7 questions for Monterey International Pop Festival producer Lou Adler

Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 28, 2007 at midnight

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It was the first pop festival, not Woodstock. It was the first major rock benefit, not Concert for Bangladesh. It made stars of Jimi Hendrix and The Who and planted the first seeds for Crosby, Stills & Nash. The Monterey International Pop Festival was a pivotal event in the Summer of Love, with three groundbreaking days of music June 16-18, 1967. Producer Lou Adler, who has a second home in Aspen, talked with Rocky pop music writer Mark Brown about the festival he and others put together in just a few weeks.

1 Why take a chance on such an elaborate festival?

Answer: "We didn't know we were taking a chance. There'd never been a festival. There were no rules and regulations; it was pretty much getting caught up in it. The fact that all the acts were doing it gratis, from a financial standpoint was a big help. The fact that we sold the idea to ABC as the Movie of the Week (a young Barry Diller made the deal) - it was just the beginning of their Movies of the Week - that was our financing." (The concert never appeared as a Movie of the Week, only as a theatrical release.)

2 With a festival board made up of the biggest names in music, including Paul McCartney, it must have been easy to book acts.

A: "McCartney, if he did nothing else, suggested The Who and Hendrix. Historically what that meant to Monterey is incredible."

3 How did you get word out in the pre-Internet age?

A: "I know we went to Billboard, we went to Cashbox. There weren't many publications in the United States that covered rock 'n' roll. Rolling Stone's first issue was November of 1967. The word just spread. Somebody in Cleveland talking to their cousin in San Francisco. The 200,000 who came through Monterey certainly weren't just from L.A. and San Francisco. I wondered myself: How did we get all these people to Monterey?"

4 A lot of people say 1966 was really the Summer of Love, and by 1967 it had waned and become co-opted.

A: "I think that's the Grateful Dead's take on it or San Francisco's take on it. Would they have liked it to just be in San Francisco? Would they like the music not to be played on FM? That was also the summer of '67. The Summer of Love would not have meant what it meant had it stayed in San Francisco. True, it started there. But there were people who were living the spirit of the Summer of Love all over the world. The label didn't come until much later. It wasn't like it was the Summer of Love during the Summer of Love."

5 You never tried to re-create the Monterey festival, but the foundation created by the event rolls on.

A: "I work on (the Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation) every single day. I work on the charitable contributions, so they're always in the spirit of those artists, who came to Monterey to perform for nothing. That foundation has given away way more money than anyone could have imagined." (The foundation funds a variety of causes with proceeds from CD and DVD sales, including the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic. Adler continues to look for charities that go along with the spirit of the festival.)

6 What's the legacy?

A: "The difference between Monterey and Woodstock is Monterey was about the music and Woodstock was about the weather. It's always the music at Monterey. It's Janis Joplin and it's Hendrix and it's The Who. It's Otis Redding - not discovered but uncovered."

7 Your favorite performance?

A: "There's Janis. There's Hendrix and The Who. But I think the Otis Redding performance is one of the greatest live concert performances . . . maybe ever. It wasn't just one song. It was his entire set. The relationship between the audience and Otis Redding, back and forth, was just amazing."

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