Richie Havens

When I was pretty young I read an article in Guitar Player about Richie Havens. Thirty years after the world saw him in the film Woodstock, he was still touring the country and playing threehundredsomething shows a year. You gotta respect the work ethic, but for someone who had been around for a while with many albums under his belt and connections with various organizations…why would he continue to tour almost nonstop?

A couple years later, I was working stage crew in Clearwater and Richie Havens was playing. Before he went on, somehow he found out that my friend Jeff and I were fans. I guess it touched him that he had fans that were only like 15 years old. He closed the door to the greenroom and played a couple songs. For an audience of two. I figured out how he could keep up his touring schedule: he just loved to share the music.

I thought about this story about two days ago. Richie Havens died today. If that sounds like a coincidence, it’s not. I think about this story about once a week anyways. Probably always will.