Richie Havens

Richie Havens will always be, for me, the man who opened Woodstock and improvised a moment into history. His rhythmic open-tuned guitar and that weathered, soulful voice gave folk a pulse all its own, drawing on soul and rhythm and blues without ever feeling derivative. I love that he was both a counterculture icon and a working artist who voiced commercials and toys, refusing any false divide between art and craft. His version of Freedom still feels urgent decades later. Though he passed in 2013, the sheer spiritual generosity of his music keeps him very much alive to me.

Name (English)

Richie Havens

Name (Japanese)

リッチー・ヘブンス

Reading

りっちー・へぶんす

Born

January 21, 1941 – April 22, 2013

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aquarius / Snake

Origin

Brooklyn, New York, United States

Occupation

guitarist / singer / singer-songwriter / autobiographer / composer

High school

Franklin K. Lane High School

• Official sitehttp://www.richiehavens.com/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richie%20Havens
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AA%E3%83%83%E3%83%81%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%98%E3%83%96%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q505285

Tags

• New York
• guitarist
• singer
• singer-songwriter

Last updated

2026-06-21

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.