Captured by a drama student who snuck onstage, new rare footage of Jimi Hendrix’s legendary 1969 Woodstock show has surfaced online

Nearly 60 years after his death, Jimi Hendrix remains one of the most iconic and influential guitarists to ever live. Over the course of a relatively short career – with his heyday lasting between his breakthrough in 1966 and death in 1970 – Hendrix performed hundreds of shows, notably including his Monterey Pop Festival set, which saw him famously set his Fender Stratocaster ablaze.

Indeed, there are a few Jimi Hendrix shows that make a claim for his most iconic, but perhaps the most legendary of all was his closing set at Woodstock on August 18, 1969. 

The set included some of the guitarist’s biggest hits, including Purple Haze, Voodoo Child and Hear My Train a Comin’, as well as his landmark rendition of US national anthem The Star-Spangled Banner, which later became a defining symbol of the anti-war movement at the time the US was heavily involved in the Vietnam War.

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Though one of the most iconic rock shows in history, good-quality extended footage of Hendrix’s Woodstock set is notoriously hard to find. But one of the best clips of the show yet has just surfaced…

It was captured by 22-year-old drama student Albert Goodman, who successfully snuck onstage shielded by a friend carrying a guitar, according to Guitar World. He managed to set up his camera just 15 feet across the stage where Hendrix was set to perform.

Now, the footage has been uploaded to the official Jimi Hendrix YouTube channel for all to see. In the footage, Hendrix can be seen playing his biggest hits – plus his fiery version of the US national anthem, alongside his newly formed Band of Gypsys. 

The band’s lineup consisted of guitarist Larry Lee, bassist Billy Cox, Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, and percussionists Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez. Check out the footage below:

“Goodman was left alone, assumed to be just one member of the sprawling film crew who had surrounded the stage for the entire event,” reads the video’s description. “Armed with just two previously recorded, open reel videotapes, Goodman settled in behind percussionist Juma Sultan and prepared to document history.”

But that’s not the end of the story. After sneaking onstage to capture the awe-inspiring footage, as luck would have it, Albert Goodman was later given a ride by a driver who was friends with people working at the house Hendrix was renting nearby. One thing led to another, and legend has it Jimi Hendrix himself watched Goodman’s footage and approved.