liked it, but there was no love and peace. Somebody had a big blanket laid out. and just a huge mound of marijuana. I'd never seen so much in one place. It was like a bale of hay -sized mound of pot. So stuff was going on, but no, there was no feeling of pacificity or peace or love or anything like that.

56:37 It was maybe opportunism and let's have a good time and some people let's sell what we can sell and others let's just go for it and enjoy it. And so you're taking pictures the entire time. Do you have the presence of mind to say, I must have this picture. I must have that picture. What are you thinking? And especially as a person who is really into the music, really into the rock and roll scene, have a rock and roll mindset. And plus you have the presence of mind to have a camera, not just in the crowd, but as we noted earlier, the professor is flying over the crowd.

57:15 He's a pilot. and taking pictures, you know, at some point do you start to think this thing is Woodstock? Maybe it's bigger than Woodstock. Maybe it's crazier than Woodstock. For me and the guy I was with and the cameras and all that stuff, we separated between well from dawn till dusk, sounds like a vampire movie, but Daylight was relegated to photographing this and photographing that and like the the big man who was sweeping naked or the girl with the big sombrero that was naked otherwise or whatever somebody was holding up a great big chunk of ice just holding it up at arm's length above him got that chunk of ice with his arm in the stage in the background just anything that the wine stand for example just anything that was cool let's get this photographed but then once it became dark and the camera was put away and then it was just Let's mill about, let's enjoy the music and see what we can see.

58:19 And I'm not necessarily trying to record it after dark. So by the time the music began, Missouri no longer had a concert at its fairgrounds. It had an improvised city with no government, no enforceable borders, and almost none of the systems a city requires. It had the Eagles, however. That Friday, the Ozark Music Festival officially started. The opening act, fresh start, then later Bob Seeger, Elvin Bishop, David Bromberg, the Eagles. That night, while news broke that Nixon was expected to be impeached, the Eagles even had a special dedication for the president.

59:08 I'm sorry. I love the Eagles. Yeah, so that got Sarah's attention right there. If it's the Eagles, Sarah's involved. I do. I love them. So we've just now getting up to the time when everything's going to begin and the real story starts as if this hasn't been a good enough story on its own. Next week, part two enters the city. The professor's already there. The music, the drugs, the heat, medical emergencies, security collapse, a sanitation disaster, devastation, and then the Missouri Senate gets involved because they're a little upset that the thing wasn't canceled in the first place.

59:53 Hey, we're glad to have you along on a Friday. And to tell you more about something that you should have learned about years and years ago, the Ozark Music Festival took place in a tiny little city in the middle of what is now Ruby Red, Missouri. And it was every bit as big as Woodstock and any other festival you've ever heard of. And it was even more off the hook. than anything that you've heard about before and the professor was there in the middle of it with his camera and he's going to tell you all about it.

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