Trivia / Monterey Pop

• Doing It for the Art: The artists performed for free, with all revenue donated to charity, except for Ravi Shankar, who was paid $3,000 for his afternoon-long performance on the sitar.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Moby Grape's Monterey recordings and film footage remain unreleased, allegedly because manager Matthew Katz demanded $1 million for the rights.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The film was originally supposed to air on ABC television, which put up a $200,000 advance for the rights. But, according to producer and festival co-organizer Lou Adler, network president Tom Moore nixed it after viewing the preview footage.
    [Moore] was a very conservative Southern gentleman. So we showed him Jimi Hendrix fornicating with his amp and we said, "What do you think?" And he said, "Keep the money and get out." He said, "Not on my network." And so we were able to keep the advance and the film.
  • Several additional acts were rumored and/or invited to perform, but declined or were unable to show up for one reason or another:
    • The Beach Boys, who had been involved in the conception of the festival and were at one point scheduled to headline and close the Saturday night show, failed to appear due to a number of issues plaguing the group. Carl Wilson was in a dispute with US officials over his refusal to be drafted into military service during the Vietnam War. The highly-anticipated Smile album had recently been scrapped, leaving Brian Wilson (who had not appeared live with the group since late 1964) unwilling or unable to perform. According to friend Michael Vosse, Brian also worried that the Beach Boys would be poorly received by festival-goers who were intent on seeing acid rock groups. Mike Love said "Carl was to appear in federal court the Tuesday after the concert, but for all we knew, they were going to arrest him again if he performed onstage. [...] None of us were afraid to perform at Monterey." In 2017, Love reflected that drugs were influencing the band's decisions at the time, but maintained that pulling out of Monterey was not his decision. According to Bruce Johnston, "It went from 'Here's the money, here's the offer, you're headlining' to 'Now this is gonna be a non-profit show' so we pulled out."
    • The Beatles were rumored to be booked because of the involvement of their press officer Derek Taylor, but they declined, since their music had become too complex to be performed live. Instead, at the instigation of Paul McCartney, the festival booked The Who and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, while George Harrison recommended Ravi Shankar. Over the weekend of the festival, the Beatles were in London, preparing for the Our World television broadcast where they debuted "All You Need Is Love" to an international audience a few weeks later.
    • Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, according to the liner notes for the CD reissue of their album Safe as Milk, turned their invitation down at the insistence of guitarist Ry Cooder, who felt the group was not ready. However, Cooder has also claimed that at a warm-up show several days before, Beefheart refused to sing and jumped off the stage, leaving the band to play a mostly instrumental set. The guitarist said this was the reason he refused to play.
    • According to John Phillips, Chuck Berry was invited but declined after finding out he wouldn't get paid.
      I told him on the phone, "Chuck, it’s for charity," and he said to me, "Chuck Berry has only one charity and that’s Chuck Berry. $2,000." We couldn’t make an exception.
    • Eric Clapton once claimed that Cream did not perform because the band's manager wanted to make a bigger splash for their American debut later that year. However, it has since been revealed that the band were not considered by the festival organizers.
    • Donovan was refused a visa to enter the United States because of a 1966 drug charge.
    • The Doors were not invited, despite being a popular live act and having had plenty of chart success by the time the festival was put together. Keyboardist Ray Manzarek later said "We were quite angry wondering why The Association was at the Monterey Pop Festival, and the Doors were not". (Incidentally, had they appeared this would have resulted in four future “27 Club” members—Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison—being present at the same festival.)
    • Bob Dylan declined to appear because he was still recovering from his motorcycle accident the previous year. Hendrix paid tribute to him by covering "Like a Rolling Stone".
    • Even though the logo for the band Kaleidoscope is seen in the film as a pink sign just below the stage, the band did not perform at the festival.
    • The Kinks could not get a work visa to enter the US because of a dispute with the American Federation of Musicians.
    • It was long rumored that Love had declined an invitation to Woodstock, but Mojo magazine later confirmed that it was actually the Monterey Pop Festival they rejected.
    • The Lovin' Spoonful were also considered for the festival but had to decline due to the legal troubles of guitarist Zal Yanovsky, who had been arrested on marijuana charges.
    • The Monkees were the biggest-selling musical act in the United States in 1967 and were seriously considered to appear, but after weeks of deliberation, John Phillips and Lou Adler decided not to invite them.^note Some of the more counterculture-oriented San Francisco bands felt there were too many commercial pop acts participating as it was, and Phillips and Adler thought it best not to push their luck any further. However, Micky Dolenz (in full American Indian buckskins and headdress) and Peter Tork attended the festival and mingled with musicians backstage. Tork introduced Buffalo Springfield, his favorite group, for their set. He also introduced Lou Rawls and was involved in a bizarre incident where he walked out onstage in the middle of The Grateful Dead's set to try to stop fans from climbing on stage and dancing. Tork also informed the crowd that the Beatles were not at the festival in disguise.
    • The promoters also invited several Motown artists to perform, and were even going to give them their own dedicated slot. However, label owner Berry Gordy refused to let any of his acts appear, even though Smokey Robinson was on the festival's board of directors.
    • The Rolling Stones were on the short list of invitees, but were unable to get work visas due to the drug arrests of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. However, Brian Jones attended and appeared on stage to introduce Jimi Hendrix.
    • Dionne Warwick was advertised on some early posters for the festival, along with Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions, but they didn't appear. In Warwick's case, she dropped out because of a scheduling conflict that weekend. She was booked for a performance at the Fairmont Hotel, which was reluctant to release her, and it was thought that canceling that appearance would negatively affect her career.
    • Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention were also invited to play but refused. Zappa's stated reason for declining the invite was his lack of respect for the San Francisco bands, who he would have been sharing the bill with.

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