Artie Kornfeld is a music business legend. Perhaps best known, alongside his friend/partner Michael Lang, as one of the founders of 1969’s legendary Woodstock festival, Kornfield is also an accomplished songwriter (his songs have been recorded by Cher, The Bangles, Dusty Springfield and many more), a musician, a hugely successful A&R executive, and the former Vice President of Rock Music at Capitol Records. Over the years, he was responsible for either signing or promoting artists such as Pink Floyd, Kiss, Neil Young, Aerosmith, Tom Petty, Blondie, Bruce Springsteen and more… a decent CV, we’re sure you’ll agree.
He also has the distinction – if that’s the appropriate word – of once being pissed on by former Beatle John Lennon.
Kornfeld shares this story in a wide-ranging with new interview with Goldmine.
“I was at [New York recording studio] the Hit Factory, and my engineer, Shelly Yakus, and I were there with my musician pals, Hugh McCracken and David Sanborn and all my friends, and all of a sudden it’s like three in the morning,” the 81-year-old industry veteran recalls. “So I said, Guys, let’s take a break for a half hour. And I ran into the bathroom like crazy and put four lines of pharmaceutical cocaine on the back of a urinal. This is a true story, and I’m making it public because it’s hysterical. It shows the sickness of cocaine.
“So I go to the urinal and I start the four lines, and I feel a wet stream going down my left leg,” Kornfeld continues. “I look over my shoulder and see John Lennon’s head. I knew John was in the next studio with Jack Douglas doing the Double Fantasy album. So he looks at me and he goes, ‘I can’t see a thing without my specs and I left them in the studio.’ Then he says, ‘Who are you?’ And I go, Oh, I’m Artie Kornfeld. Then he goes, ‘That’s amazing, you’re Artie Kornfeld. I know who you are.’
“What he said next blew my mind,” Kornfeld tells Goldmine. “He said, ‘Do you know that the first record I ever bought was The Pied Piper by Crispian St. Peters!’ I couldn’t believe that John Lennon just told me I wrote one of his favorite songs.”
Kornfield goes on to say that he forgave Lennon for the unexpected hot shower he received, but that he subsequently faced the wrath of Yoko Ono.
“This was the week that Yoko left him [Lennon] for David Spinozza, the guitarist and producer who was also a friend of mine,” he recalls. “I was hanging around John the week he got together with May Pang. I interviewed her. And you know what? You know what Yoko did? She actually sued the station where I was broadcasting. It was getting so many hits that they sent two legal letters saying that this was damaging her life and her career, so cease and desist.”
You can read the full interview at Goldmine.