By 1969, Jimi Hendrix was at his peak. His reputation as a live performer in the years since his infamous Monterey Pop appearance was incomparable. He signed on to headline the three day Woodstock music festival – billed above significant contemporaries The Who, Santana, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and the Jefferson Airplane. Pegged as the festival’s main attraction, his band’s $18,000 fee was the highest of the Woodstock lineup, and the group was scheduled to close the event on Sunday night. However, due to enormous delays resulting from inclement weather and assorted logistical snafus, Hendrix did not take the stage until early Monday morning. By then, the audience – once the half a million strong “Woodstock Nation” – had dwindled to 180,000 hanging on to catch a glimpse of Hendrix. Introduced as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Hendrix corrected this to Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, and commenced the longest and most memorable set of his career. Despite lingering technical difficulties, Hendrix delivered a historic performance. The climax of the set was his tripped out, dischordant, darkly impressionistic improv “Star Spangled Banner”. His rendition split public opinion in an already deeply divided time. Viewed by some as an anti-American travesty, others embraced it as an eloquent statement on the U.S.’s ongoing state of unrest. Hendrix was later taken to task on “The Dick Cavett Show”. Hendrix defended his performance by saying, “I thought it was beautiful,” and he was greeted with applause from the studio audience. Woodstock was not the first time Hendrix played the “Star Spangled Banner” live. In fact, it was a setlist staple from late 1968 through 1970. However, his August 18, 1969 version was a defining moment in his career as well as Woodstock and, ultimately, of the decade.

The Jimi Hendrix Encyclopedia
Definitive Woodstock website

885 Blog:
Byron Mellinger, Wyomissing, PA recalls Hendrix at Woodstock
George Paterson of Lincroft, NJ remembers Woodstock’s last moments