“It was an unfortunate incident which has been exaggerated and turned into folklore”: How contractual differences between Aerosmith and Metallica at Woodstock 1994 came to blows
Like its predecessor 25 years earlier, Woodstock ’94 offered “3 More Days of Peace & Music.” Unless you were Aerosmith‘s manager and one of the festival’s organizers.
This week marked the 40th anniversary of the second edition of the Woodstock series, which took place Aug. 12-14, 1994 in Saugerties, N.Y., on a site the festival’s principals wanted for the original 1969 edition. Aerosmith – riding high on its multi-platinum 1993 album Get a Grip and its five Top 5 U.S. hits – were one of the headliners and played on the Saturday night (August 13), just before Metallica. Both bands delivered killer sets, but unseen by fans were some brief backstage fisticuffs between then-manager Tim Collins and Woodstock ’94 co-producer John Scher.
It came down to this: Collins was angry because Aerosmith was told it could not use any customized staging or pyrotechnics during its set. Contract terms also stipulated that the group could provide just one souvenir T-shirt for sale and that it could not be customized to the event.
Lo and behold, Metallica followed with its own stage set and offered a shirt that was specific to the festival, leading to the confrontation between the two men, during which Scher reportedly threw a cup of water and a punch at Collins and one of Aerosmith’s security guards hit Scher in the face.
“It was the only fight that weekend,” Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang noted during a conference call with reporters announcing the upcoming Woodstock ’99 festival.
On the same call, Scher downplayed the incident and assured the gathering that bygones were bygones. “Tim Collins and I have remained – and I want to stress remained – good friends,” Scher said. “It was an unfortunate incident which has been exaggerated and turned into folklore in the entertainment business. Aerosmith will be there, and Tim is certainly welcome if he’d like to come.” Collins, who managed Aerosmith for 12 years and engineered their comeback during the mid-80s, had been fired by the band in 1996.
Aerosmith were one of the first acts announced for the famously ill-fated Woodstock ’99 – which took place July 23-25 in Rome. N.Y. – but cancelled a month before the festival.
“What it came down to was scheduling conflicts and logistical problems with other gigs,” festival spokesperson Ilene Marder said at the time. Instead, Aerosmith played an extensive tour of Europe, including several festivals, during June and July.