The Untold Truth Of Otis Redding

While successful on the soul charts, Otis Redding's magnum opus during his life had to be his performance at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival. As the first of the big rock festivals, Monterey had been a coming-out party for artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, and Redding. Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead, who also performed at Monterey, said this upon watching Redding, "I was pretty sure that I'd seen God onstage."

Consequence reports that most of the Stax Records lineup, including Redding, were touring Europe when the festival was announced. Redding's manager, Phil Walden, wanted to expand his star to a white audience, and after getting reassurance from The Rolling Stone's manager, Andrew Oldham, and Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler that the festival was legit, Redding was signed up to close Saturday night.

Monterey Pop was meant to show rock music and all its influences and variations as a "legitimate art form." Similar to his Apollo performance, Redding was very nervous, his wife recalled. Still, with an introduction from Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers and about half an hour, Redding closed Saturday with historical performance.

According to CBC, by the end of the performance, a reviewer said, "he had the audience spinning like a chicken on a spit." Rainfall led authorities to push for the concert to end but not before Redding belted out two final covers, "Satisfaction" and "Try a Little Tenderness," before leaving the stage to an audience dazed. Redding was finally a superstar.

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