Joel Selvin, Part Two. This is the second of a two-part interview with the author of Altamont: The Rolling Stones, The Hells Angels and the Inside Story of Rock’s Darkest Day. Joel Selvin was chief music reporter and critic for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 2009. He also served as co-author of several books, and sole author of Summer of Love: The Inside Story of LSD, Rock and Roll, Free Love and High Time in the Wild West.
Part One of this interview aired on Monday Oct 17 on Arts-Waves, and the entire interview can be heard as a Radio Wolinsky podcast in the area 941 section of KPFA.org.
The Altamont concert was a free concert given by the Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in east Contra Costa County on December 6th, 1969. Originally intended to be in Golden Gate Park, it was moved to Sears Point Raceway and then, on short notice, to a dilapidated racetrack in the middle of nowhere. When the dust cleared, a concert goer had been killed before the horrified eyes of Mick Jagger, and rock and roll changed.