Woodstock: Mountain guitarist Leslie West

 Leslie West, 63, Englewood, N.J. Guitarist and lead singer for Mountain who lived in East Meadow, Forest Hills and Lawrence growing up.

Woodstock was our third show. We hadn't even written "Mississippi Queen" yet. Jimi Hendrix's agent luckily was our agent and got us on the show. We went on Saturday night at around 7:30. We rented our own helicopter and took off from Manhattan because we saw all the traffic. When we got there, I was totally amazed. When I saw all the people, there was a first-aid kit in the helicopter and they had amyl nitrate in it to revive people if they pass out so, like an idiot, I snapped one open and I almost fell out of the helicopter. It was mind-boggling.

I remember hanging out with John Sebastian backstage and he was tripping . . . and tie-dying clothes - he would tie-dye everything that wasn't tied down. I remember seeing Janis Joplin walking around with this gorgeous girl who was her girlfriend.

I didn't have stage fright; I just wanted to see if I could remember all of the songs because it was only like our third show. I didn't care how many people were there; you really couldn't see all the people when you were onstage. I don't remember how well we played. I think everybody was in shock.

It was the first time I saw people clicking their Bics when they wanted someone to come back for an encore.

After we played, I sat behind the stage listening to Creedence Clearwater. I couldn't believe how many hits they had. It was quite an experience for a kid from Queens and Long Island getting to listen and watch The Who and all of this. It was a thrill.

I don't think anybody had any idea how special Woodstock was going to be - up until then there was only one of the big festivals, Monterey. I do now because everybody I talk to is telling me, "Oh yeah, I was at Woodstock." There weren't 30 million people at Woodstock!

It wasn't just another gig. It was the beginning for us. After that, stuff started coming and we started touring. I saw that, like Dylan said, the times they are a-changing after that.