(CNN) -- Famed folk singer Richie Havens, the opening act at the 1969 Woodstock music festival, died Monday of a sudden heart attack, his publicist said. He was 72.
Havens, who retired three years ago, toured for more than 30 years and recorded 30 albums.
Havens told Billboard that his breakthrough at Woodstock came after another artist's equipment got stuck in traffic. He was supposed to be the fifth act.
"It was 5 o'clock and nothing was happening yet," Havens told Billboard. "I had the least instruments (to set up on stage) and the least people (in his band)."
So Havens went on and performed for 40 minutes, as planned. Organizers asked him to do four more songs, he told Billboard.
"I went back and did that, then it was, 'Four more songs...' and that kept happening 'til two hours and 45 minutes later, I had sung every song I know," he said.
Havens, a Brooklyn, New York, native, told CNN in 1999 that music enabled him to leave his rough neighborhood to head to Greenwich Village and the music scene there.
Music was always a part of his life.
"I believe I inherited my sense of music from my father. My father was an ear piano player; he could just hear something and play it," he recalls. "I came up in Brooklyn singing doo-wop music from the time I was 13 to the time I was 20. That music served a purpose of keeping a lot of people out of trouble, and also it was a passport from one neighborhood to another."
Havens, who retired three years ago, toured for more than 30 years and recorded 30 albums.
Havens told Billboard that his breakthrough at Woodstock came after another artist's equipment got stuck in traffic. He was supposed to be the fifth act.
"It was 5 o'clock and nothing was happening yet," Havens told Billboard. "I had the least instruments (to set up on stage) and the least people (in his band)."
So Havens went on and performed for 40 minutes, as planned. Organizers asked him to do four more songs, he told Billboard.
"I went back and did that, then it was, 'Four more songs...' and that kept happening 'til two hours and 45 minutes later, I had sung every song I know," he said.
Havens, a Brooklyn, New York, native, told CNN in 1999 that music enabled him to leave his rough neighborhood to head to Greenwich Village and the music scene there.
Music was always a part of his life.
"I believe I inherited my sense of music from my father. My father was an ear piano player; he could just hear something and play it," he recalls. "I came up in Brooklyn singing doo-wop music from the time I was 13 to the time I was 20. That music served a purpose of keeping a lot of people out of trouble, and also it was a passport from one neighborhood to another."
