With organizers scrambling and a massive crowd growing anxious, scheduled Woodstock opener Sweetwater found themselves stuck in a traffic jam in nearby Liberty, far from being stage-ready.
With only a few performers actually on-site, stage manager Michael Lang first begged Tim Hardin to go on early, but Hardin refused, sticking to his originally-planned-on 5th spot. Lang then pleaded with Havens, later saying, "It had to be Richie, I knew he could handle it." The passionate folk singer/guitarist and two of his fellow bandmates (Deano Williams on guitar and Daniel Zebulon on drums) reluctantly agreed despite bassist Eric Oxendine also being stuck in traffic. Richie quipped that Lang would owe him "big time" if he got any bottles thrown at him.
Originally scheduled for just 4 songs, organizers pushed Richie to kill more and more time. He ended up performing TEN total songs that included multiple Beatles’ covers. No one threw bottles. However, it wasn’t until his 10th song, having exhausted his entire library of tunes that Richie fully tapped into the moment. He went with an improvised riff and a simple, but powerful word, in what would become the unofficial theme song of the entire festival. Richie later reminisced on the spark saying he channeled “that word I kept hearing while I looked over the crowd in my first moments onstage. The word was freedom.” Blending the old Spiritual tune “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” with his signature, trademark style of guitar strumming and a heartfelt expression of “Freedom,” Havens created an experience that not only set the tone for the most legendary music festival to ever take place but birthed an uplifting anthem-of-the-times that will live on forever.
Helping achieve that eternal life-span, Krizz Kaliko channeled his inner Havens’ with his powerful bellowing, known well by fans of Strange Music, in the chorus of “Speedom.” Honoring the pace and soul of Richie’s live rendition, Krizz alters the lyrics to a more title-related take saying, “Sometimes I feel like I’ll never slow down.” The song starts off with a brief, rapid-fire intro from Tech N9ne himself, setting the stage as he references the origin of the song in sharing the conversation he had with in-label producer “Seven” Michael Summers,
I said to Seven, ‘Richard Havens'll be the man’
So we put it together thinking Eminem was a gamble
*Guess not, cause he be the guest sp
We know that them two are gonna be the main producers of the album, so for all of you crying about this tropical vibe carti just know the album isn’t all gonna be like that
I bet they going crazy tho, richie is fire
