How Hells Angels and a Misjudged Setlist Turned Altamont Into Rock’s Darkest Day

The 1969 Altamont Free Concert was supposed to be the West Coast Woodstock, a day of peace and music headlined by the Rolling Stones. Instead, it became a nightmare. The organizers, scrambling for security at the last minute, paid the Hells Angels with $500 worth of beer. The bikers were notoriously violent, and their presence—combined with a cramped, poorly designed stage area—turned the crowd into a pressure cooker.

The Stones’ setlist didn’t help. They opened with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and later played “Sympathy for the Devil,” which the Angels reportedly interpreted as a taunt. Fights broke out during “Under My Thumb,” and when 18-year-old Meredith Hunter pulled a gun near the stage, an Angel stabbed him to death. The band didn’t know until after the show, but the choice to let bikers police the crowd—and the provocative song selection—had already set the fuse.