Dupree: That Saturday night there was a bit of a standoff between Metallica and Aerosmith’s bunch. All the headliners were allowed to bring in one tractor trailer rig and were limited as to what they could bring in as far as specials.

Scher: Everybody was told we are going to have this state of the art sound and lights. You can’t bring your own stuff.

Worley: Metallica came in and took over. Right in everyone’s face in broad daylight, Metallica’s road crew came in and set up bombs and everything. We were like, wow, this is going to hit the fan. And it did.

Cafaro: Two massive bands and two incredibly prideful touring management entities and management companies. At these events there is always a competition going on. At some level it is a battle of the bands.

Rowland: Both Metallica and Aerosmith had asked to have special merchandising that they could sell. Both were told there was no special merchandising. You couldn’t do a Metallica Woodstock shirt for instance. Tim Collins, who was Aerosmith’s manager then, saw someone wearing a Metalli-stock shirt and found out that Metallica had done their own shirt. [Note: A Metalli-stock t-shirt sells for $325 on eBay.] He went batshit. He felt like he had been lied to. I don’t know if John [Scher] told you what happened.

Cafaro: There was buzz backstage that John had gotten into a run-in with Aerosmith’s manager.

Melissa Etheridge; Steve Eichner/Getty Images

Scher: The cause of the fight was 100% about credentials. Tim wanted a backstage pass of the highest level. I said, ‘No problem.’ At about 3 p.m. a staffer says Tim Collins wants to see you in his trailer. I go. He absolutely fucking exploded at me. Next to him was this 6-foot-6 defensive tackle who worked for him. I explained to Tim that his pass can get him anywhere. He says, ‘You motherfucker. You’re lying. There is one more pass — like yours.’ I tell him that the only place my pass gets me where he can’t go is the money room. There was probably millions of dollars in cash there. He kept screaming at me. I had a bottle of water in my hands and slammed it on the ground. It didn’t touch him. At this point his defensive end clocked me. Tim starts screaming, ‘You attacked me! You attacked me!’ I spent the rest of Woodstock with a black eye. It got very uncomfortable for a few hours. I finally found Steven Tyler. We had a very short conversation. He said, ‘I don’t want to hear your side. I know something happened. It will not affect the show one bit. Don’t worry.’

Rowland: Another rule was that there wasn’t going to be a sound check. Aerosmith said, ‘Fuck you, we are doing a sound check.’ They had some fucking roadie playing Led Zeppelin riffs for an hour while everyone was standing in the rain. I don’t know why they did that. I know they did not go onstage for over an hour after Metallica. It was unbelievably cruel.

VI. “No one ever asked me about a Woodstock condom”

Two rich middle-aged Boomers fighting over backstage passes represented the obvious: Woodstock had gone corporate. (Here is where we mention that the organizers of the 1969 festival also tried to make money.) The Pepsi ad campaign supporting the event was as ubiquitous that summer as Forrest Gump catchphrases. The Woodstock dove and guitar neck logo adorned Pepsi cans on supermarket shelves nationwide and a commercial, which openly lampooned the Woodstock generation, blanketed airwaves. “That was funny to me,” says John Sebastian, who starred in the ads with Country Joe McDonald. “I am certainly not opposed to sending up a little Woodstock here and there.”

On site at Wood$tock, as critics dubbed the event, Apple and Phillips hosted product demonstrations, while vendors peddled Woodstock dog tags, a $350 Woodstock leather bomber jacket, and the piece de resistance, a Woodstock condom, which retailed for a buck.

Speech (Rapper/producer, Arrested Development): For me personally, the brand meant people power and music.

Dave Navarro (Guitar, Red Hot Chili Peppers): I respected the name and the place as more than a concert and more than a festival.

Etheridge: This was put together by guys who knew how to make money on it.

Scher: We knew we needed sponsorship, but it had to be the right sponsorship. Pepsi turned out to be it. It was harmless. I don’t think you can get addicted to Pepsi. We would have made a ton of money if we let alcohol or tobacco sponsors in, but it felt wrong.

Popper: I had this joke that I kept trying to bring home and no one got it: Don’t drink the brown Pepsi.

Rowland: Woodstock ’94 never would’ve happened if it wasn’t for Pepsi.

Vrenna: Back in the ’90s, credibility was a thing. You didn’t want to sell out until you had to.

Rowland: At that point you had to soft pedal it or make concessions to make it seem not commercial. Now no one gives a shit and they just take the money.

Scher: The sponsorship was very light. There weren’t huge Pepsi signs anywhere. We had a lot of street signs — like there would be an arrow pointing that way for food — and on top of those street signs was a six-inch Pepsi logo. What we did with sponsorships paled in comparison to anything that happens now — paled! We were sensitive about that. Michael was sensitive about it. You have to understand. Michael, lovely guy, smart, but a bohemian by any measure and is to this day. He’s a guy who’s in his seventies and still believes in love, peace, and happiness. I’d like to believe in that, but I’m practical.