On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock music festival opened on a
patch of farmland in White Lake, a hamlet in the upstate New
York town of Bethel.

Promoters John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfield and
Michael Lang originally envisioned the festival as a way to raise
funds to build a recording studio and rock-and-roll retreat near
the town of Woodstock, New York. The longtime artists’ colony
was already a home base for Bob Dylan and other musicians.

Despite their relative inexperience, the young promoters managed
to sign a roster of top acts, including the Jefferson Airplane, the
Who, the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin,
Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival and many more.

Brett Tuggle (1951/1952 – June 19, 2022)

Fleetwood Mac’s former keyboardist Brett Tuggie died
Sunday. He had been diagnosed with cancer.        

Jim Seals was a one-half member of the American soft rock band
Seals and Crofts who are world-famous for their hits like summer
Breeze and Diamond girl. Jim Seals, half of the 1970s band Seals
and Crofts, died at the age of 80. Seals, half of the ‘Summer
Breeze’ duo Seals & Crofts (below). 

Ray Charles Robinson Sr. 
(September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004)

Singer, songwriter, pianist, and composer Ray Charles is regarded
as one of the most iconic and influential singers ever, and he was
often referred to by contemporaries as "The Genius". Among
friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called "Brother
Ray". Charles was blinded during childhood, possibly due to
glaucoma.

Charles pioneered the soul music genre during the 1950s by
combining blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel styles
into the music he recorded for Atlantic Records

Mickey Leroy Gilley (March 9, 1936 – May 7, 2022)

(CBS) – Country star Mickey Gilley, whose namesake Texas
honky-tonk inspired the 1980 film "Urban Cowboy" and a
nationwide wave of Western-themed nightspots, has died.

Gilley died Saturday in Branson, Missouri, where he helped
run the Mickey Gilley Grand Shanghai Theatre. He had been
performing as recently as last month, but was in failing health
over the past week. His death was announced by Jeff Wagner,
mayor of Pasadena, Texas.