Before Cassandra Peterson was the beehive-haired, buxom “Mistress of the Dark” known as Elvira, she was one of thousands of starstruck teenage girls vying for the attention of bands and artists like Jimi Hendrix, Mothers of Invention, and countless other musical giants of the late 1960s. In late June of 1969, there were few better places to be for this endeavor than the Denver Pop Festival, a sort of Western precursor to Woodstock later that summer.
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In addition to a killer lineup of rock, blues, and soul artists, the Denver Pop Festival featured tens of thousands of attendees, some of whom rioted at the gates when they discovered admission wasn’t free. An 18-year-old Peterson found herself in the middle of these riots, leading her first to a medic tent and then straight into the trailer of one of the festival’s star performers: Hendrix.
How a Riot Turned Into a Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity
In Cassandra Peterson’s 2021 memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvira, the actor and TV personality described attending the Denver Pop Festival in June 1969 with a close friend. Peterson and her friend spent the first night of the three-day festival bouncing from hotel room to hotel room in search of bands. The girls happened upon the rooms of Iron Butterfly, Three Dog Night, and Mothers of Invention.
The next day, Jimi Hendrix was to perform. As the day progressed, eager concertgoers arriving at the gates for the first time grew angry over the price of admission (a whopping $6, which, of course, seems astonishingly low today). Riots ensued, and soon, police began throwing tear gas into the crowd. “A voice over the PA system kept yelling, ‘Cover your face! Cover your face!’” Peterson wrote. “Suddenly, I felt a sharp whack on the side of my head, and everything went black. When I woke up, dazed and confused, I was in a trailer behind the stadium with a medic leaning over me.”
A canister of tear gas had struck Peterson on the side of her face, leaving a small cut and some chemical burns. After the medic patched her up, she left the trailer and wandered around the other temporary structures behind the venue. “Just a few yards away, I passed another small motor home where a very large man with a gigantic afro stood guarding the door. Arms folded, looking a lot like the Genie from Aladdin’s lamp, he called, ‘Wanna meet Jimi Hendrix?’ I couldn’t believe my ears. ‘If you wanna meet him, ‘cmon.’”
Jimi Hendrix and Elvira’s Fleeting Encounter
Cassandra Peterson walked past the genie-like bouncer and into the RV. “Lo and behold, right before my eyes, was Jimi Hendrix!” She wrote. Hendrix was playing guitar on a bed in the back of the trailer, and he asked her about the melee happening outside. Peterson filled him in on the riots and showed Hendrix her injuries, prompting him to grab a wet rag to dab the burns.
Peterson and Hendrix smoked a joint together while the rockstar opined about America, the Vietnam War, and law enforcement. “Even though he was p***ed off as could be, I was struck by the fact that his voice still remained soft, deep, and even,” Peterson recalled. Hendrix’s security announced it was time for the guitarist to take the stage with his full band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix scribbled a phone number on a piece of paper for Peterson before kissing her and leaving.
After Hendrix’s set was over, Peterson and her friend rushed to a payphone to call him. A woman answered the phone when Peterson called, and even though Hendrix eventually made his way to the receiver, his speech was slurred, and he hung up on Peterson. “I stayed on the line for a minute listening to the sounds of partying, tears welling up in my eyes. If I wasn’t already bummed enough, [my friend] was so angry that I hadn’t asked him where he was staying that she refused to speak to me. All this made for a long, silent drive back to Colorado Springs.”
The Denver Pop Festival would be the original Jimi Hendrix Experience lineup’s last performance. Indeed, sometimes you can be in the right place at the right time and the wrong place at the wrong time all at once.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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