Stones were right to finish doomed concert: ex-manager
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100427/stones_cutler/20100427
Apr. 27 2010
Sam Cutler is one of the few people who would argue that the Rolling
Stones made the right choice in finishing out the doomed Altamont
Speedway concert in December 1969.
The band's former tour manager was standing on stage the day Meredith
Hunter, an 18-year-old man, was stabbed and kicked to death after an
altercation that involved Hells Angels security guards that were
hired by the band. (The Hells Angels, however, have long denied any
involvement in the incident.)
Forty years later, Cutler says the precise details of the violence
are still murky.
"(Hunter) fired off a couple of shots and was stabbed to death,
that's the simple, horrible reality," Cutler told CTV's Canada AM
during an interview in Toronto on Tuesday.
After he had ascertained what had happened, Cutler said he told
Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger that it was time to pull the plug.
But Jagger begged him off, saying that the band had to finish the set.
"He was right, with the benefit of hindsight," said Cutler. "If I
pulled the Rolling Stones off the stage at that time, then who knows
what would have happened."
From the moment things started to go south, it was clear that the
band was caught in a very bad place.
"It was one of those terrible things where we were just stuck there,"
said Cutler.
Surrounded by a wild crowd of 300,000 people "there was no option"
for the Rolling Stones to leave, he said.
The band played through and the Altamont concert became a landmark
incident of the 1960s -- linked to both the death of the peace-loving
decade and a black moment in Rolling Stones history.
"Let's face it, the 60s, you know, it wasn't all peace and love," Cutler said.
"Some people paid a terrible price for our experiences, so I always
try to remember that. You've got to balance the good bits with the bad bits."
Pointing to the deaths of rock legends Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin,
Cutler said that "as well as the good times, there were some hard times."
Cutler spoke about the Altamont concert while promoting You Can't
Always Get What You Want, a memoir he penned about his time with the
famed rock-and-roll band and his life in the world of rock music.
Looking back, Cutler said Altamont was a product of too little
planning by the people who organized the show.
"It was put together by well-meaning hippies from The Grateful Dead,
the Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Crosby Stills & Nash -- you know,
San Francisco bands -- but they really had no idea how to do this,
and they only had the week in which to put this show together," said
Cutler, recalling the lead-up to Altamont.
After Altamont, the Rolling Stones departed for a series of gigs in Europe.
But Cutler stayed behind to clean up the "absolutely, shocking,
shocking mess."
"I went the following day after all this happened, I went met with
the Hells Angels to deal with it. Somebody's got to do it," he said.
"It's not that I'm particularly brave or whatever, I just felt there
was a moral imperative that the Rolling Stones should deal with their stuff."
Two years ago, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported that the Hells
Angels later hatched a plot to kill Jagger, after he banned them from
working Rolling Stones concerts in the wake of the Altamont disaster.
According to the BBC report, a team of Hells Angels rode a boat to
Jagger's holiday home in Long Island, N.Y., but hit rough weather and
were thrown overboard. The conspirators did not try to kill Jagger
again, the BBC said.
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