Thirty-two acts played Woodstock over four days in August 1969. More than half a century later, most of the people who stood on that stage are gone. This is a record of who died, when, and what they played that weekend, day by day, along with a look at who from the original lineup is still around.
Day 1 — Friday, August 15
Richie Havens (January 21, 1941 – April 22, 2013) opened the festival, playing far longer than planned because the acts scheduled after him were stuck in the traffic jam on Route 17B. He ran out of songs and improvised "Freedom" on the spot, splicing in the old spiritual "Motherless Child." He died at 72, still touring folk festivals into his final years.
Ravi Shankar (April 7, 1920 – December 11, 2012) played a rain-shortened sitar set on Day 1 and later said the muddy, drug-heavy scene reminded him of "a battlefield." He died at 92, a week after heart valve replacement surgery, having spent the previous four decades bringing Indian classical music to Western audiences.
Swami Satchidananda (December 22, 1914 – August 19, 2002) opened the festival with an invocation, telling the crowd "music is the celestial sound." He died at 87.
Tim Hardin (December 23, 1941 – December 29, 1980) wrote "If I Were a Carpenter" and "Reason to Believe," songs other people made famous while his own career stalled under years of heroin addiction. He died of an overdose at 39.
Bert Sommer (February 7, 1949 – July 23, 1990) played a well-received set that included a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "America," but was left out of the Woodstock film and soundtrack, which cost him the exposure the rest of the Day 1 lineup got. He died at 41.
Melanie (Melanie Safka, February 3, 1947 – January 23, 2024) got her Woodstock slot only because the Incredible String Band refused to play in the rain. Watching the crowd light candles and matches in the dark inspired her to write "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)," which became her breakout hit. She died at 76.
Day 2 — Saturday, August 16
August Burns, Albert Moore, and Alan Malarowitz of Sweetwater have all died since their Woodstock set, which nearly didn't happen after cellist Burns was badly injured in a car accident months earlier.
Gary Thain, bassist for the Keef Hartley Band, went on to play with Uriah Heep before dying in 1975 at 27.
David Brown, Santana's bassist during their star-making Woodstock set, played on the band's first three albums before leaving amid the same drug problems that had already taken hold of the group. He died in June 2000.
Alan Wilson (July 4, 1943 – September 3, 1970) of Canned Heat wrote and sang "Going Up the Country," the closest thing Woodstock has to an unofficial theme song. He died of a barbiturate overdose three weeks after the festival, at 27. Bob Hite (February 26, 1943 – April 5, 1981), the band's other frontman, died of a heart attack at 38.
Jerry Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) led the Grateful Dead through a set the band itself considered a disaster, plagued by electrical problems and a bad batch of acid. He kept playing with the Dead for another 26 years and died at 53. Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (September 8, 1945 – March 8, 1973), the band's original frontman, died of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at 27, sidelined by liver disease before the Dead's biggest years.
Felix Pappalardi (December 30, 1939 – April 17, 1983) co-founded Mountain and wrote "Mississippi Queen" after producing Cream's biggest albums. His wife, Gail Collins, shot and killed him during an argument in their apartment; he was 43. Leslie West (October 22, 1945 – December 23, 2020), Mountain's other founder and the guitarist behind that wall of sound at Woodstock, died of cardiac arrest at 75.
Tom Fogerty (November 9, 1941 – September 6, 1990), rhythm guitarist for Creedence Clearwater Revival, contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during back surgery in the 1980s. He died of complications from AIDS and tuberculosis at 49.
Janis Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) closed out Saturday night with "Piece of My Heart" and "Ball and Chain." She died of a heroin overdose at a Los Angeles motel two weeks after Jimi Hendrix, at 27.
Sly Stone (March 15, 1943 – June 9, 2025), who led Sly & the Family Stone through their sunrise set of "I Want to Take You Higher," spent decades afterward battling drug addiction that derailed what had been one of the most successful careers in music. He died at 82 after a long fight with COPD.
Keith Moon (August 23, 1946 – September 7, 1978), The Who's drummer, died of an overdose of the sedative he'd been prescribed to fight alcoholism, at 32. John Entwistle (October 9, 1944 – June 27, 2002), the band's bassist, died of a cocaine-induced heart attack at 57, the night before a Who tour was set to begin.
Spencer Dryden (April 7, 1938 – January 11, 2005), Jefferson Airplane's drummer at Woodstock, died at 66. Nicky Hopkins (February 24, 1944 – September 6, 1994), who played keyboards behind the Airplane and later behind the Rolling Stones and the Who, died at 50 following complications from Crohn's disease surgery.
Day 3 — Sunday, August 17
Alvin Lee (December 19, 1944 – March 6, 2013), whose blistering "I'm Going Home" made Ten Years After's Woodstock set famous, died at 68 from complications during a routine surgical procedure in Spain.
Johnny Winter (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014) played a Texas blues set that helped launch him to national attention. He was found dead in a Zurich hotel room at 70, two days after his final concert, following years of declining health.
David Crosby (August 14, 1941 – January 18, 2023) sang with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in what was only the group's second live show. His family said he died after a long illness; bandmate Graham Nash later said it followed a bout with COVID-19. He was 81.
Rick Danko (December 29, 1943 – December 10, 1999), bassist and one of three lead singers in The Band, died in his sleep at 55, his health worn down by decades of substance abuse. Richard Manuel (April 3, 1943 – March 4, 1986), the group's pianist, died by suicide at 42 after a Band reunion show in Florida.
Paul Butterfield (December 17, 1942 – May 4, 1987) led one of the era's most respected blues bands and died of a drug-related heart attack at 44.
Day 4 — Monday, August 18
Jimi Hendrix (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) closed the festival on Monday morning to a crowd that had dwindled to a fraction of its peak, playing his solo rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" into a two-hour set. He died in London 13 months later, choking on his own vomit after mixing sleeping pills and wine. He was 27.
Where Are They Now — Woodstock Performers Still With Us
Not everyone from that weekend is gone. Joan Baez, who closed out Day 1 while pregnant with her first child, still performs and paints in her 80s. Arlo Guthrie retired from touring in 2020 after a stroke but remains active in interviews and archival projects. Carlos Santana, whose Day 2 set turned Santana into stars overnight, still tours and records. Grace Slick, Jefferson Airplane's singer at Woodstock, gave up music for painting decades ago and rarely appears in public. Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey still tour as The Who. Country Joe McDonald performs occasionally and remains an outspoken Vietnam veterans' advocate. Of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young are all still alive and recording, though the four have not performed together since Crosby's death. John Fogerty, who kept Creedence Clearwater Revival's Woodstock set out of the original documentary, still tours behind the band's catalog.
Their Music Lives On
Most of what's known about these performances comes from the same source: the 1970 Woodstock documentary and its soundtrack albums, which is why some acts left out of the film (Creedence, Bert Sommer, The Band's full set) are less remembered today than their performances deserved. For the artists on this list, that footage is often the clearest record left of what they did on stage.